Love, Joy and Peas: lantana

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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

Friday, August 19, 2016

Giant Dahlia, Echinacea, Dianthus, Vinca and Zinnia Flowers

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" Our pale yellow dinnerplate dahlia started blooming. I love the giant flowers (this one is about 7" wide).

The echinacea (purple conflower) plants are still putting out a few fresh flowers, although the majority have faded.

This dianthus is doing the best of all if its kind in my garden. It's the only one in part shade (the rest are in full sun, which I think is what their tag said they prefer, but clearly mine like some shade).

The vinca flowers continue to bloom nicely. I liked the glistening dew drops on this one.

The zinnias are the star of the garden this year, partly because I planted so many and partly because the birds, butterflies and bees love them.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this finds you safe and cool, despite the summer heat. May God bless and keep you!

Related posts:
Giant red zinnia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/giant-zinnias-gladiola-mr-optimist.html
Funky dahlias: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/four-dahlias-and-dianthus-for-floral.html
Sunflower & dahlia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/sunflowers-dahlias-marigolds-verbena.html

Friday, August 21, 2015

Lantana, Zinnia, Dahlias, and Butterfly Bush Flowers

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" The lantanas are great drought-tolerant butterfly-attracting plants. I like this white with yellow center one but the bright multicolored and straight yellow flowers are nice too.

I think the zinnias are the stars of our garden this year and love that I grew most of them (including the one pictured above) from seed. The birds and butterflies love them too.

Dahlia blooms are still trickling in here and there.

The butterfly bushes are doing great; even the ones in pots. We didn't intend to grow any in pots but the soil where we planned to put them this spring turned out to be riddled with tree roots so four bushes are in pots until my hard working husband can get to clear out spots for them.

The "sights of summer" dahlia is currently the most prolific of the larger dahlias. It's nice to have a few big blooms. Next year I think we'll go back to the dinnerplate dahlias though. We seemed to get a whole lot more flowers from them. But we appreciate all flowers as they bloom.

Thank you for joining me on this week's mini garden tour! May God bless you!

Which photo(s) did you like best? Do you have any tips for keeping dahlias happy all summer? I'd love to hear them!

Related posts:
Cute critters on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/cute-critters-on-flowers.html
Raindrops on butterfly bush and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/raindrops-on-roses-azalea-camellia.html
Colorful lantana: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/06/zinnia-vinca-coreopsis-geranium-and.html

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Brookside Gardens' Wings of Fancy Butterfly Exhibit

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, June 20, 2014

Zinnia, Vinca, Coreopsis, Geranium and Lantana for Floral Friday

Happy floral Friday! This week in my Maryland garden we've had both dry spells and heavy rain. I took these photos after a heavy rain so some of the flowers have raindrops (the rest are just drenched). This little zinnia's petals are still opening.

The edges of this white vinca's petals are so wet they're nearly transparent.

Although this bright red and yellow coreopsis flower is quite welcome, it was a bit of a surprise to see it blooming one one of the stems of a dark red coreopsis plant.

I overwintered my geraniums and they're quite leggy but since they're still blooming I'm hesitant to cut them back.

Bees and butterflies love lantana and it's the only thing I can get to grow in the corner between the driveway and sidewalk. The soil there dries out faster than anywhere else in our garden. Lantana truly is drought resistant once established and the butterflies and bees love it.

Thank you for joining me on this week's mini photo tour of my Maryland garden! May the God who created all the beautiful flowers bless and keep you!

Related posts:
Drought tolerant flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/07/heat-beating-flower-photos-this-week-in.html
Rainy day flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/05/rainy-day-flowers-this-week-in-my.html
Multicolored blooms: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/04/multicolored-blooms-seedlings-garden.html
Frosty foliage: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2011/12/frosty-foliage-photos.html

Friday, July 27, 2012

Lantana Trees for Floral Friday

I've been wanting something tall for in front of our dining room windows and came across these lantana trees this week. Regularly $49.99 each they were on clearance for only $12.50 each! So I got all three for less than the price of one. They're working out great and already attracting bees (and hopefully, soon butterflies too).

Here's a close up of a lantana flower cluster. We grew a lot of lantana when we lived in Arizona and they can handle the crazy hot heat there so I figure they can handle it here too. They won't survive the winter unless I bring them inside though (Ben says no to this so far but I'm trying to convince him so if you agree that they're worth saving please let me know and I'll pass your comments on to him).

Here's a photo of the lantana trees from an angle that shows you more of their height. Now I'll just need to find three matching pots for them. Happy Friday and weekend to you all. May God bless you!