I am relieved I am getting my Wildflower Wednesday post up before the day is over. Gail, from Clay and Limestone hosts it the 4th Wednesday of the month. Go check out other posts! I hope to make it to all of them. I still am spending too much time on Facebook, and not keeping up with blogging.
There sure is a lot of yellow in our yard right now. The pollinators sure aren't complaining! The meadow rue and cup plant are the tallest in the yard. You probably wouldn't find them growing together in nature, though, because the meadow rue likes it more moist than the cup plant. They do fine in the yard, where I sometimes do some spot watering. This area does not have a sprinkler head in it, so gets less than the rest of the yard in seasons with less rain than we had this year. We've only run the sprinkler a handful of times, during a hotter, dryer spell.
The cup plant blooms have been visited by lots of bees and a few butterflies. It's hard for me to get photos in good focus that far up. This one was OK enough to post. I always like it when more than one butterfly can be in a photo.
The coneflower seeds are being eaten by goldfinches. The sweet black-eyed susans and native Helen's flower have been having lots of insect activity.
I am glad I found two small Helenium autumnale plants a couple years ago. They are now one large clump.
I believe Heather Holm has told me before that the bee on the left is a long-horned bee, and I forgot. I asked for help again, and think I am going to remember this time. I am so tickled that there are a whole bunch of them enjoying the blooms this year, mostly the Helen's flower and sweet black-eyed susans. Here's a link to an article I found online that she wrote: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/52345294/list/look-for-long-horned-bees-on-summer-flowers
From what Heather said in her book, Pollinators of Native Plants, I can tell that this one is a male, because it has the long antennae. The females do not.
The females have the long pollen collecting hairs that look like saddle bags full of pollen. I have not seen many males, but have seen a lot of females. They have solitary nests in the ground. There is a lot of open ground across the street where my gardening attempts do not go well due to the walnut tree and rabbits.
We have two sizes of bumblebees that frequent the blooms. This looks to be the larger size.
I am not sure what this little flying thing is, but it is less than 1/4 an inch long. There are a lot of tiny flyers on the blooms this year, too.
It's good that there are some blooms that are not yellow. The Liatris ligulistylus has been a favorite of the monarchs. Other butterflies and bees also frequent it. They feed on the other liatrises, such as aspera, and now that those are opening, they may be found on them just as often.
Here's a painted lady on the same liatris.
Here's another long-horned bee on some ironweed. I have a couple kinds scattered around the yard. It's a nice relief from all of the yellow.
Here's the view going into the area where the tree used to be. We see sweet black-eyed susan, ironweed, a switchgrass cultivar, wild quinine, and Illinois bundleflower. Wild quinine has those white blooms early in the season, and has probably the longest bloom time of any in my garden. The insects, including monarchs, are still visiting them.
This is the plant I lost count at 12 of the long-horned bees on yesterday, and then saw at least that many more, but they got mixed up with the ones I'd already counted.
The goldenrod beetles are here. I guess I am resigning myself to the fact that the days are getting shorter, and fall is on its way.
This photo was taken a few days ago, showing that the monarchs are also enjoying these blooms. By the way, this plant is native to areas near my SE Nebraksa home, but not here. It sure does well, though.
I see I should have straightened this photo before posting it. Don't get dizzy! Our yard was featured last week on a Pure Nebraska segment. Here's a link to it: http://www.1011now.com/purenebraska/headlines/Keeping-Yourself-and-the-Environment-Healthy-with-Home-Landscapes-322323981.html
I am hoping this posts OK. I got a message from Google saying my blog storage was full, and I need to buy more or some of my photos will get deleted. It stated I was on a free plan, but I am not. We pay $2.00 a month. Have any of you had problems like that? My husband emailed them, but we have not heard back. He checked, and the money is still being paid.
