Sometimes good things seem to happen to me accidentally – apparently most often in my garden. I’ve already posted about planting maypops or passion flowers for the beauty of the flower and the fun of the maypop, only to get a bigger reward in a swarm of Gulf Fritillary butterflies. Little did I know that the caterpillars were so fond of the vine that they would devour it. (Not to worry, it comes back bigger and better the next spring.)
My next accident addressed a concern that I had read about, thinking there was very little I could do to help. It seems that honeybees have become harder to find making a new problem since without them pollination becomes iffy, hurting farmers and the eaters of plants that depend on pollination. Now, I don’t think the honeybees set out to help the farmer any more than I set out to help them or the caterpillars. It’s just the way it works.
I hope you are curious by now about how I helped the honeybees out. I bought three (just 3) guara plants for my flower bed because I love the way the abundant tall stems with the delicate pink flowers sway in the slightest breeze. I planted them toward the back of the bed so they could swing over the top behind the other plants. They sent down deep taproots that made watering superfluous.
Let me tell you, keeping these flowers behind those other plants lasted one season. The plant reseeds, and the wind that blows the stem back and forth spreads those seeds everywhere. The bees have loved it. They come to take a sip at the flower and get a joy ride to boot as they sway back and forth in the breeze. Now the swarm of bees shares space with my butterflies who also like the tasty ride.
So if you would like to do a good deed and have something beautiful at the same time, get you a few guara plants. Bee friendly to the creatures, congratulate yourself on doing good in the world, and have a ball watching the frivolity.