I have Sweet Marjoram growing in several places in the garden and I am particularly fond of its golden form: Origanum vulgare ‘Aureum’, which looks good for months on end. It glows cheerfully from the time it pushes out the years new shoots until mid-summer, when it bursts into puffs of pale pink flowers. It then becomes a veritable bee magnet. In fact our marjoram mounds have been smothered in both honey bees and Gatekeeper butterflies for the last few weeks.
Today, while I was picking beans, I noticed how many other kinds of pollinators it attracts. I missed getting photos of a wasp and a mint moth (marjoram is part of the mint family), but here are some (admittedly anthropomorphised) characters I spotted in the time it took to pick the beans:
The regulars … Honey bees
The dandies and flashy types …
The hirsute giants …
Their small, but perfectly formed cousins …
The tired and worn-down characters, supping their drinks so slowly …
The hidden predators …
The thugs …
And back to the darlings of the neighbourhood
Joining Tina@mygardenersays for Wildlife Wednesday
Frogend dweller's Blog 
These are beautiful photos, Allison, and I loved your descriptions of the garden visitors. 🙂 I think pollinators really have a thing for plants that we consider as herbs. I grow several and they always have a great variety of pollinators working the blooms.
Thanks Tina. I was surprised to see such a variety of flies visiting the flowers. I know that they like umbels, but I hadn’t extrapolated!
A lovely post, and quite a crowd!
Thanks. It is certainly fun to watch those crowds shuffle round to get access to the nectar. The flowers must replenish supplies very quickly.
Nice to see so many pollinators – yours must be one of the best cafes in town!
We are certainly trying to be!
I haven’t grown Sweet Marjoram in years. Thanks for jogging my memory and thanks for sharing!
You are welcome. It is so easy to overlook herbs in pursuit of bigger, brighter flowers!
That is so true!
What a lovely sequence, and what a variety. Sweet marjoram was new to me; I see it’s described as a milder oregano. I do use marjoram as a spice, but now I’m wondering if marjoram and sweet marjoram are different. Interesting.
It’s a can of worms! Luckily, my confusion doesn’t affect the pollinators or how I use it (which admittedly is not terribly often)