and I forgot to post my pics! I was so excited to see a Monarch early, but it was a male. The females had better get here quick because I'm needing them to eat this milkweed AND these aphids! I needed reminding last night WHY I'm gardening organically because I was out spraying aphids with soap and blasting them off with the hose. That took me about 30 minutes and today some were already crawling back up. So...I'm going to do it again!
#2 See the black spot on the bottom wing? I think it's a scent gland, but that's how you know it's a male.
:)
eyes
Is that a native Texas mist flower?
It's Mist Flower, but I don't know if it's native.
konkrete~
Sorry to have been out-of-touch, but I am temporarily back in your Sunny South , and :
I now have a "butterfly garden". The GF's are flitting around like crazy. Can't get one to set long enough to photograph, but it's they.
My two passifloras are no longer twins. One has been eaten down to the bare twigs -- the other is, relatively, flourishing.
So, thanks for your earlier help.
Hey Brad! I saw on some thread that you were back down for some hurricane chasing! Did you make it thru ok?
I told you they would come! Bare twigs huh? I guess that was the favorite. At least they don't eat the whole vine, so I assume it will regrow. I have never had a vine get big enough to really know. I finally do have one that's getting big this year, but I've not had a lot of cats. They'll be here tho.
You are so welcome!
Your mist flower looks like Gregg's Mistflower a.k.a. West Texas Mist Flower. It seems to grow vertically where you are. Here it wants to creep along the ground and send up spires with pretty blue tops. Both Queens and Monarchs are especially attracted to this plant for some reason. I have seen pictures, on the web, where the Queens or the Monarchs were just swarming a bed of it. It bloomed all winter here and the Monarchs and Queens soared above the garden all through the winter. Your pictures are beautiful. I like the way you have all sorts of plants together in one bed--that's the way I grow them also.
Those are beautiful pics. That is a neat flower, too.
Great pics! I've been having monarchs all summer but not in huge numbers. It won't be long!
konkrete~
It skipped by us. We got thunder, lightning, winds, and rain. It blew away the leaf hoppers (giants) but left the GF's skittering along.
I'll be back up North tomorrow. Hope some fauna will have finally arrived Keep cool
Be well
Brad
Congratulations, konkrete, on the Monarch! So glad to hear your visitors have arrived...I am waiting for mine...and I think I'll have to be patient for a while longer...my garden is pretty quiet...can only think it's a result of the hurricanes and storms last summer and this...
Beautiful photography, too. It was a pleasure to look at your pics. Thanks. t.
That funny little flower has been a huge hit! A friend gave me a piece of it last year and it has grown and bloomed beautifully. It seems very hardy and pest free, and it spreads which is a big plus for me since the butterflies do love it. The first time I saw it in her yard there were about 5 Queens on it. I raised some Queen cats last year and loved them! I love the blue in them.
I am guilty of planting things too close together, then when they reseed I've got a big cluster. I occassionally pull out a red salvia or two, but leave the zinnias. Those are the first things the butterflies go to and they bloom all season. I'm waiting for my taller ones to start sprouting. I'm thinking about going out and spreading some seeds, just in case, because I can NOT have a shortage. But then again, I could end up with a forest of zinnias. Better safe than sorry tho...throwing out some seeds tomorrow.
Thanks for enjoying the pics with me! My macro seems to get much better color shots.
KKB, nice job with the pictures and commentary. Good to see you sooo happy.
Art
Paige, are you going to that Austin get-together this weekend?
No, I'm not going. Are you? I can't make road trips for plants. I will go to the Dallas Swap in Sept. tho.
Nope, doggone it! Bad month for me. :-( Hope to do the Dallas Swap, tho. :-)
konkrete~
And this morning I flushed a great big bright yellow and black swallowtail flutterby. Gorgeous , Any clues? It didn't alight long enough for me to get my camera. But, now I'm lurking.
P.S. I'm up here in NJ.
This message was edited Jul 20, 2005 7:09 PM
You flushed it?? Well, it would either be a Tiger Swallowtail or a Giant Swallowtail. Their wings are shaped a little different, and the stripes go the opposite ways. Tigers go down and Giant's go across. Maybe that will give you a clue. The Giant's are out and about here now. We don't have many Tigers tho, in my area.
