Native bees like blue flowers. (They also like, yellow, white, pink, etc.) With our Bee Workshop coming up on Saturday 7th March, here are some local native plants they will love.
Baby Blue Eyes (Evolvulus alsinoides)
Found on rocky headlands around Noosa, this is a very tough little plant. Great in a rockery, as a groundcover, hanging basket, potplant or use it as a fill-in groundcover. It will grow almost anywhere. Full sun or part shade. It does well in the shade too, but like many plants, produces less flowers in low light. You can sometimes buy these in punnets from Bunnings.
Plectranthus sp.
There are lots of Plectranthus around. They belong to the mint family. Our local species, Plectranthus graveolens grows on rocky hilltops. The leaves are soft and silvery and make a pleasant foliage statement among darker greens and ferns. Although the foliage is lovely, there’s more. Towers of tiny blue flowers appear on the ends of branches. These are a favourite of the blue banded bee and other local native species.
This is a good indicator of soil moisture as the foliage droops if it gets really dry. Don’t worry. It pops back up again if you give it a drink or wait for the rain. Here is one plant you can cut right back after flowering. The rosettes of silver new leaves appear in no time. Replant the cuttings, give them away, or use as cut foliage in the house.
I’ll bring some cuttings to the Native Bee Workshop.