Sage Advice

Sage advice: If you're thinking of planting a bee friendly garden, think sage.

Also commonly known as salvia, this bee friendly plant belongs to the mint family, Lamiaceae. The Salvia genus includes some 900 species, so your choices are good.

Red, pink, blue and purple are common; yellow and white, less common. Carpenter bees and bumble bees like to pierce the tubular calyx for the sweet nectar. Sage is also a favorite of honey bees, hover flies and hummingbirds.

For a really stunning sage, check out the sapphire-blue Salvia guaranitica, native to southeastern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina.

You'll see the intense blue flowers long before you notice the honey bees. 

Bees?

What bees?