Shotwell Flowers can’t tell you how important bees are to the flowers we grow in our gardens and on our farms. As the planet’s major pollinators, they’re responsible for keeping those farm-fresh flowers farm-fresh, bringing life from one blossom to the next. But it’s not just flowers that rely on bees, it’s the vast majority of food crops, too. Everything from apples and avocado, carrots to coffee requires the ministering efforts of bees, who have adapted over millennia into fierce pollinating machines, capable of flying 300 miles for nectar and able to see 300 pictures per second (we see 65). Simply but, bees are amazing, and play a pivotal role in keeping our planet healthy, as well as our gardens and farms.

 Our Song of Gratitude is inspired by what you might find on the farm, luring the bees. Pale pink roses (a color that bees love) nestle with hydrangea to suggest restful abundance. There’s even another favorite pollinator alighted on a blossom. The whole piece makes you think of wild gardens and locally-produced flowers, giving off a peaceful, natural grace.

Bees prefer single roses because they can more easily access the pollen, but since they can’t see red, pink, white and yellow roses are best. A rose’s fragrance also entices a bee, and the bee is then rewarded with nectar. This is why on the farm or in the garden you’ll see bees flitting about, hopping from one flower to the next. They’re busy helping flowers propagate seeds and filling their own bellies while they’re at it.