Monday, July 21, 2008

Don't Have Liatris? Then You Are Stupid.

Yup. You heard me right. The last few days have seen more and more monarchs hitting the blooms, and last night, I counted at least 12 bumble bees alone mining for gold. I couldn't keep up. Incredible. Everyone is even skipping the coneflowers and buddleia.

Today I caught the below pics. The black fellow or fellowette I'd never ever seen before--and it's bigger than a monarch, too! So cool!!! It landed first on the ironweed (which also has many brightly colored flies on it), but spent most of its time on the liatris, as did many moths. Ah, update: tis a female black swallowtail. The other day we did have a regular ole swallowtail.

And finally, who doesn't like culver's root? It even has the best french fries of any fast food chain.

Know what I like best about grad school and teaching? The time it allows me to experience these wonderful things. Huzzah for 9 years of grad school!!! (barf)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liatris is a great butterfly & bee magnet for the garden. I have tons of it in my garden and it is so reliable year after year. Plus added bonus, can handle the heat and dry condition of summer extremely well. Great insect shots!

chey said...

Liatris is fabulous~ it self seeds like crazy around here, and it's all over the garden. Ours isn't quite in bloom yet, but should be by next week. Cheers!

Zoƫ said...

How wonderful to see all those butterflies. I planted my garden with wild life in mind, and whilst we get plenty of bees, hoverflies and lacewings, we still dont get many butterflies. I think the the changing weather (much wetter in winter and mid summer) and farmers sprays have done for them :(

I used to get clouds of butterflies on the Buddleja; not any more.

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

I'd like to try the Liatris you have in the 1st photo. I have L. spicata & in less than full sun it has to be staked. (It started off in full sun.) Because of the leaning, I'm becoming an expert at transplanting them, from the very front of the garden to the back.

Benjamin Vogt said...

PG--I'm enjoying having my first, full blown stand here in my new garden. And they seem to be doing ok in my damp clay, too, not flopping over. Yippee!
Chey--Where are you at? Canada. Guess I'll go look. I'm getting more, that's for sure.
Zoe--Yeah, wet weather might do that, but damn those chemicals. Have there been any studies done that shed some light on the loss of our winged friends?
MMD--You mean 'floristan white?' The "first" photo is ironweed. I'm looking to pick up L. pycnostachya and L. spicata (dense). Prairie Nursery here I come.

garden girl said...

I try, how I try, but they don't like my garden.

They die.

And they don't bloom much in the shade before they kick it.

They get smaller each year,
and then they disappear.

yeah, I know - I'm no good at poetry either!