More Butterflies

This is an adult Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly.  A few posts earlier I put up the photo of one of these caterpillars.  It has been difficult to get a shot of the iridescent blue on the wings because they are constantly moving.  They like both the Verbena bonariensis and the Agapanthus flowers.

There are also many Zebra Swallowtails, which prefer the verbena over the Agapanthus.   Many of these are smaller than the other Swallowtails. 

 

Finally there are the Sleepy Orange butterflies which hang out on the Zinnias.  I don't know why they are called "sleepy" because when they are flying they move very fast.  I cannot get a picture of them with their wings open.  But then my reference website to identify Maryland butterflies only has this kind of shot.

I am still trying to get a few others flying around.

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

Butterflies in July

This year there has been a kaleidoscope of butterflies, though I could all it a "rabble" of butterflies, and "rainbow" of butterflies would also be appropriate.  There have been a wide number of large and small butterflies enjoying the flowers.  The Verbena Bonariensis, seen with a swallowtail butterfly above, have always attracted butterflies.  Nearby are the 'Stevie's Wonder' Agapanthus, which are also popular.  Even the Pineapple Lilies, Eucomis comosa are getting visitors.

However, the main attraction is the 'Blue Fortune' Agastache, which is only supposed to grow three feet tall. It towers over my own six foot height, and is three foot diameter of flower spikes. I have seen two kinds of swallowtails, and several smaller butterflies of various colors.  I have even seen one Monarch butterfly, the first for this year, as well as dozens of bees, also various types and sizes.

With the regular amounts of rain starting in spring, everything is flourishing. In these hot days, I only go out to deadhead anything that needs it, and pull out the clumps of crab grass that seem to spring up overnight.  They seem to be happy being left alone.

September abundance

The Colchicum under the magnolia tree are up in force this September.  They would prefer a site with more sunshine, but have adapted themselves to the deep shade created by the wide magnolia leaves.  I remember first seeing Colchicum visiting the Sissinghurst Castle Garden at the end of September in 1991.  I fell in love with them scattered in the rough grass of the orchard.  We have considered allowing parts of the yard to revert to rough grass, but the presence of chiggers and ticks stops the dreaming.

Sometimes it is the edges of the garden that are what most people see.  This picture of the edge of the road along the side of the labyrinth show what the neighbors, dog walkers and nature preserve hikers see.  It is the one place where plants can easily spill out and over, including the Verbena Bonariensis, tall grasses, Russian Sage, and the yet-to-bloom Aster.  The Verbena are all self-seeded; there were many hundreds of seedlings weeded out to allow enough room and nutrition for those you see here.  The clump of Pampas grass, and the Miscanthus are especially large and full with the consistently high volume of water they have gotten. 

Here is a cluster of yellow and gold in the labyrinth.  In the front is Goldenrod, Solidago sphacelata ‘Golden Fleece,' which stays short, but also likes to flop around sideways.  In the middle is Maryland Goldenaster (Chrysopsis mariana), a native that has a short bloom period, but is stunning for that time.  In the back is Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna' if I have kept good track of the various places it has been moved over the years!  Out of the picture to the left, the Caryopteris incana 'Sunshine Blue' continues the yellow/blue theme with its yellow/green leaves and soft powder blue flowers.  I will close with its photograph below.

Winged Pollinators

It is time to celebrate those busy insects, not just bees, that are so actively collecting the sweet nectar from flowers.  They don't care that they are also spreading pollen, acting as sexual agents. 

Here is a simple bumble bee on Allium "Millenium' with its small compact globes of lavender flowers.  I have been very pleased with this allium, since it is well behaved. It blooms over a very long period in the hottest and driest part of the summer, and doesn't seem to be spreading seeds all around.

The most popular of the flowers for all of the butterflies are the Verbena bonariensis.  A tender perennial, the verbena has self-seeded across the garden, coming up wherever the soil doesn't have any mulch.  Sometimes plants will survive a mild winter, but usually it is better to encourage newly sprouted seeds.

Here is a Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly, which relies on pawpaw trees, with the females laying their eggs on the leaves, and the larvae feeding on those leaves.  So there is another benefit of the many pawpaws on the slope.

It is amazing what can be found on the Internet with a little patience.  This small butterfly is a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) according to the Gardens with Wings website.  It is very small, only a couple of inches across the wings, and is here feeding on marjoram flowers.  It is described as very common, and the host plant is asters.  There are certainly a number of those in the labyrinth garden.  I just hope the caterpillars don't do too much damage, since my asters are not particularly strong plants.

Back to the verbena banquet.  Here is what appears to be an American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis), again according to the Gardens with Wings website. 

And what a useful resource it is!  On the identification page, there are different starting points, based on the wing shape, colors, common names, and size.  I only wish it allowed you to select more than one characteristic at a time, to narrow down the options a bit more.

This little fellow feeding on one of the cone flowers, is probably a  Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia).  There are a lot of these to be seen.  The host plants are supposed to violets and stonecrop, which I don't have in the maintained garden area, but I know that there are violets growing in all of the wild areas.  Since they are a smaller size, they do not attract as much attention, but the multitude of them can create a small cloud of movement and color.

The final picture is of a Silver Spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus).  This is an oddly shaped butterfly, and the description of it being a combination of butterfly and moth certainly applies.  It has a much larger body, and short wings.  I am not surprised to learn its host plant is false indigo, since there are many of these planted in the labyrinth area and on the sides of the ravine.  I didn't realize that I was also providing butterflies their preferred diet!

This has been a fun research project, and I hope to have more pictures of other varieties.  There was one dark blue swallowtail that moved too fast to get a picture, either a Spicebush Swallowtail or a Pipevine Swallowtail.  There were also a number a very interesting black wasps, but they will have to wait until I can get a good shot and confirm their identity.

Late May 2012

Following up on Allium Forelock, here are two flowers a month later.  While they are still much the same size, they are slowly transforming in seed heads.  I'll have to decide whether to harvest the seeds, and see if they will grow.  I don't want them to scatter about, because if they are viable that would be dozens of new plants, most likely growing in the grass.

I promised to have more to say about the orange foxglove.  That will have to wait until I can confirm the proper name.  I thought I knew it, but a closer examination makes me suspicious. The problem of knowing the proper name soon will be solved by the list of plants I am compiling in digital form, from 12 years of journal entries and a bag full of plant labels.

One of the nice May combinations can be seen on the right.  The lavender blue flower is a native Penstemon smalli bought from the now closed Lower Marlboro Nursery.  The yellow flower is Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull' with a ground cover of Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) - which has not been added to the list, so I cannot specify the variety.  Unfortunately, the Feather Reed Grass on the right is also still unlisted.  Give me a break, I just started to work on the list this week and am up to 2004.

Here is a close-up of the Penstemon flowers.

The Penstemon blooms for 3-4 weeks, with the Coreopsis starting in the second week and continuing on for about six weeks.  With regular deadheading, the Coreopsis puts up new flowers, though they get smaller and more sparse, until it is done by the end of June. 

Another plant that came from the closed nursery is the Purple Milkweed, Asclepias Purpurascens.  The original three plants, that were little more than seedlings, have taken three seasons to get established and grow large enough to bloom.  This year they came into full glory, with large clusters of flowers.  They sit among a group of other tall perennials including a hardy hibiscus, visible on the left, Russian Sage, appearing behind and on the right. 

Soon they will fade into the background when the hibiscus starts opening its huge, dark red flowers. But for about three weeks they offer a warm color and disguise the still stretching stalks of the hibiscus.

Milkweeds provide food to a variety of insects, and are famous as a food source for caterpillars of Monarch butterflies as well as other insects.  Until doing research for this entry, I didn't realize that the caterpillars ingest and store the bitter and toxic chemicals in the milkweed leaves they feed upon, which protects them from being eaten by birds. 

Speaking of insects, here is a visiting butterfly enjoying the nectar of the milkweed!  Now if it will also lay some eggs, maybe you will see a complete life-cycle?  Stay tuned.

Finally, here is a super-sized Verbena bonariensis on the edge of the sidewalk.  These tender perennials are usually killed in the winter time, but this one survived the mild weather.  Of course, it blocks half of the sidewalk, which David thinks is just wonderful.  It will need to be pruned back heavily to encourage re-blooming, but recovery is quick.  A hat tip to Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter, England, where I first fell in love with these.