Salvias - plants for bees

Salvia nemerosa

clary sage

Salvia is a large family of plants and includes both annuals and perennials, native and exotic, many of them herbal. Most of them are good for bees but this does not include the brightly coloured bedding plants that are sold in most garden centres as, even if it produces some nectar, the flower tubes are too long for the tongues of most British bee species.

At rosybee we stock

• salvia nemerosa which is a very hardy and reliable small perennial; good at the front of a sunny border and holds purple bracts even after the blue flowers are finished. It attracts a mix of carder bumblebees, honey bees and some solitary bees and even wasps
• clary sage - native dramatic hedgerow plant with multiple pale pink spires reaching 120cm in mid-summer. This one attracts less bees but plenty of butterflies and moths.