Beauties and One Beastie!

It seems no matter my intentions, I am only able to post once a week these days. While that may be more than enough for you who read my blog,(!) I am missing the more frequent interaction with my garden blogger friends. Someone has said that during the long dark days of winter we will all have more time and I suppose that will be true. But there sure won't be as much going on in the gardens.



I don't have many bloomers now, just a few struggling to hold on against the shorter days and cooler weather. What is there finally got a good rain last Sunday. We had just shy of 5". The basement got a little damp and we had some big puddles in the yard for a while, but the ground soon soaked it all up. The grass is now green again and the dirt and debris is all washed off the patio. Our mini-drought seems to have broken. But, my goodness, didn't Ike do a lot of damage and bring an enormous amount of rain to a lot of places! My prayers are with those who were really affected.



The lack of blooming flowers at Dragonfly Corner has more than been offset by the critter world. I found this chrysalis on a most fitting spot-the butterfly bush. It looks like a piece of dried moss. Wish I knew which butterfly it will be.

The praying mantis that lives in the container by our back door was doing a little exploring the other day. when I went to take his picture, he turned his head and looked right at me. The garden has been full of these this year. I tried to take a picture of one eating a painted lady butterfly, but it turned out sooo bad-even for me. The mantis moves so slowly-he seems to be the sloth of the insect world-makes me wonder how they ever catch anything.

This is the first of these kind of butterflies that I have seen this year. A tiny blue-gray with just a dot of orange behind it's body. They are so delicate looking. The yarrow is doing well. It was a pass-along from Rose this spring.

I think this is a skipper moth of some type. The zinnias are still attracting lots of bees and butterflies.

A lone late cone flower being enjoyed by a painted lady. I have noticed a lot of the cone flower seed heads are looking like they have been picked clean of seeds. I hope the birds are enjoying them. Soon, though, I am going to have to get out there and start clearing some of the mess out of the gardens.

This is the container by the back door-the residence of the praying mantis. I had pansies in this til in July some time so it got a late start. But I have been very happy with the plants in it. Most were bought on clearance and picked with little thought other than SALE! The tiny leafed vine is a perennial whose name I can't remember now, but has survived for 3 years in there with no special care. The white is scaevola, 'whirlwind'. I have fallen for this plant! No dead heading, no wilting when dry, grows quickly and just looks so fresh all the time. I am going to find more places for this next year. There is also a angelonia angustifolia, 'dresden blue' in there and again I'm very happy with it. No dead heading and it hasn't gotten 'leggy'. The dark leafed plant is alteranthera, 'purple knight'. Another one I am going to use more of next year. There is also a caladium bulb in there which is on the back side. It's a pink and green leafed one and doesn't really 'go' but the bulb was so long in coming up, that I had forgotten I planted it with the pansies. As for my other containers, most of them are looking pretty sad. Lack of rain and the end of the season has taken hold of them. Another project I need to do-clear most of them out.

And finally, I will leave you with a couple more morning glory pictures. It is still blooming and still growing! There are dozens of buds yet and each morning it puts on such a show. All my neighbors have been over to admire it. So yes, finally, I have learned to love it for it's self.

I hope you are enjoying your gardens!

Fall Is In The Air!

This will be a note sort of post-not a lot new here at Dragonfly Corner. But I am getting tired of looking at my last post, so I am sure you are! I have worked some extra days this week, had a couple of doctor appointments, (more on that another time) and have been trying to get a little fall cleaning done. In other words, time has been in short supply for enjoying the garden, taking pictures or writing posts. I did want to share a few things with you and writing gives me a good excuse to sit for a while. I did manage to finally put a picture in my header. Wendy suggested I use the moonflower-aka 'heavenly blue' morning glory. It is still blooming and I see no end to the buds.

Fall is here. Or at least these butterscotch mums think so. The temperature dropped to 48 degrees last night so it is on it's way. This is one of my favorite colors for this time of year. Makes you think of football and pumpkins doesn't it?

