Sunday, August 2, 2009

Symbiosis

I'm giving a small garden tour today to show off one of my favorite plants.

Here are the Russian Sage plants on the side of my garage. I love this flower for many reasons.
The color is gorgeous, it stands out beautifully against my house. The flowers are a bluish purple and the foliage is a silvery green. It is a perennial, meaning it comes back every year. It spreads out bigger each year and chokes all the weeds so I never have to weed this flower bed. Ever. I love that. There is just no way I can ever kill these plants, no matter how much neglect I give them. These plants just keep going. They have a nice sage smell too.
Another reason I love this flower is because it attracts bees.

I love bees, however, I found out today that it is incredibly hard to get a picture of a bee, at least with my camera. They flit around too much. My Russian Sage plants were full of bees. Big fat bumblebees. The cute kind of bee.

Some people are scared of bees. Not me. I never have been. I used to try to find the biggest bumblebee I could and catch it in a jar when I was a little girl. I'd spend hours watching the bee until I let him go... or he died in the hot jar (even though I made sure to poke holes in the lid.) Now I feel bad about all the bees I killed. But I was just a little girl and didn't mean too. So, I forgive myself. Now I feel better. Anyway...

My dad had honey bees when I was growing up. I was always fascinated with them and I think I did a book report on bees every year in elementary school. I loved to watch those bees loaded down with pollen on their tiny little legs.

So, with this beautiful plant, I also get to watch some fascinating little creatures. Life is good on the garage side of the house.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love that purple sage Can't wait to see that garden of yours. Hows the zuzzie mom

Far Side of Fifty said...

Russian Sage is one of my favorites.. yours looks beautiful! Bees are hard to photograph..it takes patience..and lots of deleted shots. These cool mornings the bees are more sluggish..do you have a Macro setting on your camera? If you do..give that a whirl! Sounds like you could have been a bug person..bees in jars..your Mom and your Aunt and I used to catch lightening bugs and put them in jars..when you hold them in your hands..they emit some kind of green body fluid..:)