Sep 23, 2009
Sage advice: If you're thinking of planting a bee friendly garden, think sage.
Also commonly known as salvia, this bee friendly plant belongs to the mint family, Lamiaceae. The Salvia genus includes some 900 species, so your choices are good.
Red, pink, blue and purple are common; yellow and white, less common. Carpenter bees and bumble bees like to pierce the tubular calyx for the sweet nectar. Sage is also a favorite of honey bees, hover flies and hummingbirds.
For a really stunning sage, check out the sapphire-blue Salvia guaranitica, native to southeastern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina.
You'll see the intense blue flowers long before you notice the honey bees.
Bees?
What bees?
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Attached Images:
![HONEY BEE nectars from a blue sage, Salvia guaranitica, shortly after a carpenter bee pierced the calyx. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) HONEY BEE nectars from a blue sage, Salvia guaranitica, shortly after a carpenter bee pierced the calyx. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/2550.jpg)
Stunning Sage
![BLUE INTENSITY of this sage is in sharp contrast to the amber-colored honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) BLUE INTENSITY of this sage is in sharp contrast to the amber-colored honey bee. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/blogfiles/2553.jpg)
Bluest of the Blue