The Ailanthus moth feeds on nectar, but the young feed on Ailanthus leaves. As we are NOT fond of ‘Stink Trees’, we find this visitor downright patriotic.
Posts Tagged ‘flowers’
Special guest moth
Posted in Elsinore, Gardening, insects, Introductions, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged A tree grows in Brooklyn, Ailanthus, black-eyed susans, flowers, Gardening, moths, non-native, yellow on 11 July, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Asters of the Universe
Posted in autumn, Gardening, tagged asters, blue, flowers, pink on 26 September, 2015| 1 Comment »
With minor apologies to classic poetry…
Posted in Art and Craft, composite, My brain, tagged art, asters, flowers, seasons, sumer is icumen in, tree bark on 22 May, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Finally, signs of spring
Posted in Elsinore, Gardening, Introductions, Nature, scenery, tagged bees, change, Church and Graveyard, crocuses, flowers, rock iris, saffron, spring on 2 April, 2015| 2 Comments »
The new garden bed is starting to show signs of life. Crocuses, grape hyacinth leaves, a bit of new growth at the base of the perennials, and little red fists of peony leaves are punching upward from the soil…
I’ve also learned that a happy side effect of leaving more of the aster stalks up through the winter is that it is more difficult for the rabbits to get at the rock iris:
And did you notice our first Special Guest Bee for 2015? Yes! The First Bee of Spring!!
It’s right near the center of one of the striped crocuses. Here:
Maybe a polyester bee?
Small Strawberry Dress (or, Dress with Small Strawberries)
Posted in Art and Craft, Backstory, Fabric, tagged blue, child's dress, flowers, is this really vintage?, leaves, piecework, red, Strawberry Fields Forever, strawberry vines on 5 March, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Either title will do; you can see from the weave that the pattern is small. Appropriate for a child’s dress that wouldn’t even cover me from neck to navel at this point.
I suppose I should have a “Fabric” category for the blog — I keep finding items that might need memorializing.
(Siri ‘helpfully’ suggests I wanted to write “memory ozone” there. Really?!!)
There’s a chance I’m misremembering, but I think this dress is from my days of little red shoes with multiple buckles and insisting that all my stuffed animals be brought to the living room mid-afternoon, so ‘birthday parties” could happen.
The flannel fabric is still soft and the colors bright and I am not sure what to do with it now that it’s here. I’m better with furniture, really. I can work out what to do with furniture.
Kinda hard to convince either of the cats to wear this, even if Malkin would look adorable with his grey ruff puffing out from beneath a tiny Peter Pan collar…
The loneliest asters
Posted in Food, Gardening, tactless observations, tagged asters, bees, butterflies, flowers, garden center, nectar, purple dome, sterile on 4 October, 2012| 3 Comments »
I wish I could track down where I had learned this, but I’d heard from a gardener a few years ago that while the aster Purple Dome had terrific color, it was sterile [that I can confirm elsewhere] and that it didn’t have a lot of nectar, if any, to offer bees or butterflies.
And, as you can see, the color is great, but do you see any visitors? Nope, me neither.
Granted, I have heard that some asters are so splendidly pollen/nectar-iferous that bees and butterflies will ignore other offerings in favor of “the really good stuff”, but the plant here just wasn’t attracting anybody, and you’d think they’d stop by to at least look around….
Meanwhile, the October Skies and wild white asters are all abuzz here. This Purple Dome specimen stayed at the garden center. Why spoil the party?
Rethorykal Questions 