Today was that rare day in a gardener's world when ProfessorRoush awoke knowing that his mundane garden chores (mowing, weeding and watering) could be at least temporarily set aside and a more seasonal chore could be tackled. The chore du jour, moved into the limelight after tickling the back of my mind for weeks, was to bush-hog the pasture, cutting down the weedier prairie forbs to discourage them from seeding and shading out the grasses.
I was greeted immediately at the door of the barn by this gorgeous creature, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), a female, happily ensconced on the purple-leafed honeysuckle growing nearby. Obviously auditioning to be noticed, it flittered around for a second and then landed within reach, posing prettily as my iPhone got closer and closer, fearless and serene. I've seldom seen one that will hold still within my arms reach, but I appreciated its willingness to cooperate for a good photo.
Perhaps it knew what I was about to do and was implanting its own seed in me. In a butterfly-state-of-mind, I soon ended up leaving a large area of the pasture (photo, left) unmowed in hope that the many large milkweeds in this specific area would feed the Monarch migration that will soon come through. If you click on the picture, you'll see that almost all of the tall "weeds" are Common Milkweed. These milkweeds grow here, and not abundantly elsewhere in my pasture, because this is where the dirt was moved during the excavation of the barn over a decade ago. The disturbed prairie soil in that area has been the home to milkweeds ever since, silent testimony to how long it takes the prairie to heal. I did see, from the tractor seat, a single Monarch flitting around the area, so I know more will follow. I'll mow this area later in the fall, after the Monarchs are gone.
Later in the morning, during a mowing break, I was passing through a garden bed, weeding as I often do along the journey from barn to house, when a little movement of earth and an odd sandy hole caught my eye. Looking closer, I made acquaintance with none other than what I believe to be a Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus). I've never seen one before, but a little Web research informed me that these are one of God's more useful and fascinating creatures. The Great Golden Digger Wasp paralyzes the bodies of Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets) and places them in these ground nests to serve as food for its developing larvae, thus endearing it to the gardener through its slaughter of our common enemies.
Yes Dear Reader, I am aware that at times my gardening blog has a tendency to morph into a naturalist journal, but even while apologizing for such digressions, I also have to point out that this is one of the risks you take when you follow the meanderings of a curious mind. I pray, sometimes, that these little side journeys enrich your life. Join me please; preserve all the milkweed you can for the Monarchs and, now that we know what they are, help me protect all the Great Golden Digger Wasps that want to burrow in our gardens. The butterflies, digging wasps, and I, thank you!
Though an old gardener, I am but a young blogger. The humor and added alliteration are free.
Showing posts with label Butterfly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Butterfly. Show all posts
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Where Are The Butterflies!!?
ProfessorRoush tries to be a good gardener, and a gracious host of garden fauna, but once in a while he is incredibly oblivious to the obvious and dense to the details. I've been so focused on catching up with spring--weeding, trimming, spreading 80+ bags of mulch, watering and weeding again--that I've been focused on the ground and the work and missing the big picture. Well, to be accurate, I've missed the fact that the big picture is missing something.
As my 'Blizzard' Mockorange (Philadelphus lewisii 'Blizzard') began to bloom, however, it finally dawned on me that I haven't seen a single butterfly yet. Not a skipper, not a fritillary, not a hairstreak, none, on any flower yet this year. My 'Blizzard' is usually covered with them while it blooms. Let alone a Painted Lady on the 'Blizzard', like the beauty above that I photographed in 2012, I haven't seen any butterflies at all this year. My 'Blizzard' is in full bloom as captured two days ago in the photograph at the left and there is not a single butterfly on it.
What's going on? As I think back, my alliums have all bloomed and past, and yet I saw no butterflies like this Painted Lady pictured on the 'Globemaster' allium at right, again from 2012. Honeysuckle, roses, Knautia macedonia, all are blooming now without their usual halo of winged angels. It's not like I've been puffing the insecticides around this year. I use a little in the vegetable garden when I'm desperate, but I haven't broke open the carbaryl dust on the potatoes yet this year, and I don't use it in the rest of the garden ever.
Frankly, I'm more than a little worried. I knew we had a rough winter, dry and cold, because I lost a number of roses and more than a few long-established shrubs. But was it really that dry and cold? We have fallen deeper into drought this spring, with every storm passing just to our east or north, like this one I captured on radar from 2 nights ago, slipping to the east without raining here. There have been no ground-soaking rains since last September and already the temperatures are climbing to the 100's (today the temperature hit 102ºF in my garden). My front lawn is beginning to dry up and looks like the browning turf of late July or early August instead of the usual lush green of late May. Are the timing or sequences of butterfly and bloom off? My allium and mockoranges bloomed together in 2012, yet this year the alliums bloomed and faded a week before the mockorange opened the first blossom. Has any of this environmental variability affected the butterflies? Am I to witness no joyous fritting about of a fritillary this entire year?
Is anyone else missing their butterflies?
