by Michelle L. Dauberman
The plight of the bee is getting more and more serious if
you ask me. I’ve been doing my
best to support them in the vegetable garden and in the landscape by providing
the plants, shrubs and trees that they love to visit but here’s a small shrubby
plant/herb that I’ve overlooked:
Germander (Teucrium).
Germander is quite hardy and can handle a variety of
garden/landscape situations including poor soils and drought like conditions. It can tolerate part-sun but prefers
full-sun. The lavender flowers
that the bees find so appealing form on spikes, July through September. A bonus of this plant is that there are
evergreen varieties so, if you’d rather use it in your landscape as a low
laying hedge rather than in the herb or vegetable garden, have at it. You’ll have something green to look at
while everything else is dormant.
These are tense days for the bees so think about using this non-native
(yes, I said not native) small sub-shrub as a compliment to your other native pollinator
friendly plants, shrubs and trees and bring on the bees!
