Because of this horrible heat, we gotta water extremely thoroughly. Sometimes this means getting down with the hose and holding it in the pots of trees for a few minutes per tree. This am as I was doing just that, I looked up through the canopy of limelight hydrangea trees and saw this view, one I’d never seen before. A dog’s eye view of sorts. The crystal clear sky with no polluting jet airliner contrails as a backdrop was a perfect backdrop for these beautiful trees. Coronavirus has destroyed the airline industry and their polluting contrails are no longer there. Blue skies dominate our world now- and it’s awesome! Their flowering perfectly coincides with the arrival of the monarch butterflies returning from Mexico. I noticed these insects getting to know each other on our ballerina perennials, and I looked them up on my new free insect ID app: Apparently, these insects have lots of steamy sex whilst the humans toil. Something is very wrong with this picture! I’ve seen them for decades and now thanks to my insect ID app, I now know they are just less flamboyant than monarchs but are just as interesting in their life cycle. I’ll never crush another one between my fingertips. These sex addicts in this pic are on Asclepias tuberosa. I’ve seen em for years and now I know what they are and what they do: harmless! The new organic clover lawn out front looks nicer than freshly mowed regular turf. Honey bees populate our lawn in the thousands, rejuvenating a decimated population. No chemicals... EVER! Freshly trimmed Abelia flowering today under a sugar maple tree I saved from the bull dozer in 1980 (yes, they had bull dozers in 1980). Yellow bamboo welcomes visitors under that same sugar maple tree. It’s trouble-free and colorful 24/7, not to mention deer proof, insect and disease free. What a kick-ass plant! Someone bought these “Rio hydrangeas” and compact crepe myrtles today before it got hot. Ever seen such nice plants? Compact, full, and awesome. The best sign of a great perfectionist grower is uniformity in all crops, something that our growers and we have conquered.
Hope to see you at the nursery someday! Come visit! These plants are some of the best for summer color. For decades I haven’t sold them because I understood they were only southern plants, yet our horticultural industry hybridized many to tolerate the cold weather we have here. There are LOTS of colors and foliage types. This is the reddest red of any shrub I’ve ever seen. This variety is a great looking plant. Flowers so plentiful, you can barely see the leaves. Flowers forever! Crepe myrtle plants need at least five hours full sun per day in the summer in order to get enough energy out of the sun to maintain health and flower properly. Good soil is a must, as is mulch, and fertilizer. Water during droughts for best flowering. I’ve seen six foot crepe myrtles (across the street from duchess in Monroe. It must have been there for ten or fifteen years. One might say that it doesn’t matter if they flower because the foliage alone is stunning.
I’ll put a lawn in here in the spring, and by fall it’s gone to weeds. I’ll put a new lawn in in the fall, and by the next summer, it’s gone to weeds. Four times! I give up. Nice lawns are behind me... now, I’m going to give this spot a chance at being my first wildflower splotch. Last night, I sprayed this “lawn” with roundup. When it starts to turn yellow, I’ll pulverize the soil and seed it with the wildflower seeds we sell at the store. If you are interested in how to do this, check back every now and then and you’ll find pictures and updates. I’m thinking that this is what it will look like hopefully. I plan on mowing it to the ground each mid-November after the seeds have scattered, and after the birds have picked up all the seeds and nesting materials. It’s gonna be interesting to see if it’s too weedy looking for the front of my house. We’ll have to play that one by ear.
They are all over the place this year. I thought they were some kinda moth, but... wait! I have a new insect ID app. I’ll find out in a min. Hold on. Wanna know how this butterfly makes a living?