There are very few cone flowers left. This one is still attracting moths and butterflies. I'm not sure, and this is not a great picture, but I think this is called a wolf moth. Most have gone to seed like the one on the right. I had thought about cutting the heads off to save the seed and cleaning up some of the stalks, but one of the bloggers(can't remember who-sorry) has suggested leaving them for the finches and other birds to enjoy. Sounds like a great idea to me!

The 'teddy bear' sunflowers, courtesy of Cheryl, are still blooming. These have been a delightful flower. They have bloomed all summer long, the blooms last for weeks at a time and the butterflies and bees have loved them. I am going to save some of these seeds for myself.

Speaking of butterflies-the zinnias are still blooming and attracting more than their share of butterflies. The 'painted ladies' have been thicker in the gardens this year than I can ever remember. It could be because of the zinnias. I have really enjoyed them this year and plan on planting more next year. Maybe I will even use some for cut flowers. This year, I couldn't bring myself to cut any of them.

I was a little disappointed at this picture. The caladium leaves are a much deeper red than shows. I have the container sitting in front of the morning glory and the contrast is striking. In the past, I have neglected to dig my bulbs up for the winter thinking it was just as easy to buy new the next spring. This year, I plan on at least trying to save them. (and still buying more next year!)

You may have seen a spider like this on Gail's blog a while back. It's a Argiope aurantia-female. In the comments, several different names were mentioned. It seems this species covers a wide area and there were lots of local names for it. My grandmother always called it and 'educated' spider I think because of the z's it makes in the middle of it's web. What ever you call it, I call it yucky! There are several of them around the house and in the gardens. Now, having been converted by some of you bloggers, I let them stay and do their thing as long as they do it outside. Now if they try to come into the house....

*************************************************************************************

Fall will be a busy time for all. The gardener has much to do to get the garden ready for it's long winters nap. Have I started yet-no. Have you?

Enjoy your gardens!

A Late August Garden

Today, I thought I would post a little of this and some of that. There are no new flowers as of yet. The summer ones are fading and the fall ones have not quite appeared. My beds are very dry and needing a good rain badly. I have been watering my containers, but am hesitating to water anywhere else. Were I to water, some might come back for a few days, although I know most of them are on the up comimg fall decline. So I am in a quandary as to what to do.

While outside the other evening watering the containers, I saw this giant of a fly siting on the wet patio stone near my outside faucet. I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but he's at least an inch long. Is this what they call a deer fly? Should go to What's That Bug and find out.

A new butterfly this week. A lovely brown velvet looking one with blue and white spots at the bottom of his wings. Not quite a swallow tail, but more tail than a lot of butterflies. Another one to look up. What book do you recommend for identifying butterflies and moths?

The garden is full of Painted Ladys. and the white cabbage butterfly.

But this one is yellow with a pale brown edging. Again, I don't know it's name, but am enjoying watching their type. They seem to like the yellow flowers best. Maybe, they are harder for predators to see on yellow.

I said I had no new flowers yet, and that is true. But just look at what finally has buds! My moon flower is loaded with them.

I took these pictures at night because the ones I took during the day just didn't show the buds very well. The whole top of this plant is covered with buds. A pay back maybe for having to wait so long for blooms?

Betty Prior is still putting out a few blooms. I'm not sure which type of rose I like best. The hybrids can be spectacular but have little scent. The old fashioned singles are lovely and not very showy, but make up for that with a wonderful smell. This one has a slightly spicy fragrance.

Believe it or not, I still have a day lily blooming. This is one of the purple d'oro's. The color has faded some from when she first began to bloom, but I think her still very attractive. And she seems to be blooming just as long as her yellow counterpart. I wonder if there are other colors in the d'oro line?

I have showed the pink cosmos and now I have a deep pink almost purple one blooming. These were some I started indoors way back and I have been very happy with the results. They were easy to start, transplanted well and have provided another flower for the bees and butterflies to enjoy. I am planning on starting more next year.

This mystery plant has been identified. After much googling(a verb now?) I found a site that says it is grain sorghum. How it got into my flower bed is any one's guess, but I'll bet it had to do with birds and what they are best at-pooping!

