Blue Mist Spirea

I really like this very drought tolerant bush. It is called Blue Mist Spirea. There are other colors of it from light to dark blue. It takes less water than about any plant I have but still it does need some here in the desert. I have two that are about 8 years old and are about 6 foot in diameter. And the bees love it. At this time when it is blooming there are bees all over it. But I have never been stung by one even though I get really close to take the photos as the flowers and bees are so small.

It is hard to take photos of the bees as they move constantly not landing on a flower for more than a second which probably means there isn't much nectar in the blossoms. They have some nice sent to me, if you get your nose in a flower but it isn't much.

Bee in a Blossom

These little bees are helping pollinate my squash plants.

Bumble Bee

This bumble bee was sampling the flowers on my vitex bush.

Redbud Tree Blossoms

the redbud tree is one of my favorite trees. They have these tiny, pinkish-purple blossoms in late spring. There are clusters of thousands of the pretty little blooms that sort of look like tiny orchids. The bees flock to them so they must be very sweet and loaded with pollen.