Around the Garden

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Meredith

The garden is shaping up nicely. You know you’ve been doing a good job when all your fingernails and toenails are caked with dirt and compost (at least, that’s my theory). Oh, I have gloves. But they are too bulky for some of the tasks in the garden, like feeling for the sneaky roots and little nuts of the annoyingly invasive nutsedge, or transplanting a tender young seedling of a desired plant. And so I often garden whole-heartily with all my uncovered digits, running my fingers and toes through the earth just the way nature intended. Keep in mind that my husband is the complete opposite — he won’t step foot into the garden without his gloves and mud shoes on! Heaven forbid dirt smear his leg or something. And he calls me a delicate flower?

The vines are all abloom, and those that aren’t yet are at least exhibiting major growth spurts. The Coral Honeysuckle is becoming a bit of an octopus — I keep trying to train it to go over the fence, and it keeps sending out more arms to reach for the pathway instead.

And though most of the Crossvine blooms have already come and gone for the season, the vines are taller than ever.

Even though it’s considered a hummingbird vine, I have yet to see one of our hummingbirds visit a crossvine bloom — they go to other plants or the feeders instead. But the bees sure went crazy for the Crossvine this year, so it must have plenty of nectar! Those finicky hummingbirds…

So far we’ve had male black-chinned hummingbirds this year — I’m sure they are awaiting the arrival of the females even more than we are. I wonder why I haven’t seen any Ruby-Throats yet — they are our usual visitors.

Each year I’m amazed at the differences between the Crossvine “Tangerine Beauty,” seen in the images above, and the wild one below, which is opposite in color, having yellow petal lips and a red throat. I really need to start collecting seeds or making cuttings from this native beauty.

The poppies have arrived, the first I’ve ever grown. Given that all I did was sprinkle seeds on the ground some unknown time last fall, I’m pleased that they did their thing without any help from me. A couple of blooms so far…

with more on the way…

We’ve got a ton of caterpillars — countless Gulf Fritillaries on Passionvine, with many already to chrysalis stage. Giant Swallowtail caterpillars are on the Wafer Ash. Here’s a grown-up taking a rest on the Coral Honeysuckle after puddling on damp ground below.

And we’ve seen a new caterpillar — Henry’s Elfin — on one of the Mexican Redbuds, shown in the picture below. Now I just need to see the butterfly…

This frog keeps staring at me whenever I walk by. Actually, we have at least 3 in the backyard pond, likely more based on the number of splashes when we approach. And the male toads have been croaking at night on the pond rocks. I still haven’t figured out whether the toads and frogs play nicely together. Hopefully the frogs are not eating the toads, but I have my concerns. The one in this picture is getting awfully big…

Don’t stare too long — it’s hypnotic.

The artichoke is about waist-high now and growing. I’m rather embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve never eaten an artichoke in my life. I’m growing them A) to actually see what they taste like, B) because this plant is so awesomely prehistoric in appearance, and C) because it’s actually a perennial veggie, which means I don’t have to do much. I’d thought I’d be trying to eat an artichoke last year, but the plant stayed small.

The Goldenball Leadtree is covered with little puffballs-to-be. I keep watching and waiting, as they are going to be amazing. Wow, I love this airy Central Texas native. I’m seriously considering getting a second one (in fact, I think I just decided for sure). Then today I discovered a sneaky golden puffball that had already opened. You can see that the little buds just go “poof” and get huge. Ohhh, I can’t wait. This is going to be the year of the Goldenballs!

Speaking of puffballs, the Fragrant Mimosa, also a Texas native, is putting on puffball displays daily. It turns out that Fragrant Mimosa is, in fact, quite fragrant. I carefully take a sniff each time I walk by, being quite cautious not to get a pointy prickle up my nose.

Nearby, the native White Honeysuckle has officially become a shrub, and it has more blooms than ever. The scent is divine.

We have wren babies and nesting squirrels and a screech owl hermit, too… but those posts will come another day. Loving being out in the garden again!

Hornsby Bend Birds Fit the Bill

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Meredith

Just when I thought I was starting to get caught up, time slipped away again. Take this post, for instance — I visited Hornsby Bend more than two weeks ago and am only just now getting to show the photos. And it’s been driving me crazy to be so far behind — there are some really cool photos on my flash card right now, and I can’t wait to post them!

