Puya Bee Delight

When I first spotted these stunning succulent type plants with stems filled with groups of teal flowers this past April at Huntington Gardens, I just stopped mid stride & gasped.

I had completely forgotten about these unique flowers until that moment, but at that same moment I suddenly remembered I had seen them before the very first time I visited the gardens 8 years earlier & been immediately amazed by them as well. The brilliant teal color of these Puya flowers is just so UNIQUE in nature (they are native to Chile). I wandered around the giant group of them, looking for the the best way to photograph the flowers, noticing how much the bees loved them in this otherwise very large and plant stuffed garden. Some bees were so eager to get to the pollen that I watched them squeeze into flowers that were just BARELY open to get a bit of that precious food.