There sure is a lot of yellow in our yard right now. The pollinators sure aren't complaining! The meadow rue and cup plant are the tallest in the yard. You probably wouldn't find them growing together in nature, though, because the meadow rue likes it more moist than the cup plant. They do fine in the yard, where I sometimes do some spot watering. This area does not have a sprinkler head in it, so gets less than the rest of the yard in seasons with less rain than we had this year. We've only run the sprinkler a handful of times, during a hotter, dryer spell.
The cup plant blooms have been visited by lots of bees and a few butterflies. It's hard for me to get photos in good focus that far up. This one was OK enough to post. I always like it when more than one butterfly can be in a photo.
The coneflower seeds are being eaten by goldfinches. The sweet black-eyed susans and native Helen's flower have been having lots of insect activity.
I am glad I found two small Helenium autumnale plants a couple years ago. They are now one large clump.
I believe Heather Holm has told me before that the bee on the left is a long-horned bee, and I forgot. I asked for help again, and think I am going to remember this time. I am so tickled that there are a whole bunch of them enjoying the blooms this year, mostly the Helen's flower and sweet black-eyed susans. Here's a link to an article I found online that she wrote: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/52345294/list/look-for-long-horned-bees-on-summer-flowers
From what Heather said in her book, Pollinators of Native Plants, I can tell that this one is a male, because it has the long antennae. The females do not.
The females have the long pollen collecting hairs that look like saddle bags full of pollen. I have not seen many males, but have seen a lot of females. They have solitary nests in the ground. There is a lot of open ground across the street where my gardening attempts do not go well due to the walnut tree and rabbits.
We have two sizes of bumblebees that frequent the blooms. This looks to be the larger size.
I am not sure what this little flying thing is, but it is less than 1/4 an inch long. There are a lot of tiny flyers on the blooms this year, too.
It's good that there are some blooms that are not yellow. The Liatris ligulistylus has been a favorite of the monarchs. Other butterflies and bees also frequent it. They feed on the other liatrises, such as aspera, and now that those are opening, they may be found on them just as often.
Here's a painted lady on the same liatris.
Here's another long-horned bee on some ironweed. I have a couple kinds scattered around the yard. It's a nice relief from all of the yellow.
Here's the view going into the area where the tree used to be. We see sweet black-eyed susan, ironweed, a switchgrass cultivar, wild quinine, and Illinois bundleflower. Wild quinine has those white blooms early in the season, and has probably the longest bloom time of any in my garden. The insects, including monarchs, are still visiting them.
This is the plant I lost count at 12 of the long-horned bees on yesterday, and then saw at least that many more, but they got mixed up with the ones I'd already counted.
The goldenrod beetles are here. I guess I am resigning myself to the fact that the days are getting shorter, and fall is on its way.
This photo was taken a few days ago, showing that the monarchs are also enjoying these blooms. By the way, this plant is native to areas near my SE Nebraksa home, but not here. It sure does well, though.
I see I should have straightened this photo before posting it. Don't get dizzy! Our yard was featured last week on a Pure Nebraska segment. Here's a link to it: http://www.1011now.com/purenebraska/headlines/Keeping-Yourself-and-the-Environment-Healthy-with-Home-Landscapes-322323981.html
I am hoping this posts OK. I got a message from Google saying my blog storage was full, and I need to buy more or some of my photos will get deleted. It stated I was on a free plan, but I am not. We pay $2.00 a month. Have any of you had problems like that? My husband emailed them, but we have not heard back. He checked, and the money is still being paid.
Really great photos of your garden, I'm in Australia and have a lot of your natives in my garden I had trouble finding Aussie natives to share...lol
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful photos of your lovely, happy garden. Love that last picture.
ReplyDeleteFlowerLady
Beautiful blog and lovely informative photos. We are gradually enlarging our native garden in west central Indiana.
ReplyDeleteI love all the yellow, but purple is nice, too!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
Lea
Fantastic garden! I would love to walk by your house! We are trying to convert much of our garden spaces into native plots.This year has been a good one--lots of rain. Do you do a lot of maintenance, weed pulling, transplanting. We spend so much time policing the garden for unwanted weeds and invasives, I'd like to think the work will get less as the natives grow more thickly.
