Gardens-In-The-Sand

Autumn wildflowers reprise

Another post of wildflowers from the middle Georgia sandhills... I sometimes read about how flowers are a rare commodity in the Autumn, and I've always had a lot of flowers in my Autumn gardens.

ageratina altissima

eupatorium coelestinum (algeratum)

Aureolaria-pedicularia

salvia azurea

cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae)

camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris)

Monarda punctata

Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) visits turk's cap hibiscus (malvaviscus arboreus) above and salvia microphylla below.

Monarch and gulf fritillary share Miss Huff (lantana) blooms

American Ladies on narrow-leaved sunflowers (helianthus angustifolius)

Narrow leaved sunflowers in the meadow with little bluestem and goldenrods.

Wildflowers and Butterflies

American Painted Lady and Dalea Pinnata

Honey bee and Bumble bee with Dalea Pinnata

Wasp pollinator

Coupla skippers

The agalinis pupurea are putting on a very nice show.

My drive-way

Sulphur butterfly visits the agalinis.

Monarch imatator....

Viceroy butterfly enjoying an over-ripe pear

Patch of switch grass

Helianthus Angustifolius

Hibiscus sabdariffa

Very dark gulf fritillary...

Equinox Blooms

Agalinis purpurea in full flush.

Cottony goldenaster and gulf fritillary

Dalea pinnata in full bloom

Heavenly blue morning glory

cosmos

Sunflowerz

I planted the sunflowers, morning glory, and cosmos seed in the last week of July, along with some squash, beans, and cow peas. The beans and peas are about played out already, and the squash bugs and squash vine borers destroyed the squash, pretty much as soon as it started to produce.

physostegia

pepperz

nettle leaf sage

Long tailed skipper visits verbesina

forked blue curls (Trichostema dichotomum)

Surprises in the weeds... Interesting year for watermelon this summer. My other patch produced early, and then developed a problem of blossom end rot, or something.
This patch was hit by a late spring frost, and looked like a loss, but pulled out all stops after the temp broke....

Remember when it hit 108° way back at the end of June?

Since the temp broke in early July, the weather has been pleasant, with unusually regular rainfall. Shame about the rest of the country...

Labels: autumn garden

Monarchs, Finally

They usually get here in August...
People have been talking about a poor showing this year due to the drought, and I guess that's right.
I've put out their faves though....

Monarch butterfly leaving surprises on butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa)

Monarch cats munching tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica)

The blooms on the tropical milkweeds are pretty, but I'd rather have the cats...

Agalinas purpurea blooms

Buckeye butterfly leaving eggs

Kewt little baby buckeye cat

Buckeye butterfly

I spotted a chrysalis on a pear tree.... This is from the gulf fritillary.

Long-tailed skipper babies on desmodium.

Desmodium blooms... Yall might recognize this plant from it's seeds, the ones that stick to your jeans and socks... This plant is better known as tick-trefoil, and the seeds as 'beggar-lice'. I could actually see a case for "dead-heading" this particular plant... Although.... the seeds are supposed to be valuable wildlife food.

Blooms on cranberry hibiscus. First year growing this plant, I'm thrilled to finally see blooms forming. I still need to find some "strawberry chenopodium".

Seeds from the sandhill ironweed that I posted August 28.

Painted lady butterfly on lespedeeza

Gourd patch. I pulled up that massive patch of vines yesterday, I'll be tossing out some turnip and rutabaga seeds directly.

Bee visits white verbesina

Bees on yellow verbesina. Yall might recognize these verbesinas as tall ditch-weeds, I pulled up a coupla stems last year from a couple of patches that were being mowed. They transplanted without difficulty.