While life has calmed down some since the departure of the grand girls, it is still keeping me very busy. I thought as you aged things slowed down! Our son-in-law graduated from a MABAS on Friday evening. It is an extensive 6 mo. course requiring attendance 2 night a week for advanced firefighting techniques. He is a volunteer fire fighter in the small town they live in, and when the opportunity to do this presented itself, he committed himself whole heartedly. JOB WELL DONE, J.! We are very proud of him.

We attended a wedding on Saturday at a small town over by Springfield, IL. It was held in a small but lovely Catholic Church. Someone or some group have taken very good care of this 100year old church and the landscaping was beautiful. Huge maple leaf hydrangeas formed the backdrop for lovely old fashioned shrub roses. Double rose of sharon bushes lined the front sidewalk and were alternating colors of pinks and whites. I know- I should have taken pictures!

Last week and this week, I am working an extra day. While that may not sound like much to many of you 5day a week workers, I am still adjusting to working after 10 years of not. And to top it all off, hubby brought home a big box of Michigan peaches last Friday. We have eaten several fresh and now I need to find time to freeze them. Won't they taste wonderful in cobblers this winter?! Ah well, when winter comes there will be time to rest.

Have a great gardening week!


***I apologize for the spacing, blooger is doing it's own thing again today.

Butterflies, Bees, and Beetles!

*** Updated July 25, 2008
I found the name of the butterfly. It is a Red Spotted Purple-limenitis arthemis and can be found here!

Posting twice in one week...yeah! Life is getting better. I am still busy with a lot on my plate, but I think for now things are somewhat under control. I have finally gotten the big 'move' organized, accepted the fact that my Dad will have to stay with us for a couple of weeks while his new apartment is finished, decided not to stress too much about the lack of help from my the siblings, it has rained so I haven't had to water, the weather has moderated, I didn't have to work this evening, I've gotten my house in a semi-state of clean, and I spent some quality time in my garden today. Yes, life is improving.

I couldn't resist showing my favorite day lily again, so bear with me please. I smile every time I see her blooms.

This picture shows the color much truer than the one I showed last post.

As the title suggested, I did manage to photo some butterflies . This one was so patient with me as I tried to get just the right shot.

I am sure someone out there knows his name....

A Painted Lady on a sunflower. She, however, wouldn't open her wings for me and preferred I take a side view.

Bees on my cone flowers...I am so happy!

Japanese Beetles on my sunflower...I am so not happy! I noticed something had been eating the immature seeds and had hoped it was birds, but I think it was this guy. Is there anything they won't destroy?!

Do you remember the last time Rose and I went plant shopping? I vowed not to buy any more annuals. My intentions were good-but the 'gotta have it' syndrome kicked in today. Those zinnias were on sale and looked so pretty. Did I mention they were on sale?

The smaller pots are Angelina Sedum, a perennial. I did get one back in the spring and then saw it planted as a border at the Idea Garden. I am going to try to do that with these along the roadside burm alternating with Artemisia Silver Mound. Can you believe these were on sale for $1.00?! I stopped by Rose's to show her and she is going plant shopping tomorrow...after all a sale is a good thing!

This is one of the planters now that it has filled in some. The wave petunias in the top just haven't done as well as I had hoped, but all in all it looks pretty good. Next year I think I will put something taller in the top to emphasize it more. And maybe still have something that trails down onto the lower part. Summer is only half over and I am already planning for next year!

This is also a whiskey 1/2 barrel. And it didn't turn out the way I pictured. The waves just haven't done well this year, but even if they had, this sweet potato vine would have taken them over. I added this long after I planted the waves and just look at how it has grown!

Lisa showed a field of wildflowers a while back that was beautiful. I found this patch just on the outskirts of town. The state highway department is trying to do more 'prairie' restoration along their right of ways-less mowing.

There are 'blackeyed susans' (Gail did a great post on these) and I know that white flower must be a daisy relative, but we know it as a weed.

Cone flowers, of course! I wish I knew what the name of these are. They are just a little different than the ones I have-thinner petals and a darker color.

And these. Does anyone know what they are? All these planted together with a sprinkling of vetch made an impressive display.

I hope your gardens are doing well and that you are taking time to enjoy them. Have a wonderful weekend!

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly. "One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."- Hans Christian Andersen