One quick note — today was the Trowel & Error Garden Symposium benefitting Mayfield Park. I had a great time talking about native plants and wildlife, and I enjoyed seeing friends, meeting new ones, spreading native plant love, and getting to spend the day with gardening folks. What a wonderful day!

Not that these Northern Shovelers would have cared — they’re too busy scooping food from the ponds at Hornsby Bend. Fellow Beautiful Wildlife Garden blogger Carole Brown and I visited Hornsby Bend during her recent trip to Austin, and we delighted in seeing numerous migratory birds, as well as getting our first glimpses of many different early spring wildlife. Of course, that was 2.5 weeks ago, so I’m sure the numbers have increased tremendously. For my previous visits to Hornsby Bend, check out this and this — oh, and this little weirdness.

Northern Shovelers are dabbling ducks. which means that they primarily feed at the water’s surface or by tipping upside-down to get food underwater. Their spoon-shaped bill allows them to strain and filter the water for food.

A curious behavior of the Shovelers is the way they will circle in a group to churn the water and bring food to the surface.

But they spent much time showing off their unique ability to walk on water… or at least stand on a hidden barrier in the water and look like they can walk on water.

Clearly I enjoyed taking pictures of the Shovelers. How about for a change of pace, we look at pictures of… other ducks!

Take a look out on this island — see that blue on a duck’s wing? That patch of blue earns this species the name “Blue-Winged Teal.” Note the Least Sandpipers hanging out on the island, too.

Ruddy Ducks, Cinnamon Teals, American Coots, Snipers — these are just a few of the other water birds we glimpsed during our visit. But that’s not all — the Yellow-Rumped Warblers were too numerous to count, the swallows hid along the bank, Cardinals sang from the river pathway trees, and White-Eyed Vireos looked down upon us.

Not the least bit concerned by our presence, the Least Sandpipers stayed really busy gathering food along the wet shores. Well, at least I’m not resorting to bad jokes again… to say the least…

And Hornsby Bend is a haven for multiple sparrow species. We saw Savannah Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, and many others. I’ll just pretend that we didn’t also see House Sparrows. They didn’t earn a photo spot, at least. Oops, there’s that word again. At least that time was an accident! (that last might be a different story, though).

Here’s a Savannah Sparrow, kind enough to pause for a close-up:

The most unusual bird of the day goes to a leucistic sparrow seen foraging between two of the Hornsby ponds. Quite unusual in nature, and an even bigger rarity for the average birdwatcher.

We followed this leucistic sparrow around for some time — I was determined to get a picture — as it was, I had to use a zoom from far away and really crop in to get a decent look at it. Oh, how I long for birding binoculars. But I feel lucky to have seen a leucistic sparrow at all, with or without gadgets. Then again, even luckier to have managed to catch semi-acceptable photos of said leucistic sparrow.

Other wildlife happily enjoyed the start of spring, Monarchs included. Here’s a Black Swallowtail on Henbit:

And a Pipevine Swallowtail, too:

A White or Common Checkered Skipper took a rest on Velcro Plant. Hope it didn’t get stuck to it…. Apparently you can only tell White and Common Checkered Skippers apart by dissection. Well, it was this skipper’s lucky day. I wasn’t going to go that far to ID it.

Check out this hard-working ant carrying a berry in the picture below. There’s a lesson to be learned there.

Allright, enough with the longer photodocumentaries — on to new things! Lizards, bird babies, and more, coming soooooooon!

Don’t They Know It’s Winter?

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Meredith

This is certainly the last thing I expected to see going on in my backyard in the middle of December, but go figure. Gulf Fritillaries, doing their thing.

Sometimes the outer wings would open, revealing the brilliant orange of that butterfly’s upperside.

I wish the camera could have captured the full beauty of the metallic sheen on their underwings, but some of the lustre was lost in the image. Still, wow.

The features on this butterfly give it such personality!

I didn’t tell the butterflies that it’s just about winter here. They didn’t seem to care.

