illustration of a perennial plant growing over two years, with bee nests present inside old stems during the second year

Figure 2. Seasonal cycle of stem growth in a perennial plant. In year one, flowering stems grow and die. If they are trimmed in their first winter, they are available as nesting and overwintering habitat throughout the following year—shown here with small carpenter bees (genus Ceratina).

illustration of a perennial plant growing over two years, with bee nests present inside old stems during the second year

Illustration by Christina Spence Morgan CC BY-NC-ND 4.0