Back-Yard Gardens:
Various vignettes:
The butterflies LOVE the tall garden phlox! It's a Native plant, as well...what's not to love?!
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| Spicebush Swallowtail (side view) |
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| Spicebush Swallowtail (top view) |
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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
This is the first year ever that I've found Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars on my Milkweed!!! I.m raising them in an enclosed screened in area and will blog about them later ;)
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| Native Asclepias tuberosa |
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| A lone Impatiens growing at the base of a tree, must have reseeded from plants I had in pots last year. I didn't plant any this year! |
Lobelia (red and blue varieties) along with Chelone line the pond
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| Natives Lobelia cardinalis (red) and Lobelia siphilitica (blue) |
Lobelia siphilitica (Blue Lobelia)...close-up:
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| Native Lobelia |
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| Native Turtlehead |
Hummers LOVE the red cardinal flower!
Back-Yard, Rear Wild Garden:
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| Native ''Three- lobed Coneflower" (Rudbeckia triloba) |
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| Native Sweet Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) with Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
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| Natives Little Joe aka: Dwarf Joe PyeWeed (Eupatorium purpureum) and Sweet Joe Pye--they look very much alike but Little Joe is a smaller cultivar, you can see it just behind the taller variety. |
Views through the hammock...
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Looking through the swing...Agastache combined with the Rudbeckia and Joe Pye has brought in all the butterflies in Virginia :)
Front-Yard Gardens:
Asclepias tuberosa, Salvia greggii, and Russian Sage are some of the perennials in the corner gardens along the road and driveway.
Agastache 'Purple Pygmy' adds a nice touch here, as well
The Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) has spread itself around and is loved by all the pollenators:
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| A. tubersosa with Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
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| Bee visiting A. tuberosa |
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| A wasp is having a field day here, too |
Native Coneflower (Echiniacea purpurea) is a also a bee magnet!
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| Bees enjoy the Veronica Speedwell, 'Icicle' |
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| Bees seem to love the Zinnia's! |
Front-Yard Side Gardens:
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| Near the basketball hoop and next to the garage is a pollinator's delight, although a bit messy this time of year... |
Mixed up mess of Beebalm, Phlox and Rudbecka:
Japanese Anenome with a bee...bee-utiful ;)
Catmint "Walker's Low" with a visitor, a Cabbage White butterfly.
Verbenia bonariensis with Gray Hairstreak butterfly:
Cut-leaved Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata):
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| Crepe Myrtle blooms |
Hummingbirds at the Feeders:
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| About 5 females have been flitting around the yard, between the lobelia, beebalm and 3 feeders. |
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| Was happy to finally see a male! |
Although I could not get a shot of the babies, they were making a racket inside the birdhouse while mom and dad were frantically flying to and from them feeding them bugs!
Garden Spiders have been all over shrubs! These are pretty small, but I often see the much larger garden spider variety, as well.
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| Yellow Squash Blossoms...still producing (but we haven't actually seen squash-- the squirrels have been beating us to it!) |
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| Banana Peppers! (There are about 5 that the squirrels have missed!) |
I'm sharing this post at Carol's May Dreams Gardens blog, for her monthly Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day get-together, where gardeners the world over share what's blooming in their gardens. I've been lax about posting my monthly blooms, but made it in time to participate this month. Go on over and take a look!
What gifts have you discovered today? Thanks for stopping by, and until next time,
Words and photos ©Thanks for today.™, by Jan Huston Doble @ http://www.thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/
Not to be reproduced or re-blogged without express permission of the author.