An Autumn Hike Through Walnut Creek Park

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Meredith

We regularly join up with friends of ours to take a weekend hike with our wolf pack (five dogs between us) and all our kids (as of this week, five kids between us — congrats, Stepan and Jen and family on your new baby!). Last weekend, a few days before baby came, we ventured to our very favorite Walnut Creek Park, a 300-acre wooded habitat in north Austin. A mockingbird greeted us along the way.

Not only is Walnut Creek Park beautiful in all seasons, it’s a leash-free zone, which means that all our dogs except our obnoxious husky get to run free (the husky gets to hike but must be attached to a human at all times). It’s also a great place for beginning to advanced mountain bikers, being covered in a maze of criss-crossing trails and creeks. In fact, there are so many trails that it’s easy to get somewhat lost if you are new to the park. Fortunately, there are usually plenty of visitors to point you in the direction you need to go.

Oh, and it’s a great place to break your arm, as two of the four people in my family have done, along with countless mountain bikers at the park, I’m sure. At least there’s a hospital close by, if you do manage to get hurt. 🙂

Right now, it’s autumn at its finest at Walnut Creek.

All around, the leaves of Red Oaks and other decidious trees are turning red among the evergreens.

I’ll admit that I was a bit slower than usual on the hike — there were a lot of other natural beauties that I just had to capture a picture of.

Along one trail, the branches of dead snags poked out among younger Ashe Junipers and created an ominous effect. I so wanted a group of vultures to fly down and let me take their picture.

Agaritas could be found among the understory plants. This sharp-leaved shrub offers protection to young fauna, earning it the nickname, “Babysitter Bush.”

The beautiful blue berries of the evergreen Ashe Juniper made a striking color combination with Red Oak leaves. The berries are a favorite of local birds.

I also love the exfoliated bark of old Ashe Juniper trees, as do birds for their nests (me, I just enjoy cool-looking bark). For more information on the wildlife value of Ashe Junipers, please enjoy a read of my most recent post at Beautiful Wildlife Garden.

The spiny Prickly Pear had a soft green look against the autumn foliage.

And the petal-less remains of spent flowers made dried-flower bouquets along pathways.

All around the woods, Flameleaf Sumac was changing from green to red foliage.

Its bright-red fall foliage proves that Flameleaf Sumac is very aptly named.

Will this be the year I give in and plant Flameleaf Sumac? I’ve been hesitant in the past, because I know it can make a thicket — but maybe it will be the key to preventing my neighbors’ nandinas and chinaberries from taking hold in my yard again. Plus the sumac berries are high in Vitamin C — might be worth a try! You know, I think I just convinced myself… if I can find it available at a local nursery.

The hollies were showing off their red berries, Yaupons and Possumhaws alike.

If there’s a downside to the park, other than the breaking of arms, it’s that there’s quite a lot of poison ivy around — vines and bushes alike. There unfortunately is also a serious invasion of invasives, such as evergreen Ligustrums, all the more noticeable in the fall. I tried to do my best to ignore them on our hike, but I pretty much failed, as they were everywhere. I’ll take poison ivy over Ligustrums any day, as long as I don’t have to roll in it.

And here’s one of our favorite areas of all — Walnut Creek itself. We call this particular spot along the creek “Broken Arm Crossing” because it’s where I broke my arm on one fateful dog walk. I hold the area no ill grudge, as it is such great gathering spot for water-loving doggies. The other spot in the park where my husband broke his arm during a bike ride is now nicknamed “Michael’s Folly,” or “Michael’s Fall-ee.”

My oldest son was particularly fond of the colorful moss along a section of the creek.

I don’t know what the name of these next plants are, but the seedheads made a gorgeous scene along a few prairie paths.

They might look soft, but don’t be fooled.

And one of my favorites, Wafer Ash (Hop Tree) is in full seed mode, as well.

I looked everywhere on the Wafer Ash trees for Giant Swallowtail caterpillars, but alas not a bird poop-looking cat was to be found.

Oh well, it was a wonderful hike all the same. One can’t always find bird poop caterpillars, you know.