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/bfly/silver-spotted_skipper.htm Hummingbirds delight when their beak and tongue are in this flower. The intense red color of “lobelia cardinalis” beckons them from afar with this native wetlandy plant. The long time favorite arrives every summer with its intense flower spikes covered in blossoms for you and hummingbirds both. Improved summer flowering phlox has resistance to powdery mildew. So far, I agree that it does. Gentian flowers beginning to unfurl. As they slowly open, there is a hint at what’s about to happen: Gentian is a very uncommon perennial that I rarely see available to us. These plants are the best I’ve ever had. It’s a rock gardeny kind of perennial. It’s raspberry season, and this year everyone has a tremendously huge crop. Two mouthfuls, and... Our 100% organic chemical-free lawn, not even a year old yet, is doing great. After eight months of gathering energy, the clover is just now flowering. Happy happy happy clover. Next year, we will be selling our own home collected honey with our own hives. Titillating hollyhock flower provides you with something to stare at any sweltering summer day. Good cut flower for the kitchen table. I am very interested in watching insects do their thing. I have a general idea of what they’re doing, but the speed at which they do it, and the way they go about it is unmatched by humans. Gathering pollen is a small part of their lives. The rest of their time is spent in an invisible parallel universe to ours. Building homes, raising young, killing other insects, being killed by birds and other insects. We know nothing about the food chain and how it’s all interconnected. Just watch this bumblebee vibrate it’s way around this flower. Observing mother nature’s creatures is addicting. Once you start, there’s no turning back. Last year I watched a bumblebee vibrating it’s way up and into a foxglove blossom. When I saw that, I realized that the bee was made specifically just for that flower, and the flower was specifically designed just for the bumblebee. I’ve been hooked ever since, wondering stuff that there’s usually no answer to. It’s almost a curse. It consumes time, as well as space on your phone when you snap pic after pic. In the summer when it’s hot, we meet at six am to work and leave at three when it’s unbearably hot. I get up at 4:30am, make the coffee, read the news, get dressed, let the cat in, and skedaddle off to toil. It’s not fun. I do have to admit, though, that once I’m dressed and moving about and my eyes are working again, I can see. I mean REALLY SEE why people live in the south in winter, and return in the spring. Connecticut is BEAUTIFUL. I find it most beautiful at strange times of the day and night. When it’s hot as hell, I find only misery in being outdoors. When I got to work, this view met me around 5:45am. Birds singing like Pavarotti. Heavy fog burning off minute by minute. Silhouettes of big Norway spruce trees lined up and spaced out in an orderly fashion. I headed out back to start working and couldn’t help taking this picture. So damn beautiful! A scraggly weed caught my eye. I looked more carefully at it and realized that I had driven past it hundreds of times without introducing myself. I remembered that I had just uploaded a plant ID app on my phone, and used it for the very first time this morning. Look closely, and you will see why I took the time to bother. I saw a certain beauty in this little weed. The opening blossoms were lilacky-lavender, opening to white with a yellow center. Petals of a miniature “she loves me, she loves me not” fashion. Now, THIS is what I’ve been preaching about for years! THIS is why leaving a little extra time in life for observation of surroundings is good for you. This little weed made me happy, and soon I would know it’s name. Glossy leafed aster is a plant that is native to the east coast, lives in wetlands, grows from two to seven feet. Some of you must be thinking that I need a straight jacket, yet I can assure you that I don’t need one (just like the narrator in Poe’s “Telltale Heart”). Since I know most cultivated horticultural plants by sight, common and scientific names, appreciating non-cultivated plants is entirely natural, and I see beauty and value in stuff most other people see right through. I bring this up for some of you who hike, walk, bike... keep your eyes open, and get insect/bird song/plant ID apps on your phones. What you find might bring more meaning to your life. That’s what happened to me this morning. Now, I want to bring these plants home and plant them somewhere when I install my wildflower area (replacing a section of lawn). Glossy leafed aster, glad I met you! My toil proceeded into the daylight hours and the insects awoke. Asclepias Incarnata (yet again worming it’s fragrant beautiful flowers onto my blog) providing breakfast for this wasp of some kind. Ever since I started seeing value in insects, I’ll see one like this and wonder who it is. I don’t have an insect ID app yet, but when I do, I’ll be able to know the name of critters like this one. Most people see a stinging “bug.” I see a complex, sophisticated organism who eats something, and in turn gets eaten by something else. It visits the nursery for breakfast then goes away to raise its young. If mankind wished to create an organism like this one, we couldn’t. It’s part of the web of life, as we are. Link to article: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/wasps/scoliid_wasps.htm In the whole scheme of things, who cares what that insect is? Well, I guess I do. I just find myself wondering more and more about my surroundings lately, and I find my outdoor life more interesting when I’m more knowledgeable about stuff. Maybe you will too. Ok, I went to work this am and took a few more pics: This waspy insect on our Veronica caught my eye. I put it through the app and this is what it is!
There is/was no obvious hole through the bark, so this insect’s pathogens would never know that he/she/they are inside. The leaves of some unknown plant had been chewed into pieces about 1.5 cm by 1.5cm, and were swirled together like a cigar- leaf pieces intertwined to protect whatever is inside. Don’t worry!!! I put the wood Back together and placed it carefully in a safe spot so it can pupate and go on to finish it’s life cycle. When I find out what it is, I’ll place the name and info back up here. Couple-a-days hopefully. This experience is just one more reason to look at Mother Nature much more carefully. More respect is deserved for her intellect, creativity, ingenuity, and splendor. Post script with potential answer to this insect’s identity- it might be a “leaf cutter bee.” The mother drills a hole in wood, lines the hole with leaves, nectar and pollen (enough for all nutritional needs of the one or more offspring inside). I’m still searching for more info. Link to interesting website about these interesting insects that I never knew existed until yesterday: http://connect.natureserve.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/web_-_leafcutter_bee_report_brochure.pdf I also found a butterfly larvae on a wild dill plant yesterday. I have seen it before- I know it’s not a monarch, but not quite sure which butterfly it is. Whatever it is, I LOVE THIS CREATURE (I found out what it is). This is a wonderful black swallowtail butterfly larvae. It’s a creature of mother nature’s making, a product of millions of years of evolution. A creature to understand, appreciate, and love.
|