The picture above is of Indian Pink growing in Deb’s garden in Delaware.
We live all over the country and will post pictures and details about our gardening efforts from Delaware to Maryland to Virginia to Georgia to Colorado and Idaho.
Also, pets are a huge part of all our lives. So, even though it doesn’t quite fit in with our “Weeds to Bees” theme, we decided to include posts devoted to our various “pets” — cats, dogs, and even some chickens.
I unfortunately have been unable to “take care” of my native flower garden this year. In fact, today (June 14) was the first day since weed-whacking the entire garden last fall, that I got up the courage to take a look at what has come back up this year. I was pleased to find so many old friends doing not too badly. Hopefully my untended garden will still be a haven for bees and butterflies.
The first thing I noticed was a row of Butterfly Weed.
Then I took a look at my Common Milkweed patch. It is definitely thriving, now coming into full bloom with bees all over it.
The Culver’s Root has re-appeared, very tall this year and just beginning to look like Culver’s Root.
The Purple Coneflowers are just coming into bloom.
The Daisy Fleabane is pretty much in bloom now.
I THINK this is the New York Ironweed that I planted last year.
A tiny bit of very early goldenrod is already in flower.
Notably absent or still quite small:
M. fistulosa mid-June 2016
We have had a very cool, wet spring in Delaware, but as usually happens, we have suddenly gone right into summer. Less than two weeks ago, we still had the heat running in our house, and now for the last four days, the temps have been in the high 80’s!
My flowers have been moving right along, enjoying the moisture while they have it, but now that it has finally gotten warm, they are really growing quickly. Here are some pictures I took showing their progress:
Dame’s Rocket, a volunteer wildflower from a packet of seeds I planted 20 years ago!
Green and Gold, or chrysogonum, a wonderful ground cover, is in full-bloom
Virginia waterleaf is tucked in among my ferns which have taken off explosively!
A close-up of my Virginia waterleaf
My up-and-coming common milkweed patch! Hopefully, some random female monarch will miraculously find them again this year.
Last, but not least, my bluebird box has five babies in it! Here is Dad delivering a yummy morsel. They are so loud now, I can hear them from my upstairs window!
Momma bluebird waiting to make a delivery. She is SO cautious before entering the box.
Actually it’s not so early anymore. The Redbud trees are past blooming already but were spectacular for a little while.
My spicebushes grew a lot last year. They were in full bloom a couple of weeks ago.
My Virginia Bluebells grow more abundant every year. They are in full bloom right now on April 2.
There are lots of violets blooming in my wooded area. I can’t quite identify this one from my Peterson’s Field Guide. It has flowers and leaves on separate stalks and the leaves are deeply cleft. By best guess is some sort of Sweet White Violet though it obviously has a lot of blue.
I love my deciduous azalea, though it’s gotten so tall I had a hard time getting a picture of the flowers.
The dogwoods are coming into bloom. Here is my wooded area “shade garden” in a light rain this morning.
My serviceberry is no farther long than Deb’s in Delaware and I have trouble getting a good photo of it because it’s so “airy”.
Finally there are lots of baby ferns all over the shade garden.
I am always anxious for spring to arrive, and even though we had a mild winter here in Delaware, and trees and flowers are already starting to bloom, I’m still impatient. Today I prowled around my yard and took some pictures of some perennials that are starting to grow, and of course, a picture of my beloved serviceberry tree that is getting very close to blooming! A wonderful surprise was the appearance of three little milkweed seedlings from seeds that I planted last November and left outside over the winter.
Blue lobelia
Cardinal flower
Virginia waterleaf
Milkweed seedling
Monarda (Bee balm)
Serviceberry tree, almost in bloom!
The two days before my last monarch caterpillar formed its chrysalis, it was easily eating three to four milkweed leaves per day. Seriously, this caterpillar meant business! When I went into the laundry room where I had its mesh habitat, I could actually hear it chewing away on the leaves. Here is a video of my little guy devouring a leaf. Be sure to turn up your volume!
While visiting Robin in Virginia back in mid-October, I caught this bumblebee busily collecting nectar from Robin’s Small White Aster. The goldenrod was all but finished blooming for the year, and just about the only remaining flowers still in bloom were the asters. Where would this bumblebee have gone to find any nectar to help tide its nest over the upcoming winter if there had been no late-blooming asters?
When the three monarch caterpillars I was hand-raising emerged from their chrysalis, I completely missed the first one. For the next two, I was ready with my camera, but one of them slipped out while I had my back turned pouring a cup of coffee! But I got the third one on video. What an education this has been!