Go Orange

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Meredith

Purely by accident, my photos of the day are showing off the warm colors of the season. How perfect as we transition from late summer to fall. I might as well confess that I’m a Longhorn fan, too — so “Go Orange” has multiple meanings this time around. But red and yellow, count, too. They, after all, combine to make orange. All in the realm of warm!

I’ve been waiting all year for my Exotic Love Vine to bloom, a plant I… ahem… fell in love with during my trip to Mexico last fall.

Just before the rains from Hermine arrived this past week, evidence of blooms first appeared on a vine stem, and happily the steady downpours did not hurt the blossoms before I could get a picture. I do hope that soon our wonderful plant will be covered in these vibrant flowers.

The plentiful rains have encouraged other freshly-hydrated plants to bloom, and the garden is filled with new buds all over. The Texas Lantana is bright with color, and the butterflies are flocking back to it. Here’s a Gulf Fritillary, blending in so nicely with the orange and yellow flowers.

Our young pomegranate tree has three lovely fruit on it. Though I might wish for more, I’m thrilled that we’d have even three fruit in our first year of having the tree. I can’t wait for them to ripen.

At the pond, a fiery Flame Skimmer stands out against the green bog-loving plants.

And the Blackfoot Daisies have revived along the garden path. I like the way they provide a nice look against the decomposed granite.

It occurs to me that this time last year I was eagerly watching our pumpkins turn from green to orange. Clearly this is not a new theme. But it certainly is a mood-boosting one!

And just to mention it, our new decomposed-granite (and orange-ish!) garden path held up quite well in the heavy rains. No mush! The only area that we’ll need to touch up is a portion of the upper pathway, where compaction was at a minimum, and that’s our fault for not giving it the equal time that we did to the rest of the garden path. That the overall pathway stood the test of a major flood-causing rain lets me know that we made a good choice on our plan. Still, we’ll make the minor repairs to the upper pathway and determine how best to guide waterflow just off to the side a bit, where the garden itself can absorb the excess water.

Go orange!

Trekking Through the Roughs

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Meredith

Yesterday morning our hiking crew of friends and family visited McKinney Roughs Nature Center, an LCRA park near Bastrop in Central Texas. Not to be confused with McKinney Falls State Park, the Roughs is home to 18 miles of pleasant hiking trails that take one through peaceful woodlands, past wildflower meadows, and along the scenic Colorado River.

The park is located where four distinct ecological regions converge: East Texas Pineywoods, Riparian, Blackland Prairies, and Post Oak Savannah, and these regions can seem to suddenly switch on you as you walk along the trails. I think of three words when I picture my time at McKinney Roughs — “beauty,” “solitude,” and “wildlife.” Birds, butterflies, bees, lizards, spiders, turtles, mammals — everywhere you turn, you either see wildlife, or you see evidence of it. Wildflowers line the paths, vines climb the trees, and sunlight filters through the trees to highlight shrubs or snags or other interesting elements of nature.

A little anole welcomed us at the front gate, though he did hang out among some thorns. Good for him.

Up at the visitor’s center, spectacular flowers and berrying-plants provide a colorful scene, alive with zooming hummingbirds, busy bees, and fluttering butterflies. The building in the photo is the Natural Science Center, closed except for educational purposes, but all about the grounds, demonstration gardens teach visitors about native plants, wildscaping, and water conservation through rain collection. There’s even a tepee to sit in. And the visitor’s center itself holds large aquariums and terrariums, with all sorts of live creatures inside. So much to do, and so much to learn.

If all that wasn’t enough, McKinney Roughs offers even more– nature programs for youths, dorms for groups, stargazing and kayaking programs, and vertical challenge courses, including a climbing tower.

But the park trails are truly the “diamonds in the Roughs.” They are well made and easy to traverse. Dogs on leashes are allowed, as are horses. It says something good about a park when people bring their horses from across the state to take them on the trails.

We chose about a 5-mile route, traveling on several connecting trails. The paths took us through all four ecological regions, letting us see quite a variety of plant species and terrain. Pine needles in portions reminded us when we were in the pocket of isolated hardwoods known as “Lost Pines.”

The paths took us to overlooks and valleys, dry creek beds and the river, and through woods and meadows, but always the trail was well defined and constructed, particularly whenever a slope was present.

