Love, Joy and Peas: tithonia

Showing posts with label tithonia. 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

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, February 12, 2016

Blue Ribbon Winning Flowers

Happy Floral Friday! I found this post in my draft folder (it was supposed to have automatically posted in 2014 but obviously something went wrong) and figured today was as good day to share it. I hope these blue ribbon winning flowers brighten your day!

"I'm blessed by my county fair awarding at least 12 of my flowers blue ribbons this year! The red dahlia above is one of my actual flowers entered in the fair, photographed two days after the judging occurred. In the interest of sharing good photos of pretty flowers the rest of the photos below are representative of what I entered but not the actual blooms entered.

If you've been following my blog you know I love dahlias. The dahlias received the most blue ribbons (they have different categories for different size and color dahlias). I have only been growing them for a few years but I get a lot of joy from their vigorous flower output and variety of blooms.

The tithonia I grew from seed also won a blue ribbon. The bees, butterflies and moths love them.

This is actually a Mr. Lincoln rose, which I didn't enter as it wasn't opened yet at fair entry time but the pink hybrid tea rose I did enter won a blue ribbon. You can see a similar rose at the bottom of this post (it's the last photo).

The white cosmos I entered looked better than this one currently blooming in my garden but this is currently the only bloom on the plant.

What a fun blessing to have my Maryland garden recognized in such a way. If you're local the fair runs through Sunday and in addition to the flowers there are a lot of neat exhibits (bee keeping displays, chain saw carving, photography, 4H, animals, crafts, herbs, an 88 pound watermelon and more). May God bless all the fair volunteers and may He bless you too!

What is your favorite part of a county or state fair? Do you have a favorite fair memory to share? I'd love to hear it!"

Related posts:
Flowers, freeloaders and funkiness: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/09/flowers-freeloaders-and-funkiness-for.html
Raindrop flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/raindrop-drenched-rose-cosmos.html
Vibrant spring flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/05/dahlias-ranunculus-azaleas-lilacs-and.html
2013 County Fair results: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/09/county-fair-photos-haikus-and-results.html

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Monarch Butterflies on Tithonia

Happy wild Wednesday! It's autumn and the tithonias (also known as Mexican sunflowers) are starting to fade but the butterflies don't seem to mind.

I am so happy this pair of monarchs is visiting our tithonias. We grow them especially for the butterflies although the bees and hummingbirds like them too. This year we seem to have fewer butterflies than usual so their sightings are extra special.

Here you can see both monarch butterflies enjoying the tithonias.

I know it's blurry but I like how you can see the overall shape of the monarch butterfly's open wings.

This one's a bit blurry too but I liked the butterfly's curly proboscis and the bee photo bomb made me smile. Usually when I come out with my camera these two monarch butterflies fly away so perhaps they're starting to get used to me and I can get some better photos next time. For now, I hope you enjoyed these butterfly images. Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Bees and flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/busy-bees-on-beautiful-blooms-zinnia.html
Hummingbird photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/hummingbird-photos-by-anna-horner-for.html
Hummingbird nest: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/09/hummingbird-nest-photos-by-anna-horner.html

Friday, September 5, 2014

Flowers, Freeloaders and Funkiness for Floral Friday

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" I thought "freeloaders" made better title material than "insects" and I love alliteration so hope you got a lift from the title. It's starting to look more autumnal than summery in our garden but we still have some flowers blooming.

The strawberries and cream rose bush has been overrun by morning glories, obedient plants, evening primrose and now a grasshopper. But we keep pulling the overzealous plants away for this year. I think we'll move it to the main rose garden next spring to give it a better chance.

This lemon and cream (not the actual name, just what I call it) dahlia is now blessing our living room in a vase with a bunch of similar flowers.

The African daisies that I managed to keep deadheaded are still blooming.

Our uniform looking dahlias seem to be taking a little break but the funky looking ones are going strong. I like their curly petals and varied colors.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

How is your garden doing now that September is here? Do you have any late summer/early fall gardening tips to share? I'd love to hear them!

Related posts:
Dragonfly, butterfly, flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/dragonfly-and-butterflies-on-flowers-at.html
Orchid jubilee: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/10/orchid-jubilee-at-us-national-arboretum.html
Sunflowers, dahlias and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/sunflowers-dahlias-marigolds-verbena.html

Friday, August 15, 2014

Chrysanthemum, Obedient Plant, Tithonia, Dahlia and Bachelor Button Bloom Photos

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" Our first chrysanthemum flowers of the year appeared this week. I love this sunny yellow color.

The obedient plants line our side yard and are attracting many bees. Usually they are also covered in butterflies but this year we haven't seen as many butterflies as usual.

This week also saw our first and second tithonia blooms. These are plants we start from seed every year and we got a late start so it's no surprise that they're late in blooming but the flowers are welcome. Usually they attract butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.

I took this photo after a heavy rain and the beautiful dahlia was soaked. I love the varied colors in the dahlia and different shapes of the raindrops.

Last week I showed you our miraculous first bachelor button flower but it wasn't the healthiest looking thing so here's a nicer photo. They're small, delicate flowers.

I hope you enjoyed this week's mini photo tour of my Maryland garden! May God bless you!

Which is your favorite photo from this post? Do you grow any of these flowers? Do you save seeds or have any seed saving tips?

Related posts:
Bees on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/busy-bees-on-beautiful-blooms-zinnia.html
Sunflowers, dahlias and more: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/sunflowers-dahlias-marigolds-verbena.html
Dahlia macro photos: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/10/delightful-dahlia-close-up-photos.html
Cat enjoys dinner plate dahlia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/08/cat-enjoys-my-first-dinner-plate-dahlia.html