May 30 was a good day for pictures

[thanate]

Butterfly weed (milkweed family, great feeder of monarch butterflies) with hidden lightning bug:



From the pond, we have:

Iris vericolor, in two colors (determined by the age of the flower-- the paler ones are older)


Pickerelweed! (It's just fun to say, really...)


I planted this last year and promptly forgot what it was (though it's blooming, so I could look it up.)


I don't know what this one is either, but that's because I didn't plant it. Best guess is some kind of weird phlox cultivar.


...And the crazy alien flowers (Beebalm/Monarda.) They are mint family, so prone to taking over the universe, but huge and exciting and I've had at least two hummingbirds come visit them. Which I know, because one was male & the other female.

Comments

[thanate.livejournal.com]

I have weird coastal plain soils that I don't fully understand; it's kind of clay-ish, but more yellow than red, and this particular bit was also under some large yew bushes for probably 60+ years, until I killed them off to put in my butterfly garden. Honestly, I think it's this excited because it's a third year plant in decently meadowy conditions. (Unless I'm counting wrong & it's a second year plant, in which case I'm in trouble...)

I've got some M fistulosa in the side garden (more moisture, less sun) that is much less tall, and spreading more slowly. Also, I think Ursula Vernon has talked about having take-over-the-world beebalm in her very clay NC garden, so I don't know that that's the deciding factor.