Autumn Insects

These insect pictures all date back to September, so I must apologize for the delay, but they are too good to leave out.

Here is a Monarch Butterfly enjoying the Verbena Bonariensis, which attracts a large variety of insects.  Usually there are many Monarchs coming through the garden, but this was one of the few in 2012.

After a good bit of research, I determined that this is a Sphex wasp.  There are quite a variety of them, so I could not determine the exact species, but the black body and extremely thin waist is characteristic. 

I have seen these on a variety of the more intensely scented plants, such as the oregano growing at the front porch.  This one is on the Calamintha nepeta, or Catmint, which I bought from Plant Delights Nursery two years ago.  I had heard that they can spread around a lot, but I have not had that problem with this one,  It has stayed in its place, and blooms heavily from early summer through September.  It is always covered with insects eating the nectar.   

Also on the Catmint were many delightful Lightning Bugs.  I spent a lot of time checking this fellow against various identifying sources to be sure I got it right.  It is funny, for all the years of catching these in jars a a child, I though I knew how they looked, but without waiting until night, wasn't sure.

Who know they lived on the nectar of flowers, though it certainly makes sense!

 

The final shot is of a spider, the Argiope Aurantia, which has been a part of my gardens for years.  They build such large webs, and the zigzag that is visible below it is characteristic of these creatures.  I have always respected them, left them alone to catch whatever they can. 

I wonder where they go once the air gets cold, and everything has hfound a place to spend the next few months until the return of the warmth?

The last few days have been very busy with heavy autumn work.  Even with two of us working most of the time, there has been  lot to do, but also a lot got done.

This shot, taken just a week ago, is already out of date, since the leaves on the Crape Myrtle, 'Natchez,' on the left have already turned yellow, and most fallen to the ground.  The Katsura on the right has also lost most of its leaves.

One of the things that got done today was the final digging out of the grass and putting in edging strips for the entrance of the labyrinth.  It has taken so long because I have been debating how to finally lay it out.  In the photo on the left, in the lower left corner is a spreading rosemary, seeming at the end of the flower bed.  Now, the bed extends another four feet, and I moved part of the tree peony from the North Garden just a foot to the left of the rosemary.  Pictures later.

Much of the work for this time of year is not dramatic.  We spent a morning cutting down a yew hedge at the side of the sun porch, and digging out most of the stumps.  It will become the site for a triple bin compost heap. We put in a temporary hardware cloth and metal post bin for the winter.  I spent a lot of time and energy taking the top off of the existing pile, mixing it in with leaves that David collected and chopped up with the mower before they all blew away. 

The Viburnum rhytidophylloides, 'Allegheny,' is blooming profusely, again in the autumn, which always seems strange to me.  There are even a few red berries, but typically it gets hit by a frost before it can produce many berries, and just looks bedraggled. For a time of year when little is blooming, I shouldn't complain, but it is a surprising cycle.  Maybe it is as confused as the many daffodils, which have pushed their leaves up five inches above the round, thinking that maybe spring has arrived.  Two years ago the same bush did this end-of-the-year growth, and was severely frozen back by the winter cold, killing many branches.  It is just beginning to look good again. 

Every fall the climbing rose in the North Garden, a Rosa x 'Meivaleir' 'Garden Sun,' does a final explosion of flowers at the end of October into November.  Even knowing it will probably do so again, the exuberance of flowers are surprising, especially since the canes always look very beat up and bare.