ReplyDeleteI usually reply to people on their blog posts, but thought I'd post here for anyone who follows the comments. I leave almost everything up all winter. When spring comes, I take my time, and work on cleaning up each area as the time and weather permit. Once things are cleaned up, I probably average about 15 minutes a day weeding and cutting back plants I want to get bushier. I don't necessarily make it out every day, so some days it is more than that, but if I did make it out every day, that's about how much time it would probably take me. I love it, though, and do not consider it work, but spending time in the garden.
DeleteI just realized Julie in Ohio does not have a link to go to, so Julie, I hope you got the reply.
DeleteSue, what's your monarch population like? Mine is down about 90%. Not sure if our very cold spring might have been part of the problem. Yes, I did have a storage problem several years ago and they asked me for money. Even though I was well within my limit as far as I could tell & several other computer friends as well, they weren't allowing me to post pictures - and like your blog, mine is very photo-intensive. No answers to my queries. My husband convinced me to pony up the $2.50 (canadian $) - and explained that it was less than a cup of coffee a month - and it gave me pleasure, so just go for it. Good luck with the process, hope you can get it sorted quickly. And, most importantly - great reading and pictures in your blog. Was thinking I might start to i.d. my bees and then looked at the work on my desk and thought - perhaps not until the snow flies and I've got a little less on my plate. Although, I'm going out to see if I can find some of my own Long-Horned Bees!
ReplyDeleteI decided to answer this one here, too, so others can know that I have been seeing from 4 to 14 monarchs at a time the last couple of weeks. I don't remember how many I have seen other years, because my memory is not good. I'll have to check last year's blog posts to see if I said how many I had been seeing.
DeleteThe reason I know what the long-horned bee is, is because Heather Holm let me know on Facebook. I still would like to be able to tell what the different sized bumble bees are that I see.
We were already paying $2.00 a month, while the email said I was on a free plan. I need to check the new gmail Larry set up to see if they've replied to his email.
I get around the blog storage problem (mine is the free version) by posting photos that are small enough not to count against the storage lmit. 600 pixels on the long side works for me.
ReplyDeleteYour cup plants are gorgeous! I really need to find a place to try to grow some here. I'm impressed you know what type of bee you have and whether it's male or female, Sue. I know I have different types of bumblebees here, but I've never figured out what they are. All your photos with insects and butterflies are wonderful--what a haven for wildlife you have created! And I musn't forget the Sneezeweed--I hope mine mulitplies like yours.
ReplyDeleteWith all your natives, I imagine you have a whole yard full of bees, birds, and butterflies. Thanks for sharing them with us, because I dearly love when they show up here too.
ReplyDeleteSue, your yard and plants always look so wonderfully wild and yet beautiful. I too am amazed that you can not only identify all the plants in your yard but the insects that live there as well. Most city people would have to spend time and money to go to a nature reserve and hear an expert tell them all about the plants and insects but you just have to walk out your door and explore all the native plants and insects for yourself. The short video and article was very nice. I suspect the plants all loved the extra rain we got this year. I'm quite happy to see all the green we still have this late in the year. Most years by the end of August every thing is starting to turn brown but not so much this year. My rain water storage tanks were overflowing all year long. The cool weather was nice but now I see we will be back into the 90s this next week. It's been hard to predict just what the weather is going to do this year.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day enjoying all the native plants and insects.
Such a lovely garden you have!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll come link up at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2015/08/strange-visitors-in-garden.html
lovely:-)
ReplyDeleteYou have an astonishing garden - so lush and lovely.
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll come link up at http://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2015/08/strange-visitors-in-garden.html
Thank you for the comments. I finally got all of the blogs visited that you have, but some of you did not appear to have any. I am glad you stopped by and enjoyed seeing our yard. I sure have fun with it, and enjoy seeing the insect activity.
ReplyDelete