Fun trying to be quick enough to get this Monarch butterfly with wings open, as it quickly opened and shut them. It spend a lot of time on Buddlea weyerianna 'Honeycomb'. A cultivar originally from Scotland, I think.
The repeat blooming Daylily 'Happy Returns' has never been without a flower for months now. Last year I cut it to the ground, never happy that some brownish leaves always come. Full Sun and sandy, dry soil may cause that. At any rate, the foliage came back beautifully and I did get repeat bloom, but with nonstop flowering, this Summer, I did not cut it back. The center bed in the lawn, where this Daylily blooms, will be trimmed to the ground with a string trimmer, leaving any desired plants, and then I will smother the trimmed back weeds with 3 to 4 inches of fresh wood chips. The chipper, shredder has worked easily and with so many trees taken down to provide more Sunlight for solar panels on the roof, there is an endless supply of branches to be chipped up, The Daffodil bulbs will be unaffected.
A few, disappointing blooms on the beautiful Trumpet Vine 'Madame Galen' I believe, may come more in the future. A hybrid, I think, including the oriental species Bignonia radicans. The Trumpet Vine is a menace, as many vines are. I had one on the chimney, and with repeated seedlings and the plant popping up all over, I got rid of it. But did put this one on the huge Holly tree at the far end of the swimming pool and car park area.
Below is a little success story, with some disappointment also. From seed I grew 3 colors of runnerless, woodland Strawberries. White, yellow and red, all with subtly different flavors. Tiny berries, but good. And then weeds overtook, browsing rabbits, deer, woodchucks, mice?, resulted in no fruit. I have covered them with hardware cloth, pulled the weeds, mulched with wood chips, with hope of fruit, maybe next Spring. Lawn mower clippings are all around the bed. Trouble free gardening does not exist. So said Captain Obvious.
Apparently one female Monarch Butterfly found their choice plant and there are more than a dozen caterpillars maturing. The plant is Asclepias incarnata, and usually with flesh pink flowers. But I have succeeded with the white form, A.i.'Alba'. It did bloom a little in the Spring with one or two plants of the many together in this large planter behind the pool. Not enough light, I think, in the little pool where other aquatics are thriving. But the Deer did eat most of the buds before the bloom and, if these plants survive the caterpillars, they may bloom next year. Hope springs eternal. Monarchs are declared to be in trouble, and so I will leave them and hope to photo the chrysalis and maybe emerging butterflies, next Spring.
A worker, hired by my sister, unfortunately ripped out one of the two Clematis jackmanii on one side of the garage entry. I misunderstood and went out to buy 2 for her. They looked so sad that I went somewhere else, and they only had one Jackmanii. Just what I needed, and it is doing fine. But I had bought two matching ones, misunderstanding. While looking sad, one has bloomed. Another purple, like Jackmanii, but 'Elsa Spath'. So I have to decide where to plant them here.
A species of Marshmallow lives in our South. Hibiscus coccinea, I think. Usually blooming as red as our flag. I lost that but did buy the rarer white-flowered clone, named H. c. 'Alba' 'Lone Star'. Perhaps discovered in Texas. One bloom, after a deer attack. It grew back but only one bud formed and bloomed for only a day or so.
Still, the potential remains. The hardware cloth piece is 4 ft. tall, and I really need a 6 foot circle of wire to protect it.
Technology escapes me. Unable to transfer from camera to computer, as I once could. So this photo of a 'Blue-Spotted Purple' butterfly ends up inaccurate in color and not too clear. Years ago, when a group spent days visiting fallen wild cherries, I was sure their responses showed they were drunk. This one was landing on the stones in the drive, but there were no cherries.
Fall is here, but on this property a good many plants don't change color. But here we have Viburnum mariesii, with its typical layering of the branches. So very much like the branching of the neighboring Dogwoods, that will color rather like this in the next few weeks. Among the mass of trees and shrubs along the front of the house.
No monarchs here yet. Fingers crossed we will see some soon.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the way NJ is shaped, Monarchs get funneled into this area and concentrate in Cape May, before taking off across Delaware Bay. A yearly reason for many to come to see them all. So I may see more than the average gardener, this time of year.
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