Camellias and Honeybees
Just a quick post before I head out tonight...
My son and I planted 21 Camellia sinensis bushes 4 years ago. 8 of them survived our NC winters and really began thriving this year so nest spring we will be propagating them for further planting in our upper gardens! If you don't know about this plant, let me introduce you; Camellia sinensis is the evergreen bush used for tea! Yes, green tea, black tea, oolong tea and white tea are all made from the leaves of this plant!
Now, if you know me you know I LOVE tea and I love honeybees and if you know honeybees you know they LOVE this species of camellia.
Camellia sinensis has a whole laundry list of medicinal actions that make it an ideal, daily drink to help improve or maintain your health while staving off disease and aging. This antioxidant rich plant's medicinal qualities are useful for us humans and for our pollinator friends the ever busy honey bees.
Unlike the showy camellias, the sinensis bushes have smaller flowers that mainly bloom facing the ground. This quality does not make them highly coveted by gardeners who are interested in those big, showy blossoms, but the honeybees and I love them because we are looking beyond the plant's appearance to its gifts of anti-mutagenic, anticancer, antioxidant, antiviral, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory properties (to name a few). We love this humble plant because it feeds us nutrition we cannot get from just any old plant so to us, it is beautiful to behold.
If you have not had a cup 'o tea today, may I encourage you to bring about 10 oz. of water to just below the boiling point, drop in 1 tsp of organic green tea leaves and allow them to brew covered for 5 to 7 minutes? Add a bit of raw local honey and sip it with the intention of taking in its medicine to feed, nourish and cleanse your body and while you're sipping it, think kind thoughts for the honeybees and perhaps plan on planting a few of these lovely medicinal bushes in your garden or yard for our pollinator friends to enjoy.
To your health! Kat
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