Flower Power

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is a beautiful botanical garden to visit in Boothbay Harbor, Maine (zone 5b). Because it is lush with bee-friendly plants and they use organic methods, it is a…

As it turns out, hydrangeas vary in their ability to feed the bees. Unfortunately, the very common and showy Mophead hydrangeas, or Hydrangea macrophylla hortensis (some seen above) do not feed the bees…

Saving the honey bees means not only planting the flowers they like, but also planting a lot of the flowers they like. I call this “abundant gardening.” The good news…

Looking for some pollinator friendly plants to add to your yard? Be sure to add some salvias. The salvia plant family is a magnet for all pollinators–including bees, butterflies, and…

Today is so hot. The date is only May 28 and the thermometer says 91 degrees F. Our spring was late to arrive and now the heat has come. There…

I recently planted most of my herb garden this past weekend and it made me so….. happy. Herbs are fragrant, charming, and useable in the kitchen or medicinally. It turns out…

To help the bees, we need to grow more of the right flowers. Yet one flowering plant will typically offer just a few flowers for the bees and pollinators. (A good…

Somehow I missed it. All of those innumerable hours poured over gardening books and I am pretty sure Phacelia tanacetifolia, or Bee’s Friend,  was never in them. Did I just miss…

Besides tasting great to us humans, bees and beneficial insects love dill too, gathering both pollen and nectar from its flowers. I love it with smoked fish and potatoes–but I…

Watch a bee on the gorgeous annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus), and the phrase “busy as a bee” comes to mind. A sunflower’s head is actually composed of hundreds of…