Love this plant! Panicle Hydrangea

Any plant that attracts this kind of beauty on a daily basis is going to win points with me!

Outside the kitchen window of the little house we are renting in Bakersville, North Carolina, there is a bush about five foot tall that has lovely flying visitors every day since it started blooming around two weeks ago. As best I can find out online, it seems to be a Panicle Hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata). This particular one is planted on the north side of the house about four foot from the foundation and is still managing to bloom beautifully.

It’s glory though, is the parade of pollinators that visit daily, mostly in the mornings. Here a butterfly and bumble bee share space, if a little grumpily as they stomped a bit at each other now and then.

On sunny mornings, there’s a traffic jam of different flying friends. Our honeybees love it and seem to be collecting a grayish pollen.

Meanwhile, a cast of dozens visit when they can find an empty flower: small native bees, small fuzzy bumbles, metallic green fellows and long skinny black flying fellow of unknown types:

 So I’m adding this to my planting wish list! Pinterest (ahh, the most addictive on the web for visual types) has made it easy for me to make a planting wish list of course. The wish list is here and all my boards are here for those already past the Pinterest gateway.

Planting wish list for what you may ask? We have found and fallen madly in love with a property very near where we used to live in the South Toe Valley of North Carolina. If all goes well and luck (and the bank) smiles on us, we should close the first week of September and maybe, just maybe, Larrapin Garden will have a home you’ll fall in love with too via this blog.

Do you have a home where you can plant things? What are you waiting for? Find something wonderful and plant it for pollinators!