Gardening to Distraction

September came in on a summer storm; it's been raining all day, until a few minutes ago, at sunset.

One my favorites signs of fall is blooming asters, especially wild purple ones.

I transplanted a few years back and now delight in finding them scattered through the garden in no orderly fashion.

Over the weekend, I found the first blooming purple aster of the season. They're tiny, maybe the size of a dime.

When I walked back the house, I saw these two butterflies on the flower. Can't you just hear them?

"This is my flower."

"Is not."

"Is, too!"

 Little Glassywing Skipper Buttterfly is on top, not sure what the other one was. Definitely both juveniles!?

Amazing they could both fit on that little purple aster.

Charlotte

Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill

I was once courted with Missouri wildflower bouquets.

My suitor would invariably apologize because he didn't have money to buy "real" flowers; and even though wildflowers changed, there always seemed to be a few yellow flowers in the bouquet.

After awhile, I joined this Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly in a passion for Sawtooth Sunflowers.

Sawtooth Sunflowers get their name from their toothy, coarse leaves.

Sawtooth Sunflowers are found over most of Missouri except southeast lowlands. They can grow up to 16 feet high and hybridize easily; there are at least 11 known hybrids.

Around my property, I've found them up to 5 feet tall, growing in bunches in spots where I couldn't imagine anything would grow. Although they love sunshine, I've found Sawtooth Sunflowers growing in shade.

When work started on the Missouri limestone hill side where I now live, I can still remember being distraught to see bulldozers mowing down patches of Sawtooth Sunflowers. Calling them "weeds" didn't help, these sunny perennials bloom through some of Missouri's hottest summer temperatures, when little else does.

Today I treasure a batch of Sawtooth Sunflowers that re-established themselves at the entrance to my driveway. Even when nothing else is blooming, these Missouri wildflowers add a bright welcome.

Charlotte

Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill

One sure sign of summer in Missouri is to see butterflies flitting through the garden. This Common or Clouded Sulphur Butterfly is new to my garden this year; I've given up trying to catch it in flight, it moves too fast but I love seeing the streak of yellow as it moves through flowers.

Interesting how its colors change when it settles on different flowers:



Here's the same clouded sulphur butterfly two flower pots over, on a hibiscus:

Charlotte

Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill

Around the bend from my pond full of Blue Dasher dragonflies, this White Tail Dragonfly hangs out around a rock garden.

As a new beekeeper, I was intrigued to read hummingbird and butterflies like pink, red and purple flowers while honey bees prefer blue and yellow flowers.

Luckily years ago I fell in love with one of Missouri's charming yellow wildflowers, Brown-eyed Susans.

These perennials on 4-foot tall stems are similar to Black-eyed Susans, only the wildflowers are much smaller.

Brown-eyed Susan widlflowers last wonderfully well as cut flowers, assuming a cat doesn't drag them out of the flower vase.

For some reason, my cats also like to chew on the rough leaves.

Butterflies and bugs also enjoy Brown-eyed Susan flowers.

A wild relative of the domestic Rudbeckias you'll find in garden centers, these hardy little Missouri wildflowers easily sprout from seeds.

I brought a bouquet home several years ago and sprinkled seeds around the back side of my house, where I still have a little hill.

I didn't add soil or even water. Today that hill is covered with these charming wildflowers, when little else is blooming through Missouri's unrelenting summer heat.

The idea was simple enough. I had all these wild hummingbird, or trumpet vines growing around my yard; why not encourage these charming Missouri wildflowers to grow up tree trunks so hummingbirds can more easily reach them?

Sure enough, late spring hummingbirds would appear and help themselves to the nectar inside the long red orange flower tubes.

After a few years, I started to notice hummingbird vines popping up ALL over the garden, to the point of being invasive. They don't grow on runners; as far as I could tell, they weren't being carried in by birds, or by myself when I planted new plants.

When I finally looked up this summer, guess what I saw.

By encouraging hummingbird vines to grow in trees, I was also making sure their seed pods were scattered far and wide.

I've had about a dozen of these sleek moths  on my deck geraniums this past week, first time I've ever seen them.

They're Missouri Clymene moths, so streamlined, like little moth sports cars.



Charlotte

Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill