I just couldn’t come with a title for this one. But I had fun taking photos!
The Cinnamon Sunflower is about 3 feet tall now, but still no blooms. Looking pretty snazzy even without the blooms, I must say.
I never realized how fun milkweed seeds are, fresh from a pod. Hopefully some of these will germinate — I need more milkweed!
Still damp from a gentle rain, the Passionvine is happily entwining along its trellis. With luck it will hide our A/C unit soon, at least until the caterpillars start munching!
Passiflora flowers just might be the most bizarre flowers out there. I mean seriously — how on earth did nature come up with that crazy design?
The tripod of a stigma at the top looks like some alien straight from a sci-fi movie.
The coneflowers are huge and teasing me with blooms to come.
I’m not sure whether it was the rain or the change in temperature, but I finally got a Checkered White butterfly to hold still for a photo.
And a Dainty Sulphur — both of these butterflies usually tend to dart around like mad if I get too close. Gotcha, little flutterbies!
I’ve been noticing more wasps visiting the dill lately, and the caterpillar deaths have increased, so I decided it was time to create a butterfly tent. Within a day we had our first swallowtail chrysalis. The tent is a collapsible $9 laundry hamper — much cheaper and much larger than the “butterfly kits” you can buy online and in various stores.
Okay, what’s this bug? Good guy? Bad guy? Found him on my native White Honeysuckle bush. I guess I could go look him up.
In other news, I found little slimy larval stuff eating one of my tomato leaves. I took a picture, but they’re gross and I decided that they messed with my pretty zen pictures, so I’m not posting it today. The slimy things are in the compost bin now. I don’t know whether they’re good guys or bad guys, but they were working as a team and my gut told me I didn’t want more of them around. And there was a leaf-footed bug on another tomato leaf. Little booger got away. Gah. But at least I’m onto him.
That swallowtail chrysalis is beautiful. Great idea to use a collapsible laundry basket–much less expensive. Lots of bugs now that the weather has turned hot.
Thanks, Jenny! I’ve got the dill in a small cup of water — a narrow one that allows the caterpillars to crawl to the outside of the cup rather than get trapped by the water. So far so good!
How clever to use the laundry basket as a butterfly tent! That Passiflora flower really is an odd one…looks like part of the Starship Enterprise. 🙂 Beautiful photos…and that’s also one strange looking bug!
That sunflower would be worth growing for the leaves alone and what a great idea to protect the cats. I have several on my parsley. Last year they seemed to disappear overnight and I couldn’t understand what had eaten them. Never thought of the wasp. Must go out there right now and cover with some shade cloth. Thanks.