Rhapsody In Blue

Blue is the colour if you want your plants to pull in the bees, says Val.

- Val Bourne

WORKING at home has its advantages, and one of them is escaping to the garden when the weather’s clement. I watch the bees at work while I have a cuppa, and I learn a lot about which flowers they visit and when they do it. There’s no doubt that bees like blues, and some blues, such as borage (Borago officinalis), are hardly ever without a bee.

Flowers appear colourful to us because they contain light-absorbing pigments and these reflect light. Some are also iridescent, and iridescence is produced when light is reflected from structures or surfaces.