Straw flowers

Straw flowers or Helichrysum are a reliable and pretty dried flower. I sow seed every spring and the plants are in flower by June,  last year they flowered right through the winter, I was even picking them in January and February!  For dried flowers I pick before they open but this year I have grown lots and they have loved the good summer, so many are left to open fully. They have been enjoyed by hoverflies and this bee mimic.

 

This bee mimic had a really long tongue.