Merry Christmas

I have hellebore blooming... Last year, nobody had any blooms until the middle of January.
It's been a beautiful Autumn, the rains finally came, and with moderate temps, everything has been growing like mad. We're still deeply in a deficit rain-wise, last summer was as bad as I can remember and we've had a series of droughty years, each one seeming worse than the previous.

I've been adding a coupla truckloads of horse poop a week to the garden since August, and that helps a lot also.




What's not to love about hellebore?

These guys didn't get a drop of extra water in the bottomless sand over the summer, and they are the best looking lenten rose in the area.

The drought was so bad last summer that I didn't get anything from the vegetable garden!




The vegetable garden is doing much better, thanks.

The mahonia is in bloom...

Homminy is hunting voles or something... Good kitty!

While hardy cyclamen blooms, a smaller version of the florists cyclamen...

I grow it for those leaves...

Mid-November

It's interesting that so many different ones were blossoming during October.
Comment from October's post.

Yeah... Middle Georgia is actually considered part of the sub-tropical south. We had our first frost last week, and there's still plenty of colour in the garden. I walked around with a camera today, in an attempt to record the mid-November garden...

To have butterflies, you need caterpillars.

Here's a coupla gulf frits.
(Be sure to click all the pics today!)

The butterflies they eventually become.

Close-up of the lantana that was so popular last month.

Sulfur yellow visits a turk's cap hibiscus

Zabulon Skipper

Buckeye Butterfly

Checkerspot butterfly

Catching grasshoppers.

Mustard greens.

Helianthus debilis

Spiderwort

Salvia coccinea

Monarda Punctata

Another Autumn

The Monarch butterflies seem to be flocking in preparation for migration. Bushes full of butterflies that can hardly be distinguished from the orange flowers...

see how many butterflies you can spot on the below photo. These pictures are all clickable...

I count 5 orange butterflies... among the orange flowers.

The bushes are large enough that shooting the entire bush results in not being able to even pick out the butterflies...

Gotta love bushes that grow and bloom despite the drought, that you don't have to do anything to protect from the local deer herds...



The lantana also attract the night flyers.





The agalinis are in full bloom.

Agalinis purpurea are pretty, and are host plant to the buckeye butterfly, which makes them an asset to the meadow.

Their short-comings are that they are annuals and strictly Autumn bloomers, and need disturbed soil to come up each year.

Here's an interesting flower, 'Summer's farewell' (Dalea pinnata)

This cool plant has ferny leaves closely resembling moss verbena, which was what I thought I had when the babies initially showed up...

Later, when the plants grew upright, rather than prostrate as expected, I could see that it was something else. These little button flowers are interesting...

The plants appear to be biennial, which coupled with their short bloom time rather negates their value in the flower border.

Caught some afternoon "popcorn" showers

A bit of rain encourages everything.
While the vegetables are long gone, any perennials that surived the drought have bloomed.


These echinacea are a coupla years old, the constant drought has resulted in some incredible dwarfing... of the ones that didn't die...








The clasping heliotrope are incredibly drought proof, and the tigerswallowtail butterfly is happy to feed on this native delight.






Tree-frog onna milkweed Asclepias syriaca... They aren't going to eat the monarchs, are they?




Speaking of which...
The monarchs are back!!
Monarchs take their time getting to middle GA. I saw some monarch caterpillars in the Spring, and was surprised by the unusual earliness of the sighting, I don't know what happened to those out of time babies... these guys are right on schedule.




Always fun watching butterfly mating rituals...















There were no persimmons last year, I'm seeing some fruit this year!

Rain maker wanted

A woman in New York State complains about getting 14 inches of rain in a single week...

The Mississippi river valley is under-water, No food crops are being planted there...

Good thing we're in a drought, right? We can get out in the garden and make up for the coming food shortage...

I dunno... This is what my garlic looks like...

I can plant seeds, but they don't come up...

The desert stuff seems happy enough... as evidenced by the yucca...

the native delphinium that I posted about in Early Emergence, is in bloom.

I took pity on the blackeyed susans last week and gave them a little water...

I wish the tomatoes would do as well with as little...

still dry (reprise)

Black-eyed susans... Is why you should plant native plants... these guys are wilted, but bravely... determinedly... ploughing forward, and putting onna brave front.


It seems like nuthin but a cactus garden...

The datura have begun blooming...

n the yalluh daylilies...

And the milkweed.... Will have butterfly weed blooms in a few days as well... not sure where the monarch cats are... was watchin gulf frits lay eggs on maypops the other day, haven't seen their caterpillars yet either... jus a matter uv time...

Jackyl recorded a good summer song about the Georgia heat.... When will it rain?

Still dry

Last of the peony poppies...

And the goldfinches are enjoying the seed I've thoughtfully provided for their pleasure...

After they finish the poppies, they'll move on to the sunflowers... speaking of which...

First bloom! (Helianthus debilis)

Cactus bloom...

stiff verbena (Verbena rigida)