Ant lions left little pits in the sand along the paths.

All around were plants I’d never seen before, and I realized that while I can identify many native species, it was clear I had a lot more to learn. But many of my favorites were around.

Like American Beautyberry…

Texas Persimmon, with its beautiful peeling bark…

Inland Sea Oats, with seeds in transition from green to brown, and so many others.

While I could identify this next plant as a bird-friendly Pokeweed due to its very dark red berries, I didn’t know much about it, so I looked it up. Turns out it’s very dangerous to mammals, sometimes even lethal — so don’t eat it. This is a time where the saying “You eat like a bird” best NOT apply.

Another new one for me — this appears to be Tall Gayfeather, also known as Tall Blazing Star, Liatris aspera. The stalk was indeed so tall that it needed the support of a younger plant.

And this is Coral Bean, Erythrina herbacea. Thank goodness it didn’t have different colored seeds — I might not have ever identified it otherwise. Not surprisingly, those beans are toxic.

It was hard to resist taking pictures of all the wildlife we saw. And ohhhh, we saw a lot. What a joy to experience nature at its best.

Near the visitor’s center, this Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly worked really hard to make it as difficult as possible for me to take a picture of it, but I finally got one. It’s on Pride of Barbados — not a true native, but a sun-loving wildlife-friendly neighbor from the south.

Well, actually I did get two photos. I believe this is another Pipevine Swallowtail, though its markings are less vibrant. It’s on Tropical Milkweed.

It was pretty neat to see so many different species of Swallowtails all in the same vicinity. Here’s an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

And a good old-fashioned Black Swallowtail on Texas Lantana.

Nearby, a Gulf Fritillary drank from a Turk’s Cap.

Off in the woods, a pollinator favorite was Shrubby Boneset, or White Mistflower. Bees and butterflies all flocked to it.

Here’s an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Female, a dark morph.

And, of course, the Mistflower-loving Queen.

But Mistflower wasn’t the only plant the pollinators loved.

Solitary wasps collected nectar and pollen, as well. This digger wasp is a wonderful predator of grasshoppers and katydids. I wish it lived at my house.

This black-and-white wasp is a Mason Wasp, Monobia quadridens.

Down at the river, we soaked our feet in the cool flowing waters.

We weren’t alone — fishing birds fished, bumblebees bumbled. And damselflies joined us at the water’s edge, often resting on our feet and toes. This American Ruby Spot stood out among the more common blue-bodied damsels.

That’s just the perfect shade of green on its body to go with the red on its wings.

A water bug army showed off surface tension physics at its finest.

We lingered awhile at the river, taking the time to rest and eat a few snacks. Then it was back on the trail.

Occasionally we had to dodge and duck under cobwebs that stretched across paths. But with them we sometimes found beautiful spiders, many of them orange Spiny-Backed Orb Weavers. But the larger garden spiders stole the show, I’m afraid. Big, beautiful, and very, very still. This lovely lady is an Argiope aurantia. She posed for many views. Interestingly, her web also held a male spider (missing one leg) and several baby Argiope spiders. It really surprised me that she would be so tolerant of other spiders on her web. Well, perhaps not so tolerant of the male, obviously…

The view of her underside looks enough like the parasitic Alien facehugger to give even me the creeps. But she’s utterly fascinating — look at the way she positions herself on her own web strands. Do you see the tension she holds on select threads? Poised and ready to nab any creature who foolishly gets too close to her web…

Argiope aurantia has another name than just Garden Spider. It’s also known as the Writing Spider, named for the zig-zags it makes in its webs, seen in this view of a different female.

Not to be outdone, other spiders at the Roughs created spectacular tunnel webs and dense webs that seemed almost like blankets.

At last we made it back to the visitor’s center, finishing our trip with a tour of the aquariums and terrariums. And after our hike, we enjoyed a late lunch at the Roadhouse in Bastrop. Great food. I had to skip dinner, I was so full.

McKinney Roughs has become one of my favorite parks in Texas. I’m so glad it’s close to Austin, as I know we’ll enjoy going back. Next time we’ll be sure to take our dogs with us. If you are in the vicinity, it’s a trip worthwhile.

