Color in the Garden

Agastache

The bees coming to my yard are attracted to blue flowers: Agastache (hyssop family) and Leadwort (plumbago) and the chaste plant (Vitus agnus castus). Only the chaste plant has a strong scent which is kind of nice. The bees are flying right by red cardinal flowers, yellow/orange coreopsis, Echinacea (red, orange and lavender) and hot pokers both lemon yellow and orange. Why the color preference you ask? Do they have some sort of artistic preference to shape, color and scent? I’m wondering that myself. And I am also wondering why tiny native bees and wasps are not coming around to taste the nectar like they did in Virginia.

Leadwort (Ceratostigma plumbago)

Preferences of bees comes up on Google searches but I don’t know how scientific they are.

Bees cannot see red, but they can see blue and green, as well as ultraviolet light. … For example, many flowers have “ultraviolet nectar guides” on them that are invisible to humans but tell bees where to find nectar in a flower. “The patterns are like signposts telling bees where to go to find the nectar,” Dr. Dyer said. Nov 15, 2016

Flower petals have ‘blue halos’ to attract bees. Many wild bees prefer flowers in the violet-blue range—in part because these blossoms tend to produce high volumes of nectar. But it’s not easy for plants to produce blue flowers. Oct 18, 2017

Bees are attracted to a variety of bright colors, but blue, yellow and purple flowers are the most attractive to bees. … Bees do not see red — it appears black to them — so red flowers do not attract bees. Dec 6, 2018

In the meantime I’ll research more about plants that produce blue and lavender flowers so I can add them to the garden this fall or next spring. Did I mention that blue is one of my most favorite colors?

Chaste Plant (Vigex agnus castus)