wild, wild life

I've discovered a new Aureolaria... Unfortunately, I can't find a name to assign it...

Aureolarias like Agalinas... are hosts for the buckeye butterfly.

EDIT: Apparently the above plant is a seymeria  (Seymeria cassioides)... rather than aureolaria...

The two plants are growing together, look alike, are both host to the buckeye butterfly, AND are parasitic... Hence my belief they were related...

 Here's the southern oak leech (aureolaria pectinata) that I've been enjoying every summer for a number of years....

 The poke is having a good year.

 And the mocking birds practically live in the pokeweed.

The towhees seem to be around a lot... whether he's eating poke, or something else... is an unanswered question.

 The blue curls are in bloom...

 Look at these bee killing spiders!

 Wasp sex on the verbesina

Which is a towering 9 foot tall!

Another wasp who appreciates the verbesina...

 I kept this lespadeeza when I first cleared for the vegetable garden, in 2007.

I keep trying to get a decent picture of the sesbania... without having much luck... at 11 feet tall, it has a lot of presence.

Gardening Challenges and Successes

It seems like the more work I do to improve the soil, the worse the rodents get... Stupid voles are having a population spike in spite of anything the cats can do... and they do plenty...

Looking for prey?

Actually... Mom caught this one...

They took turns questioning the prisoner... before eventually eating the evidence...

Got some taters up... trying to out-wit the voles by planting this patch next to the house in the foundation planting... Where the cats poop... 

Poppies are up...

Magenta spreen (chenopodium giganteum) seedlings... Gotta 'preciate food that self-sows...

Returning verbesina virginica ... Yall remember the frostflowers

Peaking Hellebores
And camellias

Spreading Mountain mint (pycnanthemum spp.)

I'm a real fan of this stuff...  it spreads very well, and is a valuable resource to the native pollinators...

 as seen on this video

This winter I found that It worked beautifully to clear my lungs when I had that bug that went around... I googled expectorant herbs and then went out and harvested the pitiful offering of leaves... This year... Ima dry some ahead of time...

Frost Flowers!

Ribbon candy....

 While a number of plants at my house form ice chrystals, verbesina virginica is always spectacular!

white flowers

Peak wildflower bloom is coming... Soon every patch of weeds is going to be ablaze of colour...
It seems that the lead up is offering a high percentage of whites....

Some sites refer to this plant as Clinopodium georgianum, others use Clinopodium carolinianum...
Which ever you want to call it, this sand mint... Georgia savory... seems like it has a ton of potential.

dalea pinnata is a neat plant that I want to propagate so bad that I can taste it... Unfortunately, the seeds do not come up for me... I even tried shaking them up in a can of sand when someone suggested the seeds might need stratifying...
Nor have I been successful in transplanting dalea.... for a short lived perennial... this neat plant seems to live on the verge of disappearing...

Not sure where this rain lily came from...

 Hog peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata)... Seems to grow wild over much of Macon... And seems to have taken to the dry sand well enough too... of course, the weather this year has been the best that I can remember in the 20+ years that I've been in the area...

eupatorium serotinum... this plant has the sweetest smelling bloom!

 

Verbesina  virginica 

 Here's another tall eupatorium, flowers look and smell the same as the E. serotinum, but look at the leaf! Earlier in the year... it looks like mugwort!
If I don't find the name with google real soon... Ima post it to 'all things plants' and let them id...
Edit: The best guess so far seems to be (Eupatorium ×pinnatifidum)

Eupatorium hyssopifolium

Here's another one that's throwing me off... Possibly Eupatorium glaucescens or eupatorium mohrii... and truth to tell... I may have both...

Ok... this one is easy... Sugar snap peas from the autumn garden...

Hardy cyclamen... not sure why they're white... 

Flowering ginger... Really a poor choice for the sandhills... I planted the ginger under the overhang from the house... gets all the rain from the roof... and still... barely blooms!

pseudognaphalium obtusifolium Supposed to be host plant for the American Lady butterfly... Never actually see caterpillars... but have plenty of them flying in the garden... so... a keeper...

Liatris elegans

Moonflower (ipomoea alba)