Butterfly Garden Friends

Bumblebee - Drinking nectar.

Honey Bee - Look at the full pollen basket this guy is carrying back to the hive.

A Wasp sharing the Pink Delight bloom.

oops, that's Ragweed

This message was edited Aug 27, 2009 8:16 AM

Bumblebee Close up

Since you are showing photos of bees, I have a question, does anyone know if bees on the flowers scare the BF's away. Seems like just lately I have many more bees than earlier in the summer but less butterflies. When they are on the same plant they seem to "get along" though.

Beautiful pictures by the way..

Thanks for the nice shots-especially the ragweed flowers. I have tried to get a picture of blooming ragweed for a while. I am allergic to the stuff and will pull it along our road once I recognize the plants. Ragweed is a great plant that supports wildlife. We have loads of it around here....but......

Dawns_Tropicals, I wish I could be of help with your question but I’m a butterfly newbie.

Ladybug - Good luck and the best garden friend with its voracious appetite for aphids.

Block Party!

Nice photos, GoldenDomer. Can you ID the pink blossom for me?

Also, what class were you in (at ND)? t.

BTW, that's not ragweed, it's goldenrod. Look at this site...it shows both. Incidentally, goldenrod has somehow gotten a bad rap for allergies, but it doesn't deserve the blame. It's harmless.
http://themondaygarden.com/archives/2004/09/goldenrod_ragweed_and_mugwort.html

tabasco, I too would like to know what that pink blossom ID is. I just found it this morning. Maybe LindaTX8 could enlighten both of us and others.

ND is out of my class (tuition price-wise). Would you believe that quite a few parents of incoming freshman are plunking down cash for condos for their kids to live and play in until they graduate? I'm just a elsewhere college educated sports fan who happens to live in South Bend. Can't wait 'til Saturday!

Soldier beetle - Only mildly friendly to our gardens according to this:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=7017800

Also, discovered during my free time this morning.

Interesting that goldenrod, a north american native, had its recent surge in popularity because of the hybridizing work done in Germany in the last decade or so. Solidago then became popular over there as a garden flower and now is making a comeback here with several different cultivars available. Same thing happened with Echinaceas. (Just found that out from reading my Fine Gardening mag and wanted to share!)

Goldendomer, watch what you say! (-: Eight of my family members graduated from ND/SMC, including me! Will be up there for a couple of games, but we can't seem to get too excited about it these days.... )-:

t, I could never bad mouth my fav college FB team school. Anywho, rejoice - tomorrow is Game Day!

Orb-weaving spider - Harmless to us but certain death to all garden pests (including grasshoppers) who wander into it’s web. Spiders, too I feel, have been given a bad rap. Maybe now, I’ll think twice before I instinctively knock down the next outdoor spider web I see.

Don't mess with the ground spiders but do not tollerate those that make webs to trap my butterflies. I am indifferent about the lizards though, I couldn't catch them if I tried, they are way too fast. I just scare them away from my bf host plants, and keep the caterpillars collected.

As for your beed and bfs question, I find they both nectar on the same blooms without problems.

This message was edited Sep 13, 2009 10:54 PM

I'm not sure about the pink one. Why don't you put a pic or two on the plant ID forum?

I found a second view of the pink mystery flower that I took during my field trip. I took and kept this shot thinking I was capturing an exotic pollinator (garden friend). I later dismissed it because I decided it was merely a house fly looking pretty in full sunlight. However, it seems to provide another view of “Block Party” that might lead to a Plant ID of the flower in question.

It appears to be a succulent which leads me to Autumn Joy or a look alike. It was only 20 feet from the first pic.

What do you think?

Yes, now that you mention it, it looks like a newer hybrid sedum. And a very pretty one, too.

ooops...wrong Forum !!! (lol)

Ha, Ha! (-:

Praying Mantis - Normally a friend but what about for butterfly gardens?

Not so much.

The Praying Mantises will even go after Hummingbirds.

But I guess that's the circle of life...

Thanks.

BTW, I got an ID on what I thought were only house flies - “Blow Flies” as per this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow-fly

Yesterday, I was doing my weekly shopping at wally world and, as I sometimes do, went outside to the Garden Center to see what they had stacked up on the clearance tables.

Lo and behold on the perennial table I saw two (only) look-alikes to my mysterious pink sedum. They looked perfectly healthy and pretty sitting in one gallon pots for $3 a piece. What a surprise! What a deal! I quickly picked them up and put them in my cart as if someone else was going to swoop in ahead of me and snatch them away. An infantile fear no doubt rooted in my childhood.

When I got home, the first thing I wanted to do was to put these two puppies in the ground. When I held up the root ball after taking it out of the pot, a butterfly flew from a nearby Pink Delight bloom to land on it. For sure an encouraging sign that was. Talk about ‘the luck of the Irish’ I thought.

As I stepped back to take a picture, I was wondering if everyone knew what a friend to the butterfly gardener the oft’ maligned wally world could be.

…anyone care to share thoughts on that subject?

My WM doesn't have anything that nice on markdown. You got a great deal there. I get my best markdown stuff at Lowe's if I check often.

Thanks, Sheila_FW,

I’ll kook forward to your comment(s) following my next post.

GD

WM can be an interesting resource, although I like to patronize the local small businesses in the area first.

As far as buying butterfly plants there, though, you have to be very sure that they are pesticide free for them to be effective in the garden. That is sometimes difficult to determine.

My 'autumn joy' sedum are attracting lots of little brown skippers. They make up a lively corner of the garden.