painting: bee on Lamb's Ear

Today's bee of the day, (for Pollinator's Week) appears on 'Lamb's Ear', aka stachys byzantina. We don't actually have this in our garden (yet!) but it was growing a couple blocks up the street, where I could see that bees are in fact wild about it. (painting approx. 5 x 5", acrylic on plywood)

At left, you can see the Lamb's Ear (the white-grey spires in the center) as growing at Oak Grove Elementary School, Sonoma County.


The leaves are soft and fuzzy (hence the name), and I believe it to spread easily. "Lamb’s ears is very hardy, and very easy to grow. It requires full sun, good drainage, and little more. Over the years your patch will become overgrown and will need to be thinned out every, perhaps, 2-3 years. To keep the patch neat you can cut back the flowering stems once they have finished flowering and they are beginning to develop seeds." Apparently the plant may also have some medicinal uses.