Love, Joy and Peas: butterfly

Showing posts with label butterfly. Show all posts

Friday, September 23, 2016

Mexican Bush Sage, Purple Coneflower, Impatiens, Giant Zinnia, and Tithonia Flowers

Happy autumn, floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" The Mexican bush sage has started to bloom and I'm always thrilled to not only see the flowers but feel their super soft texture. They're almost as soft as pussy willows. I overwintered this plant in the house as it's not perennial in our planting zone.

The white impatiens I planted in early spring is still putting out lovely flowers in a semi-shady area.

This volunteer purple coneflower sprung up in the middle of my giant zinnia area but I let it stay. I'll probably move it later this fall or early next spring, but for now I'm enjoying the contrast.

I only planted red giant zinnia seeds but also got pink and purple from the package. The bees and butterflies like them all so I do too.

Our biggest annuals this year are the tithonia (also called Mexican sunflower). They are huge and covered in pretty flowers.

That's all for this week's tour. Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Butterflies on tithonia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/08/butterflies-on-mexican-sunflowers-at.html
Monarchs on chrysanthemum: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterfly-on-pretty.html
Brookside Gardens butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/monarch-butterflies-from-brookside.html

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Skipper Butterfly on Orange Zinnia

Happy wild Wednesday! We must have more than 50 of these skipper butterflies in our garden. They seem to particularly enjoy the zinnias, marigolds, butterfly bushes and tithonia, although I see them on other flowers too. I hope my photo brightened your day! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Dahlia with skipper: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/dahlia-with-skipper-unusual-zinnias.html
Pretty insects on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/03/pretty-insects-on-giant-red-zinnias-and.html
More insects on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/08/dahlia-marigolds-zinnia-butterfly-bush.html

Friday, September 16, 2016

Bright Summer Flowers: Dahlia, Tithonia, Rose, Marigold and Salvia

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" The dahlias are still putting out nice sized flowers and this pink one is a favorite.

I think some of our tithonia plants (also called Mexican sunflowers) are over six feet tall. The butterflies and bees love them and I occasionally even see a hummingbird visit them. They are especially precious to me because I started them from seed.

These creamy knockout roses smell like a mixture of honey and lemon.

I love the contrast between the giant yellow marigolds and the blue salvia. You can also see some red zinnias in the background.

Because this pretty butterfly was kind enough to open its wings for a photo I thought it deserved to be included in today's post.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Butterflies on tithonia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/08/butterflies-on-mexican-sunflowers-at.html
Dahlias and marigolds: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/08/dahlia-marigolds-zinnia-butterfly-bush.html
Funky flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/05/funky-lavender-thyme-allium-marigold.html

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Butterflies on Mexican Sunflowers at Brookside Gardens

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Friday, August 26, 2016

Butterflies on Bright Summer Flowers

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" Many flowers are blooming and it seems like we have more butterflies than we've had in the past couple years, so that is an added blessing.

The butterflies love many of our flowers but the butterfly bushes (aka buddelia) often have several butterflies per plant, especially in the morning.

The dahlias get their share of butterflies too.

And the giant red zinnias definitely attract butterflies.

There often are butterflies, bees and even golden finches on the giant zinnias. The tithonia have started blooming too but the flowers are up so high I have yet to get a sharable photo. Hopefully next week. The tithonia are special in that they also attract hummingbirds.

Thank you for visiting! That's all for this week's mini garden tour. May God bless you!

Related posts:
Cute critters on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/cute-critters-on-flowers.html
Monarch butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/monarch-butterflies-from-brookside.html
Bees on butterfly bushes: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/10/bees-and-butterflies-on-butterfly-bushes.html

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Summer Wildlife at Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens

Happy wild Wednesday! My husband and I recently visited Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens and were thrilled to see so much wildlife, especially because we visited on a hot afternoon. The first three photos are by me and the last two were generously shared by my talented husband. We hope you enjoy them all.

The deer in the top photo was eating leaves and definitely knew we were there as she kept looking right at us. The red headed little reptile didn't appear to see me until I took its photo.

Can you see the tiny spider? She's camouflaged well on one of the magnolia leaves.

I saw two of these pretty butterflies but my husband got the best photo.

And this little striped reptile was too fast for me but my husband photographed it dashing for cover.

Hearty thanks to my dear husband for sharing his photos with us! May God bless him and may He bless you too!

