An Un-tended Native Flower Garden

Posted on June 14, 2016 by ruthnativeflowers

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.

B Weed mid June

Then I took a look at my Common Milkweed patch. It is definitely thriving, now coming into full bloom with bees all over it.

C milkweed 06:14

milkweed with bee

The Culver’s Root has re-appeared, very tall this year and just beginning to look like Culver’s Root.

Culvers root 06:14

The Purple Coneflowers are just coming into bloom.

P Coneflower 06:14

The Daisy Fleabane is pretty much in bloom now.

Daisy Fleabane mid-june

I THINK this is the New York Ironweed that I planted last year.

NY Ironweed mid-June

A tiny bit of very early goldenrod is already in flower.

early goldenrod mid-june

Notably absent or still quite small:

Green-headed Coneflower (not there at all this year). I miss this plant as it was a great attractor of bees.
Monarda fistulosa. It seems much smaller than I expected.

M. fistulosa mid-June 2016

Sweet Joe-Pye Weed. I may see small amounts of it coming up, but apparently not thriving. This is another one I miss because it attracted so many bees.

Early Spring in Virginia

Posted on April 2, 2016 by ruthnativeflowers

Actually it’s not so early anymore. The Redbud trees are past blooming already but were spectacular for a little while.

S0_redbud tree

S0_redbud 2016

My spicebushes grew a lot last year. They were in full bloom a couple of weeks ago.

S0_spicebush on bloom2 sm 2016

My Virginia Bluebells grow more abundant every year. They are in full bloom right now on April 2.

S0_va bluebells 2016

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.

S0_violets

I love my deciduous azalea, though it’s gotten so tall I had a hard time getting a picture of the flowers.

S0_deciduous azalea

The dogwoods are coming into bloom. Here is my wooded area “shade garden” in a light rain this morning.

S0_dogwoods

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”.

S0_serviceberry 2015 sm

Finally there are lots of baby ferns all over the shade garden.

S0_baby ferns

The Importance of Late-Blooming Flowers

Posted on November 6, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

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?

Early Summer, Virginia-Style

Posted on July 6, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

I forgot I planted some Rattlesnake Master last year. I discovered it in the garden a few days ago.

Rattlesnake Master

The Culver’s Root is in full bloom and swarming with bees and wasps. You can’t tell it from this picture, but this is one of those blue wasps.

Culver’s Root with Wasp

The Sweet Joe Pye is in full bloom and swarming with bees.

Sweet Joe Pye Weed

The Monarda fistulosa is in full flower and the bees are all over it. You can see a couple of bees here. My attempts to make a video of this have not been too successful.

Monarda fistulosa Early July

Much of my goldenrod is already blooming. This may be an “early” goldenrod. However, I think it was quite a bit later last year. (As you may be able to tell I have “stray” milkweed plants all over the place.)

Goldenrod Early July

If you’ve ever wondered “why grow goldenrod?” — here’s why. I found this little guy in my goldenrod. I think it’s a Pearl Crescent.

Butterfly in Goldenrod

I found this little butterfly on my Mountain Mint this afternoon. I haven’t identified it yet. My best guess is a Northern Cloudywing — a skipper.

Small Butterfly on Mountain Mint

My Liatris is very tall but seems to be behind Deb’s in Delaware — not blooming yet.

Liatris in Early July — not Blooming Yet

Mid-June 2015 in Virginia

Posted on June 15, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

Here’s what’s happening as of June 15, 2015.

The Sweet Joe Pye Weed is coming into bloom.

Sweet Joe Pye Weed Coming into Bloom Mid June

The Monarda fistulosa is starting to bloom and the bumblebees have already found it.

M. fistulosa with Bumblebees

My common milkweed patch is quite large and the bumblebees are all over it.

Common Milkweed Patch

Bumblebees on Milkweed

Speaking of common milkweed, does anyone know what this small mass of eggs is? (Lower part of leaf on right)

Eggs on Milkweed

My Culver’s Root is very tall this year and is starting to look very lyre-like as can be seen in this rather out-of-focus picture.