I'll let you know if, and when they arrive here. Until then, I'm at a loss to know if this is a variation of normal, or an omen of the world's end.
As my 'Blizzard' Mockorange (Philadelphus lewisii 'Blizzard') began to bloom, however, it finally dawned on me that I haven't seen a single butterfly yet. Not a skipper, not a fritillary, not a hairstreak, none, on any flower yet this year. My 'Blizzard' is usually covered with them while it blooms. Let alone a Painted Lady on the 'Blizzard', like the beauty above that I photographed in 2012, I haven't seen any butterflies at all this year. My 'Blizzard' is in full bloom as captured two days ago in the photograph at the left and there is not a single butterfly on it.
What's going on? As I think back, my alliums have all bloomed and past, and yet I saw no butterflies like this Painted Lady pictured on the 'Globemaster' allium at right, again from 2012. Honeysuckle, roses, Knautia macedonia, all are blooming now without their usual halo of winged angels. It's not like I've been puffing the insecticides around this year. I use a little in the vegetable garden when I'm desperate, but I haven't broke open the carbaryl dust on the potatoes yet this year, and I don't use it in the rest of the garden ever.
Frankly, I'm more than a little worried. I knew we had a rough winter, dry and cold, because I lost a number of roses and more than a few long-established shrubs. But was it really that dry and cold? We have fallen deeper into drought this spring, with every storm passing just to our east or north, like this one I captured on radar from 2 nights ago, slipping to the east without raining here. There have been no ground-soaking rains since last September and already the temperatures are climbing to the 100's (today the temperature hit 102ºF in my garden). My front lawn is beginning to dry up and looks like the browning turf of late July or early August instead of the usual lush green of late May. Are the timing or sequences of butterfly and bloom off? My allium and mockoranges bloomed together in 2012, yet this year the alliums bloomed and faded a week before the mockorange opened the first blossom. Has any of this environmental variability affected the butterflies? Am I to witness no joyous fritting about of a fritillary this entire year?
Is anyone else missing their butterflies?
I'll let you know if, and when they arrive here. Until then, I'm at a loss to know if this is a variation of normal, or an omen of the world's end.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Lavender Lessons
"There’s flowers for you;
Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun,
And with him rises weeping; thes are flower
Of middle summer, and I thek they are given
Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun,
And with him rises weeping; thes are flower
Of middle summer, and I thek they are given
To men of middle age."
William Shakespeare The Winter’s Tale, iv.4
There are not many of these flowers given to THIS man of middle age, but I do GROW some of them. I don't rightly know of all the places on the six habitable continents where lavender may grow well, but the Kansas sunshine and heat certainly don't hurt its survival prospects here.
I did have some trouble, back in my Zone 5B years, wintering lavender through to Spring, but those troubles seem to be gone now that I've been magically transported, garden and gardener, into Zone 6. I grow several varieties as a sort of short hedge along a rock wall in a very exposed and wind-swept area, and I've got a couple of other bunches of lavender in my outer garden beds. I am a big lavender fan, but I am probably a poor second next to the butterflies pictured here, in my admiration for it. I depend on it, after all, for luxury and indulgence, but not for my sustenance.
The majority of my soil is clay, and I was skeptical about growing lavender here since it is supposed to like well-drained, sandy or gravelly soils. What I believe I have learned from growing it here in Kansas, is that it may not require good drainage if the soil doesn't get wet enough or stay wet long enough to be a bother. Certainly the soil is solid clay next to the rock wall but it does have decent drainage and anyway, we haven't had enough rain to wet your whistle, let alone drown lavender.
I unfortunately haven't keep track of the cultivars along the wall. Ten cultivars have lived or died or been divided into a hedge that now appears to be composed of three. In flat areas of my garden, many of the lavenders I've planted have died out, but the lavender pictured in such blue splendor at the bottom of this blog grows in a clay bed with little drainage and it is the best bloomer of all of its cousins this summer. I don't know its name either, because its identity was lost when I lost my notes of new plantings last year. It may, however, be L. intermedia 'Grosso', a memory supported by the vivid color and prolific bloom. I believe that most of the other survivors in my garden are L.augustifolia cultivars as those always seemed more hardy.
So, Kansans, try some lavender. Keep it dry and treasure it well. The return in flittering beauty alone makes the effort worthwhile.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Butterfly Addendum
Buckeye butterfly |
How could I have missed the Buckeye butterfly? Bright orange and with all those blue eyes staring at me. This one was sneaking an early sample of Achillea 'Moonshine'.
Cabbage butterfly |
Sorry, everyone, I'm appropriately remorseful at providing incomplete information yesterday. Too many butterflies to count!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Butterflies are Free....
Variegated Fritillary butterfly |
Pipevine Swallowtail |
Painted Lady butterfly |
Dogface Butterfly |
Checkered White butterfly |
Virginia Lady butterfly |
Skipper? |
Red Admiral butterfly |
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