Related posts:
Kenilworth overview photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/05/kenilworth-park-aquatic-gardens-photos.html
Amazing lotus flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/06/lotus-flower-photos-haiku-poem.html
Kenilworth flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/05/flowers-at-kenilworth-aquatic-gardens.html

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Pretty Insects on Giant Red Zinnias and Joe Pye Weed

Happy wild Wednesday! It's an amazingly warm and beautiful day here in Maryland. Although spring won't officially be here for a few more weeks, it feels like it's here and I'm enjoying the warm days.

I haven't seen a butterfly or moth in the wild yet this year but hope these photos from last August make you smile. Spring and summer with their wild delights will be here before long.

Last year I experimented with starting a batch of early zinnia seeds indoors and direct sowing the rest. The direct sowed plants quickly caught up with those sown indoors and then turned out to be far sturdier. They were from different sources so it could be that the direct sown seeds would have grown stronger plants anyway but this year I'm planning to just direct sow the zinnias and pray for the best.

Last year I waited until after Mother's day for direct sowing and I'll probably do the same this year.

If you have room in your garden, zinnias are a great delight for both humans and animals. We had finches, hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and moths enjoying ours.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you today and always!

Related posts:
Giant orange zinnia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/giant-zinnias-gladiola-mr-optimist.html
Giant pink and red zinnias: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/vinca-dahlia-giant-zinnias-and-day-lily.html
Blue ribbon zinnias: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/blue-ribbon-flowers-for-floral-friday.html

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Pretty Butterflies and Fuzzy Bee for Wild Wednesday

Happy wild Wednesday! I hope these butterfly and bee photos from last summer in my Maryland garden brighten your day.

The giant zinnias were the star of the garden last summer. Bees, butterflies and small birds flocked to them and made me very happy.

The butterfly bushes also attracted a lot of insect wildlife.

It was great to be able to see butterflies almost every time I walked in the garden and I'm already looking forward to next summer's adventures in gardening and wildlife.

May God bless you this winter and always!

Related posts:
Butterflies & bees on purple coneflowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/butterflies-and-bees-love-purple.html
Brian Dering's Aruba wildlife photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/wildlife-in-aruba-photos-by-guest.html
Wild raccoon photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/wild-raccoon-in-national-arboretum.html

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Bees and Butterflies on Butterfly Bushes

Happy wild Wednesday! Butterfly bushes really do attract butterflies (and bees too).

The butterflies and bees don't seem to be picky about the flower color.

Or whether the flowers are in sun or shade.

But they do seem to have a preference for the newer blooms.

Maybe the nectar is sweeter on the younger flowers? I don't know. But I love seeing the bushes filled with bees and butterflies. There was also a monarch butterfly on the bushes but it was too fast and skittish for me to capture with my camera.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you and our dwindling bee and butterfly populations!

Related posts:
Cute critters on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/cute-critters-on-flowers.html
Brookside butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/08/brookside-gardens-wings-of-fancy.html
Butterfly blessings: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/01/happy-new-year-blessings-butterflies.html

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Sugar Free September: Days 18-30

Happy autumn and farewell to September! I chose the butterfly photo for this article as a salute to wild Wednesday and also because the whitish parts look kind of sugary in person. This reminds me that there are plenty of sweet things in life that are sugar free.

This month had a lot going on but the primary new habit I've been building is a low sugar lifestyle. With a few exceptions, I've stuck to my original plan. It wasn't always easy but the better I was about sticking to the plan, the fewer cravings I experienced and the easier it got.

I had expected to lose some weight but that didn't turn out to be significant (I did lose a little but then went on a new medicine that caused me to gain some. Now I've lost most of that and am about back at where I started). However, there have been other benefits: a bit more energy, fewer cravings, the good feeling that comes from knowing I'm doing something good for my body and a little bit of money saved from not buying "treats". So I'm going to continue this lifestyle change indefinitely in hopes that I'll have even more energy increases (or at least maintain what I have now), better health and hopefully weight loss (once I get the rest of the suspect medicine out of my system).

Did you join me in this challenge? How did you do? What was hardest for you? How did you deal with that? What benefits did you see? I'd love to hear from you!

Related posts:
Sugar free post 1: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/sugar-free-september-day-1.html
Sugar free post 2: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/sugar-free-september-days-2-8.html
Sugar free post 3: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/sugar-free-september-days-9-17.html

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Monarch Butterflies from Brookside Gardens

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.

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

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

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

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.