Monarch Butterflies Wild About The Gardens

Throughout the summer and fall 

Monarchs and other butterflies readily flutter to native plants in the garden 

and seem to prefer them over most all others . . . 

with exception to our taller than usual butterfly bush.

Joe-pye weed, Eupatorium purpureum L. is a favorite plant of mine for its large sculptural quality. Butterflies, moths and bees love the sweets hidden within numerous tiny florets. 

Liatris is another favored native and great pollinator attractor. 

Ironweed, Veronia gigantea (perhaps) is also a prized native . . .  

offering beauty in its grand height and plenty of nectar for a multitude of butterflies and bees. 

  

A Monarch and Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly share a cluster of Ironweed blooms.

A Monarch and Painted Lady quietly feeding. 

The florets of Ironweed keep attracting butterflies into early fall. 

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' . . . though not a native . . . adds a bit of variety to the nectar palate. 

The last two of the Monarch butterflies finally decide it is time to emerge after four weeks in their chrysalises and I am able to release them out into the gardens. 

There are no other butterflies around on the chilly October day . . .  just last week  . . . as I usher them out on bracts of a native aster.

One is off! The other Monarch does later fly out into the lower field and I hope they were able to fly away further south that day for it got very cold overnight. 

And so . . . my Monarch butterfly series comes to a close . . . until another year. 

Millions are flying towards Mexico and perhaps some of the precious ones I was lucky to know will make it to the boreal forests high in the mountains beyond Mexico City. 

It was a wonderful butterfly season . . . I have a few more species to share.

Speaking of sharing . . . let me put in a plug for my latest Bestiary installment . . . you can see it at

  Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens.
All about the Wild Turkeys I have spied here at Flower Hill Farm. 

Flower Hill Farm BUTTERFLIES OF 2011 ~ American Painted Lady

American Painted Lady Vanessa virginiensis

The American Painted Lady or American Lady Vanessa virginiensis is another favorite butterfly of the family Brushfooted Butterflies Nymphalidae, donning large eyes. These painted beauties are most often sighted between late April and early October. They migrate south for the winter. 

If you look within the plants of Edelweiss or Pearly Everlasting in the summer you may find some of the caterpillars of the American Painted Lady. 

2011 was only the third year that I was able to capture one of these striking butterflies . . . so, it is rather a 'new acquaintance'. 

Sadly, I was not able to get this beauty to open its wings last year. 

I am including the photos below from my 2009 and 2010 gardens.

This American Painted Lady almost seems like a flower on this Verbena bonariensis. 

Painting in Progress

 Another 'new acquaintance' is this painting (Still in a pupa stage.) . . . that continues to grow as we come to know each other better.  You might remember it when it first began the end of November 2011 ~ A purple underpainting.

WORK IN PROGRESS

I was not able to paint most of December and January, but now I am happy to report that I am applying pigments to canvas again. Painting with vibrant colors helps keep joy alive, when outside all is white and gray with bits of dark evergreen . . . with exception to the sunrise and sunset skies. 

I have a good amount of work still left to do on this rather psychological painting. The trees are not really that close together . . . I have them placed a bit like bars . . . imprisoning the house and its occupants. The huge Rock Maples are both protectors and do appear to be somewhat threatening . . . foreboding . . . if you will. The tree's branches are intertwined . . . you can imagine the invisible roots that anchor them to the hillside are as well.

Here is a review of my favorite butterflies of 2011 so far. If you have not had the pleasure of meeting eye to eye ~ a Monarch, Eastern Black Swallowtail, a Buckeye or a American Painted Lady, I hope 2012 will be the year you make their acquaintance.  

Next time I will showcase Tiger Swallowtails. 

It is time again to fly towards Sweden and visit Katarina's Roses and Stuff . 

Much beauty and imagination awaits you there!

September Garden Walkabout Blooms of Monarchs

Hurricane winds whip

plump faded blooms piled face down

tossed about the ground

Silently walking 

magical encounters flow

Monarchs flutter by

Through green garden paths

gardener's shadow stirs

clouds of butterflies

Crisp cold front moves in

Lepidoptera south sprung

bright animate joy past

Light flitting through trees

chilling breezes slip between 

sweeping floating leaves 

Wildness Spilling Out Taking Flight Into Wildflower Wednesday

Sometimes life simply, softly, silently spills into itself. Expanding into crowdedness . . .  even fluff can push its way out . . . creating its own freedom from a small casing. Where an earlier opening of the seams of Asclepias (A. syriaca) . . . Common Milkweed, would have revealed a sticky, milky substance . . .  today the silky downy fibers float seeds out into the breeze. 

Like the Monarch butterflies (whose existence depends on this host plant) before them, the fresh seeds now take their first flight.

There is a perfect pear or teardrop shape in each seed. To see the flowers visit an earlier Wildflower Wednesday post. The seeds take flight with their silk parachutes along with autumn leaves whisked about by wind or rain to their intended destiny. Of course the intention is meant to be purely accidental . . . dependent on the whim of the wind and other elemental happenstances. 

Just as coincidental dotted about the garden there are tiny Azure Asters . . . that may be their name. Bombus impatiens . . . the bumblebees . . .  have a different name or way of recognizing these valued late blooms.

There are still some New England Asters blooming in the south field. . . but nearly gone are these great Autumn feeders. 

A Heart-leaved Aster  (Symphyotrichum cordifolium) is greatly beloved by many insects this time of year.

The Bombus Impatiens are often seen in our eastern gardens and are also raised for greenhouse pollination in California and Mexico. Bumblebees are escaping the greenhouses and are a threat to the wild native bumblebees in those regions. Sound familiar . . . when we industrialize living plants or animals and send them all over the world we often create an imbalance. 

The non native bees are spreading viruses to the native bees in California. . . the industrialize bees seem to have more pathogens than the natives. Sounds familiar too, right? The bees are not to blame and you can learn more about this important issue at a great site  xerces .

Bombus impatiens have large colonies, though not quite as big as Honeybees (a post where I compare Wild Honeybees to bloggers.) Hundreds of Asclepias (A. syriaca) seeds form neatly in their molded casing . . . what consciousness is there here? Not active as a bumblebee or honeybee colony . . . though each seed grows its own tassel of silken hair that will be caught in an hiccup of air . . . it will sail away . . . up high . . . sometimes above the Rock Maple tree tops, where the wild Honeybees reside. Life in wait . . . intelligence or simply mechanical? I believe plant intelligence within each seed that sleeps . . .  then when awakening . . .  sprouts a long milky white, fleshy taproot . . . piercing and entering the earth . . . anchoring a noble plant of unique qualities and beauty. It will breathe, exhale and perhaps sigh . . .  though never wondering why . . .  throughout its wild days. I do value wonderment and the process of wondering . . . we can learn  through our observations . . . by seeing and listening to the life within our gardens . . . the birds and bees and trees and plants have much to teach us. They touch our lives and make us truly whole. Wildflower Wednesday founded by our gracious hostess Gail over at Clay and Limestone gives us a day to think more wildly . . . be sure to click on over to her garden to see other gardeners wild -thoughts, life and flowers.