Covered in bees!

Viper's bugloss flowers are such an interesting colour. The bees in our garden are at the moment loving the comfrey, echium blue bedder (annual version of viper's bugloss), geraniums, thyme and sage.

It is, isn't it? I especially love the weird "snake head" structure below the flowers, which is presumably where it gets its name. Blue bedder is very pretty - I ordered Echium vulgare because it grows wild in these parts - my photo was taken on the campus where I work, on a patch of rough open ground where construction vehicles had disturbed the soil (or perhaps brought the seeds with them?).

The Echium is in a bed with dwarf lavender "Thumbelina Leigh" and Salvia nemorosa "Caradonna", to which I'll be adding hardy geranium "Rozanne" when it arrives - should keep the bees happy once the pyrocantha has finished flowering!