After releasing my three hand-raised monarch butterflies on Aug. 21st at 8:30 AM, I felt very empty and bereft, to say the least. I cleaned and bleached the plastic container and mesh butterfly habitat that I had used for them and dried them out in preparation for putting them away. That afternoon at 2:00 PM, I went out to look at my milkweed, and was bemoaning all the aphids all over it and wondering if any female monarch would ever deign to lay any eggs on it, when what to my wondering eyes did appear but a tiny, 1/4 inch monarch caterpillar on one of the leaves! I couldn’t believe it! Back in business again after only 5 1/2 hours! I plucked that leaf right off and ran back into the house to place it carefully in the freshly cleaned out plastic container. Since it was already about 1/4 inch long, I guessed it was about 1 day old, based on my previous caterpillars’ growth. I never found any more eggs or caterpillars, so that must be the only survivor of any eggs its mother laid.
Now it is a week old and about 1 1/4 inches long. It has been happily eating its way through my milkweed leaves, and today I rearranged the butterfly habitat to accommodate a larger caterpillar. It has occurred to me that this caterpillar might be one of the migratory generation. Very exciting!
I found this lone 1/4 inch caterpillar the same day I released my first three butterflies!
The next day, it was already noticeably bigger.
I finally caught it molting and entering into its 3rd instar (I think!). That is its old skin behind it, and the round black and white object in front of it is its old face!
Approximately one week old today.
At home in its mesh butterfly habitat with a fresh cutting of milkweed to munch on!
In my last post, I told about finding three tiny monarch caterpillars on my milkweed and bringing them inside to raise by hand. It was astounding how quickly they grew! By the next day they had doubled in size from 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch long. Unfortunately, I had to leave on Aug. 1st for twelve days, so I left them in the capable hands of my friend who cat sits for me, henceforth known as my “cat-erpillar” sitter. I was sorry to miss out on their caterpillarhood, but she faithfully sent me pictures of their rapid growth. On Aug. 9th, the first caterpillar made its chrysalis, then the other two made theirs on Aug. 10th. I was home on Aug. 12th, so was able to observe the three chrysalises hanging in their mesh butterfly habitat, and on Aug. 19th, exactly 10 days after making the chrysalis, the first butterfly eclosed! The second two butterflies eclosed on Aug. 20th. I missed the emergence of the first butterfly, but made sure I was present for the other two the next day. What a fun experience to witness right on my kitchen table!
Here are pictures of their growth and development from caterpillar to butterfly. All three turned out to be males. Good luck, little guys!
Here is one at about 1.5 inches, enjoying its leaf.
Two inches long now!
Family portrait
Hanging from the roof of the cage, making their “J”, just before making the chrysalis.
Two chrysalises, waiting patiently while a miracle is happening inside!
Look what happened overnight! The first one has turned dark and the orange and black wings of the butterfly can be seen. The butterfly will eclose in about two hours.
Ta da!! Just beautiful!
The other two eclosed the next day. The first one came out exactly 10 minutes before the second. What a difference in 10 minutes!
Here are all three in their glory!
I released them on Aug. 21 on my New York Ironweed. The oldest one took off immediately for my neighbor’s oak tree, but the other two hung around for about 20 minutes before flying off.
One of them is having a sip of nectar!
Now I have an empty nest…here are the three empty chrysalises. Note all the silk that was used to attach them to the roof of the cage.
I am now the proud foster parent of three tiny monarch caterpillars! After watching a female monarch butterfly laying eggs on my milkweed on Friday, I started looking for eggs and found four possibilities. On Tuesday morning, I went out again to check the eggs and found that one had hatched! There under a milkweed leaf with a little crescent-shaped hole cut around it was a tiny, tiny caterpillar! Now what to do?? I googled how to raise monarch caterpillars in a plastic container with a lid. Give them milkweed leaves to munch on, keep it clean by removing the frass, and let them grow. As they get bigger, they can be moved to a mesh butterfly habitat with LOTS of milkweed and eventually they will make their chrysalis and emerge as adults. So I set up a suitable plastic container, picked off the milkweed leaf the caterpillar was on, and set it up on my dining room table. The next day, Wednesday, I went out to look at the other possible eggs and found two more caterpillars! So now I have three rapidly growing monarch caterpillars chowing down on my milkweed. At this point, they are still working on their first leaf, but as they get bigger they will need much more milkweed. I sure hope my milkweed supply is ample enough!
My first freshly-hatched monarch caterpillar! The crescent cut in the leaf is a telltale sign to look for. The caterpillar was barely 3 mm long!
Family portrait! They are about 1/4 inch long now. One is at the bottom, one is near the center, and one is at the upper right.
FROM WEEDS TO BEES 