Passiflora lutea, Yellow Passionflower

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Meredith

Oh, hey, it’s raining. And I know why. It’s because it’s my watering day (city schedule), and I actually took the time to water this morning. You know what happened last time I took the time to water? Yep, it rained. Yes, Murphy’s Law continues to be in full effect at Great Stems. Also, my son left the electric mower out in the backyard, with the cord still plugged in. That perhaps added to the rain potential. I know I’m repeating myself about this, but hey, whatever it takes to get some rain around here!

Regardless of my pitiful attempt to water this morning, my plants needed the extra drink from the rain and the overcast relief from the 100+ weather and full Texas sun we’ve had lately. The plants I didn’t get to water are right now grateful that nature took pity on them, since I melted in the morning heat and had to stop.

Today I want to highlight a happy little vine I’ve found growing and blooming in my yard. This is one of our native Passionvines — Passiflora lutea — also known as Yellow Passionflower.

It puts out this adorable miniature version of the larger, better known Passionvine flower, with yellow-green as its primary color. The flower is about 1/2 inch in diameter. Just as cute as a button!

The leaves of the Yellow Passionflower are gently three-lobed and easy to distinguish. They are hosts to many butterfly species — including fritillary and longwing species.

As is often my luck, or more Murphy’s Law perhaps, the Yellow Passionflower plants I actually purchased are very small, while the largest vine on the property is the one that just showed up on its own. I’ve already seen a fritillary caterpillar on one of them — yay.

The larger Passionflower below, ~~Passiflora incarnata~~ Passiflora caerulea, is certainly more showy than its cousin, but I am delighted to have both (Edit: Apparently my plant is Blue Passionflower, Passiflora caerulea, not the native incarnata/Maypop variety I once thought it was. Thanks for the correction, Scott! It sounds like Blue Passionflower is a good vine to keep, so I’m happy to do so.).

I’m trying to collect other varieties of native passionflower, but so far Passiflora lutea is the only one I can say I’m successfully growing. Of course, I have several unidentified vines in the backyard. Perhaps one of them is another passionflower!

Note: I just attempted to go out to take some pictures of the little passionflower vine in the rain. It started raining harder. Gotta love Murphy.

Full Circle

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Meredith

We are home again from our vacation, and I’m still processing the photos of our trip and trying to get back into the normal swing of things. It took me a few days to want to venture into my garden — I admit to being afraid of what I might find. But this morning, a view of birds on my ever-amazing sunflower plants drew me into the backyard. And what I found there was that I had left behind a garden and come home to a jungle. In two weeks, my garden grew two feet or more in height, and the majority of plants seem to be taller than me. I guess I should assume that just maybe perhaps it rained a wee little bit in my absence?

As an example, take a look at the Exotic Love Vine that has become my own little Cousin Itt. There’s a lovely trellis hidden deep within that overgrown vine.

I’m going to have to give up on the tomatoes. They are just a big mess, and I don’t think I’m going to have the time to salvage what’s left, despite the fact that there’s still a lot of healthy greenery there. Best to just work on cleaning everything up. I was too wary to check out the other veggies — the tomatoes were bad enough.

But the real story to share is that of the sunflowers, officially full circle. When I planted my Cinnamon Sun Sunflowers, I really had no clue what to expect. But they prospered from the get-go, those that germinated, and we had great fun watching them soar to gigantic proportions, and then the blooms just blew us away in sheer wow power. But that excitement was short-lived, because immediately Bordered Patch butterflies chose to lay hundreds of eggs on the plants, which meant that in short term hundreds of Bordered Patch caterpillars decimated my plants.

Just before I left on vacation, the caterpillars disappeared, and I could only assume that either they’d continue nature’s cycle as chrysalises or as food for other wildlife.

Now that I’ve returned, I am happy to report seeing Bordered Patch butterflies fluttering about — not tons, mind you, so it’s indeed probable that some of the caterpillars became bird munchies.

The fiery red blooms of the CinnSuns are gone, but the remaining seedheads are attracting hungry winged granivores, who perch on the stems and happily devour seeds one by one. Even my ever pesky doves with their big chubby bodies land on the sunflower stems (which go dwoooooooooop), trying hard to stay balanced while grabbing a seed or two. But the cheery go-get-em birds are the finches, completely at ease on the wobbly stems, thanks to their lighter weight.

