I went out this morning to take a single photo - and ended up taking about 150! Good lighting, some interesting bees, and nice blooms. Here is just a smattering of the photos I garnered....
I've been thinking that I want to try to gussy up my photographic technique a bit - maybe try some different angles, "tell a story" about the garden, capture in pictures how I feel as I work around the yard. I was quite pleased with how this shot of my front garden came out, which I took from a different vantage point than usual....
The bright orange butterfly milkweed (
Asclepias tuberosa) in the foreground has come into full and glorious bloom, there are a few, sunny yellow, lanceleaf coreopsis blossoms (
Coreopsis lanceolata) hanging on, the deep reddish-orange blanket flower is putting on a spectacular show (
Gaillardia sp.) and the tall, yellow coneflower (
Echinacea paradoxa) is in great beauty this year.
Speaking of the yellow coneflower, its blooms were obviously chock full of pollen and nectar, judging from the number of little native bees that were busily packing their pollen baskets.
Leaving the Echinacea after a plethora of native bee photos, I glanced at this clump of coreopsis and noticed a small white insect of some sort. I couldn't really tell what it was, but I took its photo and figured that I'd be able to tell a little better when I enlarged it on the computer screen.
Sure enough, once I magnified the white bug it turned out to be a small white moth being eaten by a spider. There were also native bees, beetles, and even a caterpillar feeding at (and on) the coreopsis blooms.
Out in the middle of the front yard's buffalo grass lawn, I've left a purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata). It's just too darn pretty to pull out! A couple of the spent blooms from yesterday were forming this attractive star pattern...
...while a newly opening bloom was coyly getting ready to share its largesse.
I've noticed recently that the insects seem to prefer pushing their way into newly opening blossoms, rather than working the fully open blooms. Looking at the fresh pollen anthers awaiting their arrival, I can see why!
Butterflies weren't abundant on anything, but the butterfly milkweed did attract this thread-waisted wasp (Ammophila sp.), whose abdominal stripe seems to be designed to match the color of the blossoms.
Thread-waisted wasps feed on nectar as adults, as this individual was doing. However, the female digs a tunnel in sandy soil, as a nest, which she stocks with paralyzed caterpillars, upon which she lays an egg. So thread-waisted wasps are great predators to have in your garden!
I'll leave you with a photo of the larkspur in the back courtyard. I'm always a sucker for blue and bluish purple flowers!
8 comments:
I love the poppy mallow; there's a place in our front circle where it comes out every year and I start mowing around it until after it blooms...now about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide and completely purple during the day.
Your yellow coneflower is really pretty. Mine has two little buds. Those bees are loaded with pollen. Nice to see so many plants blooming in your garden.
Prof, I'm glad I'm not the only one with a soft spot for purple poppy mallow. I've got some in my flower beds, too, but it's the one in the middle of the lawn that is the showiest.
GonSS, it's taken a couple years for my yellow coneflower to really get established and start looking like A PLANT - but it's finally made it. I've come to really love it, almost more than the pink Echinaceas.
I enjoy your photos as is. We have some of the same plants, except they are not blooming yet. The butterflyweed is fairly close, but not the yellow coneflower. I don't have poppy mallow, though.
Thank you, Jason! I have to say that I highly recommend the purple poppy mallow.
Looks great Cindy. You should plant some white poppy mallow also.
Thanks, Greg. I've got a lot of the pale poppy mallow around the yard, but none of it has migrated into the garden yet.
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