Culver’s Root

Some of my goldenrod is perilously close to blooming. I say “perilously” because this seems quite early to me.

Goldenrod Close to Blooming

Finally, my Eastern Red Cedar is loaded with berries this year. I can’t wait for the Cedar Waxwings and other birds to find them.

Eastern Red Cedar Loaded with Berries

Inchworms Going to a Good Cause!

Posted on May 9, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

Today I received a delightful surprise!

For some reason I thought that “my” bluebirds were nesting somewhere else this year, although they were eating the mealworms I’ve been putting out daily. Occasionally I saw a female go into the nest box but thought she had built a nest without a mate!

Today I realized both a female and a male were flying in and out of the box with their beaks full of inchworms! Tiny cheaping noises were coming from within the box.

Here are a couple of pictures of Mr. BB working hard all afternoon. Mrs. BB never stopped long enough for me to get a picture.

Mr. BB Sitting on Fence with a Beakful of Inchworms

Mr. BB Waiting to Go into the Box with a Beakful of Inchworms

Even though inchworms are VERY numerous this year I really wonder how he manages to get so many into his beak at once!

Virginia Springtime Redux

Posted on April 24, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

I’ve taken several springtime photos that I never got around to posting. Here are some of them.

White Dogwood Opening 04/07/15

White Dogwood in Evening Light 04/14/15

Pink Dogwood in Evening Light 04/14/15

Serviceberry Finally in Bloom - the Flowers Only Lasted 2 - 3 Days

Serviceberry Finally in Bloom 04/16/15 – the Flowers Only Lasted 2 – 3 Days

My “Tulip Faces” – 04/14/15

Volunteer Columbine – 04/23/15

Some Old Friends

Posted on April 19, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

Finally some old friends are showing up.

My Sweet Joe Pye Weed has put in an appearance:

Sweet Joe Pye Weed Starting to Come Up

My common milkweed is suddenly popping up. As I recall by the end of last year my original one plant had transmogrified into at least 8 plants. I wonder how many there will be this spring.

Common Milkweed Coming Up

The Penstemon is putting in an appearance:

Penstemon Coming Up

I have several plants that I think may be Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa). I’m not positive as I think it is a little early for Butterfly Weed to be this far along. But at this point I don’t know what else it might be.

Butterfly Weed Coming Up?

This is the way my Climbing Aster (Aster carolinianus) looks from a distance. Old dead wood, right?

Climbing Aster from a Distance 04/19/15

Last year I was “cleaning up” by cutting away this old “dead” stuff, when I realized there were green leaves growing out of it! This year I know better. Here’s a view closer up. If you look closely you can see that there are green leaves growing out of the brown stems.

Climbing Aster Up Close

Finally, I don’t know that these would classify as “old friends” but the inch worms are back this year! I keep discovering them crawling on the back of my neck after I’ve been out in the yard. Sorry, they are too small for me to photograph.

Native Flower Gardening in Virginia — My “New” Philosophy

Posted on April 5, 2015 by ruthnativeflowers

I’ve decided I’m going to have a new native garden philosophy! I’m going to give up on weeding! Or at least I’m not going to try to dig up wire grass anymore. To dig it up requires using a spading fork and this basically destroys my garden. Here’s a photo of where I dug up wire grass last fall:

Where Wire Grass Has Been Dug Up

It’s not worth it.

I know of more than one native flower garden in nearby City parks that has been abandoned because the gardener couldn’t control the wire grass.

I’ve found that wire grass is relatively unsuccessful in the vicinity of my tall flowers such as Monarda fistulosa, sweet Joe Pye Weed, goldenrod and green-headed coneflower.

My new philosophy is going to be to plant as many tall-ish flowers as close together as possible and ignore the wire grass. I’d like to say I’m aiming for a Flower-rich Meadow but this is too euphemistic! I’m going to have to say I’m aiming for a Flower-rich Mess and if the bees like it, then I like it.

In the interests of truth-in-advertising, here’s a photo of what my flower-rich mess looks like right now. (Not exactly flower-rich right now but hopefully there will be a big transformation over the next few months.)