Love, Joy and Peas: swallowtail

Showing posts with label swallowtail. Show all posts

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, September 9, 2015

Butterflies, Honeybees and Moths Love Agastache Flowers

Happy wild Wednesday! I'm really thrilled with the way the agastache (also known as hyssop) flowers are attracting a nice range of insect wildlife. We put in five plants this spring and I suspect we'll add more next year.

I'm especially happy to see honeybees on the agastache. We get lots of bees but honeybees seem to be in the minority.

If you look closely you can see at least three skipper moths on this hyssop plant.

While not technically a good picture, I like that the moth is coming in for a landing while a honeybee is enjoying another flower. These insects know how to share.

Thank you for visiting. May God bless you!

Related posts:
Big bees: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/busy-bees-on-beautiful-blooms-zinnia.html
Dogs and bees: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/dogs-and-bees-at-us-national-arboretum.html
Bees and flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/neat-flowers-bees-and-sun-effects.html

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Butterflies and Bees Love Purple Coneflowers

Happy wild Wednesday! I took this week's photos in my own garden. What a blessing it is to enjoy so many flowers and so much cute insect wildlife.

The purple coneflowers (also known as echinacea) seem to be most popular with the bees and butterflies this year, with the giant zinnias a close second.

We must have some undesirable insect eating at the purple coneflower petals but I think they're still pretty, even with partially chewed parts.

Although it's not technically a good photo, I liked the fact that there were two moths on echinacea flower heads in the image above.

As you can see, the purple coneflowers bloom at different heights. Although we've put in a wide variety of coneflowers, the old fashioned purples seem to thrive the best in our Maryland soil.

Hope you enjoyed this week's wildlife photos. Which did you like best? Whatever you prefer, I thank you for visiting and pray that God will bless you!

Related posts:
Cute bugs on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/cute-critters-on-flowers.html
Bees on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/busy-bees-on-beautiful-blooms-zinnia.html
Giant pink zinnia and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/07/zinnias-roses-joe-pye-weed-day-lilies.html

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Cute Critters on Flowers

Happy wild Wednesday! Here are the critter on flower photos I promised last Friday. We've planted several specialty echinacea (also known as coneflower) varieties but this yellow is the only one besides the old fashioned purple that survived our last few frigid winters. I was really happy to see the cheery yellow flowers and the bees were too.

Of course, the old fashioned echinacea are still a big draw. Bees and butterflies usually flock to them. This year we've had a few moths but so far, only one butterfly that I've noticed. I did plant some milkweed for the monarchs a couple years ago but it didn't survive the winter. If we stay here through another spring then next year I hope to plant some more milkweed and some butterfly weed to help these beautiful creatures survive.

My husband pointed out this pretty green dragonfly resting on the green daylily leaves. He has a good eye for noticing seemingly hidden creatures.

This bug (a beetle of some kind?) surprised me. I was taking a photo of the dark purple butterfly bush flower and it popped right over from the back side.

Here's a macro (super close up) shot of that same green dragonfly from above. It's amazing the creatures you can find in your own back yard.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Monarch butterfly: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterfly-on-pretty.html
Dragonfly and butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragonfly-and-butterflies-on-flowers-at.html
Butterfly preserve critters: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/wildlife-at-glendening-preserves.html

Friday, August 31, 2012

Dragonfly and Butterflies on Flowers at the U.S. National Arboretum

Dragonfly on water lily photo by Phyllis Wheeler

Happy floral Friday and holiday weekend to you! My husband and I took these photos at the U.S. National Arboretum and we hope you enjoy them. I felt blessed to be able to capture this dragonfly on the water lily because the insect was moving around rapidly.

Butterfly on orange zinnia photo by Ben Wheeler

A rare untattered swallowtail butterfly. Most of the ones I see are kind of raggedy (but still beautiful).

Future butterfly on white flowers photo by Ben Wheeler

This insect isn't yet a butterfly but hopefully will be soon. I liked how my husband caught the caterpillar wrapping itself around the flowers and stem of the plant in the herb garden section of the National Arboretum.

Butterfly on orange zinnia photo by Phyllis Wheeler

This butterfly looked more blue in person and was moving about even more rapidly than the dragonfly. Isn't God's creation amazing? May He bless you today and always!