Besides the herbs I grow every year, this year I grew something for the first time, only because I got two free packs of seeds from Baker Creek - Zinnias, a yellow "canary" variety, that the bees are still on out there today. I looked, when putting out 4 trash cans of lawn trash, and was thinking about pulling those, as they really don't look good, despite having a generous amount of flowers still. And bees still!

The shrimp plants are blooming profusely right now. It hasn't been cold enough to cause damage to the plants.

Around the outside edges of my garden, I plant zinnias and sunflowers. Then when we took our pool down, we had a 24' round circle. So we topped that off with fill dirt/topsoil and turned it into a wild flower bed which is also beside my garden!

My basic garden is a perennial herb permaculture. Some biennials too. Vegetable beds have been added in. But the big issue for bees is that there isn't a lot of early forage in the perennials. I built up some raised beds on top of the existing raised beds for the perennial shallots, so those are now providing a substantial early season bloom, before others get flowering. If anybody needs later season perennials let me know, I can easily save you some seeds. The herbs that flourish here are ... well lets say hardy, at least!

Bower, is that a tall blue hyssop I see at the very bottom of your pictures?

Nan, that blue spike is a garden Speedwell. I do have some hyssop - the most gorgeous herb of all and the most delicious flowers too. The hyssop struggles here and has trouble with bad winters... I need to start more of them and get them in different locations so they don't all take a beating at once. Bees adore hyssop for sure I was picking blossoms into a glass bowl one day and a bumblebee came and just buried itself into the bowl! I just stood there while it tunneled through and eventually it came up took a deep breath as it were and flew away, satisfied!

SpookyShoe wrote: ↑Sun Oct 31, 2021 2:21 pm Today on Mystic Spires Blue salvia, Mexican heather, and Cat Whiskers.

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Where did you.find the Cat Whiskers?

I have never seen Cat Whiskers at any of the big box stores. I get mine from a family-owned plant nursery that has been around for decades. Maas Nursery on Todville Road in Seabrook, Texas. I have seen the plant offered online but it seems to sell out very quickly. In addition to white you can also get the Cat Whiskers in purple. CW is one of those plants that will attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees.

In my climate it's semi-deciduous and it becomes sparse and somewhat raggedy in the winter. Since my winters are so short it leafs out very early when spring comes. It's still putting out blooms, but they are not as large and pretty as they are in spring and summer.

Today...

It looks gorgeous!

Went to the plant nursery this morning to buy snapdragons which will go in a grow bag. Snapdragons are winter flowers here. While I was there I saw some bees on the snapdragons and calendula.

I have to enjoy the passion vine while I can, because it probably will die back this weekend as temperatures dip into the 30s.

Here's a bee on Scarlet Flame.

This morning on Carolina Jessamine.

This year I have tried to select all my annual flowers such
which are bee friendly. Bumblebees seem to like most of the seed grown dahlias. These started flowering early and keep on going. I have not grown dahlias from seed earlier, but since it was so easy to get a lot of blooms, I have to do this now every year.

@svalli I too have found the smaller varieties very easy to grow from seed. The larger varieties, not so much. I love your color assortment.

Mexican Heather (cuphea) and a hanging basket of alyssum.

Beautiful

It was a banner day for the bees at my local plant nursery yesterday.