The spent plants have another use now, too. The passionflower vine has reached out to the tall stems to gain further support for its beautiful blooms and thus additional dining areas for future Fritillary caterpillars.

And just as I started to walk back inside, I saw that there’s a new batch of caterpillars on one of the remaining sunflower leaves. I’m not sure how well these guys are going to do — their parents, aunts, uncles, and “first cousins once removed” pretty much finished off the last leaves.

The sunflower experiment has been a complete success, and they’ll be on my list of must-have plantings every year. I’m going for numbers next time!

As to the jungle, I’ve got major weeding in my future, and I guess I’ll have some pruning, too. A ton of e-mails to sort through, laundry to do, pictures to process, projects to finish up… the list goes on, but I’ll stop now, lest I overwhelm myself further!

And Then There Was One

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Meredith

So all those zillions of Bordered Patch caterpillars of mine suddenly up and disappeared. Gone, gone, gone. Just a total mystery.

I searched and searched for either caterpillar or chrysalis. After some time, I finally found this lone caterpillar on one of my pitiful remaining sunflowers, one pretty much decimated by all the other the now-absent munchers. I’m rooting for this little caterpillar to make it all the way through.

I did find some chrysalises around, but they seemed too tiny to be the Bordered Patch caterpillars. I have no idea how far these guys roam to find their perfect chrysalis spot, but I’m hoping that’s what happened. Otherwise, I’m casting a suspicious eye at the mockingbirds. But could they have eaten that many, leaving not a trace? Perhaps the heavy rain a couple of days ago had something to do with the caterpillars’ disappearance? Who knows. I will just be hopeful that they are resting in a nice safe spot, doing their magic to become butterflies.

Besides our lone ranger, there’s another “one.” A beautiful yellow sunflower blooms off its rather raggedy stem and leaves. It sure toughed it out after all those caterpillars tried to steal its greenery.

I found a Gulf Fritillary, brand new and still drying its wings, under a few Passionflower leaves. It’s the first Fritillary I’ve gotten to see emerge. Passionvines are so rewarding.

This flower looks like it’s sticking its tongue out at someone. But that’s no tongue on that Mexican sage… it’s a Southern Crimson Moth.

This next photo makes it look much darker than it really is — the moth is actually a very dainty pink. And dainty in size, too!

I guess time will solve the mystery of the Bordered Patch caterpillars for me. If they survived, I’m sure I’ll see them soon, fluttering about the garden.

Different Is the Norm

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Meredith

Two new visitors to the garden drank up nectar together, and a mad dash for the camera was the human reaction… because these visitors were SO COOL.

First a large black swallowtail, but NOT an actual Black Swallowtail — this is the black morph of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, the first I’d ever seen.

If you look closely at the forewings, you can see a shadow of the stripes that are so familiar in the yellow morph of the Eastern Tiger.

Her proboscis kept reminding me of Gonzo the Great, one of my favorite Muppets.

A close-up reveals that the blue color is a sprinkling of little dots.

Zoooooom. What was that yellow and black creature zipping by? Not a bumblebee, no no. And nope, not a hummgbird. And most definitely not a butterfly. It was a Snowberry Clearwing Moth, a hummingbird moth. So beautiful and fun to watch. Just strangely named, given that it exists here in central Texas, where snow is not the norm. Apparently it was named because it likes snowberries. Go figure.

And while it can hover and zoom like a hummingbird, it does behave a little differently and rests its front legs on a bloom while drinking nectar. Its wings never seem to stop — their clear centers make them very hard to see sometimes.

See its rolled-up proboscis in the photo below? I didn’t notice it until I looked at the photos, that’s how fast the big moth zipped about. The moth extends it out super fast to suck up the nectar, then rolls it right back up again for easy travel.

The Snowberry Clearwing’s caterpillar form is a hornworm, related to those infamous tomato plant munchers, but these caterpillars prefer honeysuckle (including, of course, snowberries), viburnum, cherry, and plum. Works for me.

And for them, apparently.