Now here's a plant I'm loving more and more - gentle on the eye, but big on the bee front (I photographed this on Saturday). And seeing a Comma butterfly on it this week too was another reminder that this is a real winner for those who like to see their autumn flower beds buzzing with life.
It's Caryopteris x clandonensis, a chance hybrid from a family of plants that comes originally from Asia. Sometimes known as Bluebeard, it now seems to be popping up in garden centres everywhere, which is great.
It is a little perennial bush, perfect for smaller gardens, that grows to about 4 feet (120cm) high or so, with multiple thin hard stems ringed with these little whorls of lovely blue flowers right now in September.
Even better, it seems to be able to cope whatever the pH of your soil. It just likes a bit of a sunny position in soil that is free draining. It then needs a hard prune in spring, a bit like you might with Buddleia, and up pop a new set of stems ready for autumn.
This one is Grand Bleu, which was rated Very Good in a Dutch growing trial, but the Royal Horticultural Society has done some trials too, and there are plenty of great cultivars out there such as Heavenly Blue, First Choice and Worcester Gold.
If you have Caryopteris in your garden and have found it to work - or not - for wildlife, do let us know.
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
I brought this last year on the strength of the amount of bees around the plants at the garden centre. Once home and alone it was ignored, but this year it has grown much bigger and like Analin is especially visited by Carder bees.
I just happened to go to a garden centre on the day you wrote this feature and seeing this shrub for sale, decided to buy it on your recommendation. I haven't got round to actually planting it out yet, but it has already been visited by common carder bees. So a success I think!
I have Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Heavenly Blue' which only grows to 2 feet. The bees in my garden are choosing this over most of my other flowers. I did notice a Tortoiseshell and a Red Admiral trying it although the butterflies seem to prefer the Scabious and Dahlias.
Build it and they will come.