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.
No monarchs here yet. Fingers crossed we will see some soon.
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