September's Wildflower Wednesday

This spring and summer sure did fly by!  There were a number of things, like record rainfalls and things coming up that kept me from being out in the yard as much as I like or need to be.  It seems like the only blog posts I am doing are for Gail's Wildflower Wednesday.

My photos did not appear in the order I took them, the order I wanted them to be in, so I'll just have to make do, because I do not have time to put them in the right order.

I like to include insects that are making use of the blooms in my photos.  This is Riddell's goldenrod.  Right now, all of the goldenrods are having lots of activity on them.  It was cloudy today, so I didn't get as many as usual.  Can you see the preying mantis?

I am not sure what kind of aster or ex-aster this is.  The blooms are smaller than the others.

I am not sure what kind of goldenrod this is, but it sure is loaded with little insects.  The lighter colored plant, short-toothed mountain mint is still getting some activity.

Here's another Riddell's goldenrod plant loaded with insects.

I am pleased to have pitcher sage in different spots in the yard.  It sure is a nice color to break up all of the yellow this time of year.

This photo was supposed to be first.  Not all of the beauty is in the blooms this time of year.  I love the seed heads on Illinois bundleflower.  The foliage is also continuing to look pretty good.

There are loads of seed pods on the wild senna plants.

I like the clematis pitcherii seed pods, too.

The New England asters are very cheerful.

The brown-eyed susans get visitors, too.  They are so cheerful with their large amounts of small, about 1 inch blooms.

Blue mist flowers is one that spreads, but I got brave and planted a couple clumps the spring of 2014.  They are spreading, but not too aggressively so far.  Almost every time I go out, I see skippers on these blooms.

 I hope all is well with you and you are getting lots of visitors on your wildflowers!  I love Gail's post, where I see she posted some of the same flowers.  If you haven't been there yet, head on over to Clay and Limestone to see her Wildflower Wednesday post.

August 2015 Wildflower Wednesday

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.

Wildflower Wednesday

We had record rainfall in the spring, and then very hot temperatures with high heat indexes, which made getting out into the garden more of a challenge this season.  The time sure has slipped by, too, and now that the days are getting shorter, I am feeling sad, and trying to get out as much as I can.  Barring that, I open the front door and look to see if there are any insect visitors on the flowers. 

Here is my post for Wildflower Wednesday, hosted by Gail, of Clay and Limestone.  I like the way she highlights flowers, giving information about them  I can't seem to find just one or two for a post, so I usually end up showing many of the native/wildflowers that are blooming.

The Illinois bundleflowers have just started blooming in the last couple of days.  I love the plants for the foliage and cool looking seedheads, which turn brown in the fall.

I think this is a bee of some kind that has found one of the blooms.

I love the native clematis pitcheri, and am thankful I have them in two spots.

The wild senna plants have been loaded with pollinators the last few days.

I trimmed back some plants, like this monarda fistula, so they would be bushier and less floppy.  This also caused a delay in blooming.  It's good to see they are now blooming.

This is Euphorbia, I think, corollata.  It is hard to photograph, but is one I wish I had more of this time of year.  I love the many little white blooms on them.

The hoary vervain given to me by a friend who has real prarie is almost finished blooming, but still looking good.

I got the prairie petunias started before I knew what they were.  There were some on the property where we built our church, and I liked them, so brought some home.  They self sow well, and I like the places they show up.

Usually, there are lots of insects feeding on plants, such as this short toothed mountain mint  There have been a few this year, but not as many as usual.

Black eyed susans and this ironweed have been blooming for a few days.  Some of the ironweeds are still in bud.

The gray headed coneflowers are not getting as many visitors as usual, but  I am glad there are some.

I've mentioned that I watch our granddaughter 4 days a week.  She turned a year the end of June.  I am thankful she loves looking at the flowers and insects.  She'll point, and say, "Pretty!"  We spent a few minutes yesterday looking at the multitudes of tiny black insects of some kind on the rattlesnake master blooms.  At least they are getting some activity, but then, not as much as usual, either.

Most of the liatris blooms are open, but the aspera and some others are still in bud.  I was glad to see a skipper today.

I was pleased to see what I think is a black swallowtail butterfly going to each clump of golden alexanders, hopefully, depositing eggs.  It was hard to get a photo, but I did manage to get a good shot of its shadow near the mountain mint that may have self sown, and be a cross between different ones here.

Gene, from a Facebook group, Gardening with Nature in Mind, told me these are gray-headed coneflowers when I posted them, thinking they were something different.  When I tried to remember what I thought they may be, I looked around on the internet, and finally figured it out, that yellow coneflowers, Ratibida pinnata are the same thing as gray headed coneflowers.  Here I already had enough to divide, but bought more, thinking they were something different.  I guess learning the scientific names is a good idea. These are in the bed across from where the others are.  I have also been adding other plants from across the sidewalk so that they look like a large planting area separated by the front sidewalk, so these will be fine here.

Since I mentioned Ruby, I thought I'd share a photo of her enjoying some dirt.

Some of the people in our Gardening with Nature in Mind are having some difficulty with one or a few neighbors due to their choice of gardening with prairie plants.  I hope people will become more in tune with nature one of these days and be thankful for neighbors who garden with native plants.  I hope none of you are experiencing problems like that.