Perennial sage beats lavender: the secret pollinator star for dry gardens

Lavender everywhere in spring garden centres

Anyone walking through garden centres in spring will spot miniature swathes of purple lavender on all sides. Lavender is, of course, seen as a tried-and-tested favourite for insects. Even so, older kitchen gardens often gave pride of place to a different perennial: a hardy, long-lived type of sage that manages without any irrigation system - and, in a dry garden, is considered a quiet star for pollinators.

Why gardeners used to choose sage rather than only lavender

In many traditional farm and country gardens, older generations planted a particular enduring sage right alongside the vegetable patch and beneath fruit trees. That wasn’t coincidence; it came from experience. Wherever this perennial grew, there was a constant buzz and hum right through the summer.

What makes the flowers so valuable to pollinators

The explanation is in the flower shape. The blooms form on spikes and are built like small tubes. They work like tiny nectar reservoirs for:

• wild bees,

---