Butterflies on Mexican Sunflowers at Brookside Gardens

Butterfly on tithonia: Copyright © Ben Wheeler, 2016, used with permission

Happy wild Wednesday! Since I haven't been able to get a nice picture of my own Mexican sunflowers (also called tithonia) yet this year I took some at the Brookside Gardens "Wings of Fancy" butterfly exhibit. Their tithonia had many beautiful butterflies flitting from flower to flower and even some resting on the foliage.

Pretty butterfly wings open: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016

The first image is by my talented husband, who was kind enough to let me share it with you here. I thought his picture was the best but wanted you to see the flowers from different angles so am sharing some of mine too.

Butterfly feeding on tithonia: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016

 If you click to see the larger image you should be able to clearly see the butterfly's eyes. Pretty neat.

Butterfly on Mexican sunflower: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016

I think this might be a Monarch butterfly but it seems darker than the ones I see in my yard so maybe it's a different, but similar, kind of butterfly.

Butterfly on "thrive" hat: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2016

The kind mom of the adorable little girl wearing this "thrive" hat let me take this photo of the butterfly on top. She was very excited to have a butterfly land on her head and stay there a while. Thank you to them both for sharing!

I had one land on my hand, which was amazing! It even stayed a while. But it was on the same hand I was holding my camera with so I didn't get a photo. It's always touching to have a butterfly choose to land on you so I felt blessed by that. Of course, just seeing so many butterflies floating around is a huge blessing. I've enjoyed every trip to the butterfly exhibit, whether one landed on me or not.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless my husband, the family that shared their butterfly hat experience, and YOU!

Related posts:
Monarchs on tithonia flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterflies-on-tithonia.html
Monarchs on chrysanthemums: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterfly-on-pretty.html
Brookside Gardens monarchs: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/monarch-butterflies-from-brookside.html

Monarch Butterflies from Brookside Gardens

Monarch on pretty foliage: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

Happy wild Wednesday! This week I'm featuring beautiful monarch butterflies from Brookside Gardens' Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit. They have a nice butterfly garden in the exhibit with both local and exotic butterflies as well as gorgeous outside butterfly gardens with wild local butterflies.

Monarch butterfly on agastache: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

It's always a blessing to be able to visit a butterfly garden but I think this is my favorite.

Monarch butterfly on pink zinnia: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

The monarchs seemed most active on this visit and it was neat to catch them on so many different kinds of flowers and plants.

Monarch with shadow: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

 I believe this monarch butterfly is resting on a giant elephant's ear leaf.

Monarch butterfly on lantana: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

They clearly loved the lantanta flowers. The exhibit is staffed with many kind hearted volunteers so if you visit and want the name of a butterfly or plant, just ask and one of the volunteers probably knows or will find out for you.

Thank you for stopping by! May God bless you and all of His creatures!

Related posts:
Exotic butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/08/brookside-gardens-wings-of-fancy.html
Monarch butterflies on chrysanthemums: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterfly-on-pretty.html
Monarchs on tithonia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterflies-on-tithonia.html
Cute critters on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/search?q=monarch

Note: I wasn't asked or paid to write this post and all opinions are my own. I just like butterflies and Brookside Gardens. 

Brookside Gardens' Wings of Fancy Butterfly Exhibit

Butterfly resting with open wings: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

Happy wild Wednesday! My dear husband took me to Brookside Gardens' Wings of Fancy butterfly exhibit and we had a great time watching these beautiful creatures dance all around us. 

Bright green butterfly Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

They have a great variety of butterflies and many were active but some rested too.

Butterfly feeding on lantana: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

Some, like the one above, fed on the many beautiful flowers in the exhibit.

Open-winged butterfly: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

It was like a giant indoor butterfly garden with local and exotic butterflies.

Artistic butterfly on leaf: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

This is one I've seen in my own garden but never on such a big, pretty leaf before.

Human-butterfly bonding: Copyright © Phyllis Wheeler, 2015

Of course, the best part is if one of these beautiful butterflies lands on you. This kind man let me take his photo with the butterfly on his shoulder. The big butterfly stayed on his shoulder for at least 5 minutes too.

Usually at least one lands on me but I'd used some strongly scented peppermint hand sanitizer and I guess that serves as butterfly repellent and I didn't notice any this visit. I'll be sure to be peppermint free if we go next year.

Hearty thanks to my husband for taking me, to my new friend for allowing his photo to be taken and to the volunteers who staff the butterfly exhibit! May God bless them and may He bless you too!

Related posts:
Dragonfly & butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragonfly-and-butterflies-on-flowers-at.html
Butterfly blessings: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/01/happy-new-year-blessings-butterflies.html
Butterfly art: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/butterfly-art-by-denise-arvaneh.html