Woolly blue curls: attractive plant native to Southern California that feeds bees

The name is strange but it fits. Woolly blue curls has long candles of velvet-covered, purple-blue flowers that bloom to the sky in April. And the male parts of the flowers, the stamen, arch out just waiting for native bees to land on them.

I get a kick out of watching these native Anthophora urbana bees grasp the stamen and dangle as they collect pollen.

Anthophora urbana bees are a type of digger bee, meaning they dig holes in the dirt to make their nests. Check out these amazing close-up photos of A. urbana bees taken in Orange County. Also, read some more about how A. urbana bees differ from honey bees here. If you haven’t seen them in your yard before, you might start noticing them after checking out those photos and info.

Anyway, woolly blue curls also goes by the name Trichostema lanatum and is native to Southern California. According to this Calscape map, it is also found in the wild up to Monterey Bay.

I planted mine (pictured above) a handful of years ago. I don’t irrigate it, I don’t fertilize it, I don’t prune it. It’s evergreen, but it looks as best while in bloom here in April.

The foliage of the plant is also aromatic. Some call it a cedar-like smell. I brush against the plant occasionally because it’s next to a path and the smell that comes off is very clean and pleasant.

I built a Bee Garden around my woolly blue curls and chose bush sunflowers (Encelia californica) to go around it because I thought the sunflowers’ yellow would look nice next to the purple-blue curls.

While I have learned to appreciate the colors, I really grow woolly blue curls for the bees and other insects. (See my post, “Oh, the mistakes I’ve made: Thinking flowers were for girls.”) In addition to native bees, honey bees often visit the flowers too. I even see hummingbirds and butterflies and hover flies on them sometimes.

Considering that this plant gets no input from me, woolly blue curls gives a lot in return. How could you not want one? And how could I not plant a few more?

Here’s a short video of my woolly blue curls:

You can buy a woolly blue curls grown by Moosa Creek Nursery, which is who grew mine.

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