1-sided Wreathed Beehive Vignette Garden Flag

Of late, pollinator gardens—whether for butterflies or for bees—have become increasingly popular as a partial remedy to the dwindling populations of these important insects. Butterflies and bees are responsible for pollination which is crucial to the food supply chain. It is estimated, for instance, that bee pollination is responsible for a third of global food production. + Add a finishing touch to your bee-friendly garden with this garden flag from Saints_Aplenty on Zazzle! This flag features an image equally at home in an understated Christian- or a purely secular bee garden. + In religious iconography, the beehive and bees symbolize The Church and Christians, respectively. Bees are the hardest working and most industrious of all God’s creatures. And, social bees like honeybees work together for the common good of the hive. Christians by prayer and good works are likewise called to work industriously in community for a common goal, that is, for bringing about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. + Sometimes, however, a beehive is just a beehive. This vignette of a beehive surrounded by a wreath with bees among its bee-friendly flowers is an illustration from a secular book about European insects by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Merian was a gifted scientific illustrator and amateur naturalist who discovered the metamorphosis of butterflies at the age of thirteen. Although famous in her own lifetime, Merian was largely ignored by the professional scientific community after her death because of her amateur standing and gender. After languishing for some 300 years in relative obscurity, Merian’s contributions to entomology and her artistry have received renewed interest and much-deserved appreciation in the last fifty years. + Image Credit (Beehive in Wreath): Antique hand-colored engraving of a Wreath Surrounding a Beehive, from De Europische insecten [European Insects], by Maria Sibylla Merian (Amsterdam: J. F. Bernard, 1730), Plate LI No. 1, f. p. 28. From the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives at the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) site, Public Domain.