A bloom and garden visitors

last year

last modified: last year

This daylily was a survivor of the deer purge. I had two short scapes coming up and both are blooming now.

Rouen Cathedral

I've started cleaning out the garden beds of overgrown blanket flowers, dead scapes and thinking who is gong where in the new space. While cutting back phlox that have spent most of their blooms and found this.

Praying Mantis

Lots of Zebra Swallowtails this season. Not many of the yellow or black ones that I've seen. Hard to get a photo of the butterflies as they like to flutter quickly from one plant to another.

Glad we are having a few days of being able to sit on the front porch and enjoy a breeze after working in the garden. Cool mornings in the low 60's. We have been dry with only a very short rain shower two days ago. Next week back to 90's sadly - but we are expected to get rain midweek. I have a huge pile of mulch waiting to be used once I start moving plants around. I have 9 daylilies coming in September (Three from Hanson, five from Reimer and 1 (so far) from Laprise.). That is it for me.

Julia

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Comments (9)

Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)
last year
The week before we had a brief 3 day cool down with 3 inches of rain. I sooo wanted to just sit on the back porch like you all and just enjoy it. Instead I about killed myself catching up on things. Now it's just water, water, water again......Big fan of Praying Mantis. Always thrilled when I see some...........I always like seeing your butterflies too. We just had a black swallowtail pass through and leave a brood behind. Trouble is they hatched on some half dead parsley (one of their favorite caterpillar foods). Some of the first eggs did manage to "grow up" and we found one on our back door trying to come into our house under the door. We had to relocate him to greener pastures..........Here's a picture I took a couple of days ago of the black swallowtail caterpillar on the almost gone parsley plant. There were 5 more left at various stages of development..........Maryl
Brad KY 6b
last year
Over the past 2 weeks or more we've had an amazing amount of all kinds of butterflies, far more that I ever recall. Most of them are small, but some nice large ones too. No Black Swallowtails as far as I've seen. Add all these butterflies to all the many dozens of damselflies that have been here for 2 months and it is really interesting being in the back yard surrounded by all of them!

I'm glad your Rouen Cathedral got to bloom!

Brad
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shive
last year
Glad to see Rouen Cathedral escaped the deer feast! It's blooming really late for you. I love the photo of the zebra swallowtail. I don't have many butterflies here as I have almost nothing blooming right now. I do have several different types of dragonflies. I really enjoyed those cooler days last week. I did quite a bit of weeding then, but I still have a lot to do.

Maryl - How nice to have those swallowtail caterpillars! Do you have a pretty large patch of parsley?

Debra
Maryl (Okla. Zone 7a)
last year
Debra: The parsley is in a 24 inch container that used to house a rose. I had parsley in ground for years in full sun. It did not do well until I finally had a eureka moment and put it in this vacant container which receives about 1/2 day sun. I failed to buy new plants this spring, and since Parsley is a Biennial, they are left with just the flowers and a few overwintered leaves from last year. Not the usual abundance. And RATS! I just saw a zebra swallowtail zooming around the garden today..........Maryl
Julia WV (7a)
Original Author
last year
I grow parsley in my veggie garden along with other herbs which gets full sun. I never check it to see if any caterpillars were munching on it.

I don't think I've seen damselflies. Interesting how it looks like dragonflies.

Julia
sherrygirl zone5 N il
last year
Nice to see butterflies at your home. Not an abundance of them here. I do believe I have a hummingbird nesting in a huge evergreen. so difficult to get a photo of them

Sherry
mantis__oh
last year
Have seen a few butterflies, but not like what I used to see. The cooler days are over.
daylilybedmaker
last year
Julia,

I was fishing across from Harper's Ferry last weekend and saw numerous of those Zebra Swallowtails. Thanks for identifying them for me. I knew they were a swallowtail, just not sure what type.

David
organic_kitten
last year
Beautiful bloom, but the entire garden is lovely. I haven't had a monarch caterpillar in a couple of years, nor the black swallowtails although they used to be common. I need to replant a couple of things to have them., but yours looks really good, Julia.

kay