I think l can safely say now, that following @Rubytoo 's suggestion l contacted Robin Middleton. He very kindly sent me a small plant of SCPB and it has grown into a lovely specimen. He sadly died 2 years ago today, and l must say that although l never met him, he was so kind and helpful to me, and refused any form of payment. Everytime l see SCPB , either in photos or in my own garden, l think of him.
I have a mixture of salvias in the front garden, the bees definitely prefer the reds, purples and then whites. You are right about So cool PB @Fire, a lovely colour but of less interest to bees it would seem. l'm sure they were quite interested in it at one time earlier in the Summer. Maybe it's to do with the choice available to them at the time.
We have Salvia turkestanica which has been in the garden for some decades. The leaves are large and cover the ground so weeds don't stand a chance. The flower spikes are blue/purple and loved by the bees. Cutting back the dead flower spikes always allows the plants to send up new ones so very long flowering. It does make seeds and can end up in different parts of the garden so we have to be vigilant.
I tried Nachvlinder too, but it was too sprawly for my small raised bed. BN and SCPB have grown well and make good cut flowers, but I was planting particularly for insects.
Before the experiments I had no idea that shrubby salvias offered such radically different attractions to bees. Bumble is covered - despite being red. Bees can't see red - but I guess the light bee lines in these, red roses and petunias they can see and accept the invitations to enter.
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https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1026115/salvia-so-cool-pale-blue/p1
He sadly died 2 years ago today, and l must say that although l never met him, he was so kind and helpful to me, and refused any form of payment.
Everytime l see SCPB , either in photos or in my own garden, l think of him.
I have found them to be very helpful in the past.
You are right about So cool PB @Fire, a lovely colour but of less interest to bees it would seem.
l'm sure they were quite interested in it at one time earlier in the Summer.
Maybe it's to do with the choice available to them at the time.