Maryland Butterflies

 

There have been a flurry of butterflies in the labyrinth.  My neighbors are noticing!  The clusters of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails feeding on the Agapanthis do catch the eye.  When I went out with my camera, I saw a hummingbird hanging out on the opposite side of this group, but it slipped away.

A close look at one of those yellow beauties lets me see how well my new camera focuses.  Of course I am not going to tell how many pictures were not focused where I wanted.  That is an operator error that I hope to get fixed very soon.

There are other swallowtails enjoying the long tubed flowers, such as this Spicebush Swallowtail.  While the top of the wings are very somber, the underside has dramatic orange spots that make it easy to identify.

Moving over to the Millenium Allium are some of the smaller winged creatures.  This is a Common Buckeye, with those very distinctive false eyes to confuse their predators.

The Hackberry Emperor is also enjoying the Allium flowers.  His underbelly is white, as are his legs which are partially visible in the flowers.

The Silver Spotted Skipper is enjoying the nectar of the Verbena.  This little guy kept his wings folded up so I could not see the top of them.  But that white spot is pretty distinctive.

I will watch to see how many others I can catch with my camera

Summer Colors

The center of the labyrinth is showing many colors in the middle of the summer.  The cool blue of the Agapanthus, the intense red of the Hibiscus and the glowing orange of the Crosocmia are competing for the eyes of each viewer.  Even in the bright mid-day sunshine the colors are bold. 

Many gardeners and nurseries like soft, pastel colors.  In some gardens with less intense light and more shade, those colors are subtle and relaxing.  But even with trees and bushes getting taller and offering shade, most of the labyrinth is dazzled by the sun.  It needs colors and flowers that can hold their own, and not wash out.

I adore the true blue of the Agapanthus Stevie's Wonder.  This butterfly was certainly adoring sipping nectar out of its flowers.  There were also different bees reaping the sweet harvest, though some seemed to be struggling to get far enough down into the funnel to reach the good stuff.

While individual flowers may die and fall off the cluster, many buds are forming to replace them.

The Crocosmia Star of the East is putting on its show next to the bench.  It is nice to sit down and reach over to tip the flower up and look into its throat.  This variety is doing a bit of wandering around, even trying to grow into the grass walkway.  I now have enough individual pieces that I will move some into other sections of the beds and see how they do.  I could use more of this intense orange around to provide a spark of color.  I will look for a place that gets more sunshine that this spot under the tree; it gets shade most of the afternoon.

Then there is the Hibiscus Walter Fleming with its deeply creased, heavy textured flowers with the bright yellow stamens.  I have gushed about this one over the years.  It suffered a set back when the white tailed rat chewed off a few dozen flower buds several weeks ago.  But it is stubbornly coming back.

We have been using a foul smelling repellant to keep away the deer and rabbits. It helps.  I did see this morning the deer had eaten off all of the gladiolus flowers, but there was not a major intrusion into other areas.  We have added a number of physical barriers, which shift it out of its habitual paths, however, there is no way to surround everything with the high fence that would be needed.

Like life, a garden needs to be enjoyed a day at a time.  Appreciate each flower and plant, because there is no way to know what tomorrow will bring.  It has been a good summer, with lots of time to be outside caring for everything in cooler than normal weather.   For that I am thankful.