Pretty Little Butterfly

Living in this semi-wild area, I have the pleasure of finding treasures blooming in the woods.  I saw this beauty the first year we were here, had help with the ID and now I look forward to seeing it bloom every year.

  

This pretty purple bloom is a Spurred Butterfly Pea Centrosemaa virginianum.  It is noted for its downward facing bloom.   It is a member of the Pea family and the fruit is a small legume. 

I found this trailing, twining vine in a couple places in the front part of our property.  There are some other vines but so far I have only seen two blooms this year.  It seems to like the dappled shade of the edge of the woods.  

This vine is native to the Southern United States, as far west as Texas.   The vine is more prone to trail along the ground or twine on low shrubs, reaching 6- 12 feet.  The lance shaped leaves are alternate, trifoliate with smooth margins.  

I will keep my eyes open for more of this pretty little butterfly to bloom in my woods.  

Just out in the open, near the Butterfly Pea, is this little bloom, also in the Pea family.   I haven't been able to make a solid ID on this one yet.  Will have to double check the leaf structure, thought I had a good picture to  refer to, but it isn't clear.  Will have to get a better look.

These couple pictures were taken at dusk, minimal light.  It is such a delicate shade of pink.  

Stay tuned, I may get an identification of this little cutie.  

©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

A Quick Look At Wildflowers, It is Wednesday

Every so often I am able to get a post done in time to join Gail's Wildflower Wednesday.  I went out a couple different times today to get some very current photos of natives blooming my garden.  I love plants that have a long bloom time....really gives a long lasting impact in the garden.  Two long blooming plants in my garden are Helenium autumnale 'Mardi Gras'.

And Lonicera sempervirens Coral Honeysuckle-  I was looking for some of the berries on the honeysuckle but couldn't find any.  Some birds have been enjoying them I suppose.  It is fun to watch the hummingbirds on this flower!

I shared Aralia spinosa Devil's Walking Stick with you in my last post.... today I was able to get a closer picture of the blooms.  For those who don't know this plant, it gets quite tall-- 10 -15 feet and the single stem is riddled with big thorns.  A plant to admire from a distance!

In the lower part of our yard I have four Clethra alnifolia 'Vanilla Spice' shrubs.   This shrub flowers through out the month of July and into August.  The fragrance carries on the breezes, a feast for the senses. If you don't have one in your garden, get one!!

A new plant in the wet part of the yard, in the garden bed that the tree from the last post missed as it fell, is Lobelia speciosa 'Cardinal Flower'.  It is my hope this bold red beauty will spread, reseed, and multiple!!

Just about to open is the Swamp Milkweed that I started in milk cartons over the winter...Winter Sowing!  Asclepias incarnata will be putting on a show later this month and into August.   Stay tuned!

I wanted to share this little violet I got this summer, Viola walteri 'Silver Gem'.  Surprisingly this is a native to the Appalachian Piedmont.  What a cute tiny little plant.  I have it at the base of my deck steps so I can see and appreciate it.

 I was happy to see it blooming tonight.  The shade is provided by a Castor Bean plant.  When it gets a little bigger I will share some pictures.  Do want to show you how little this violet is--

Please head over to Gail's blog and see some of the other wildflower postings -- such a wide range of beautiful blooms.


©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

If a Tree Falls......

....in the yard and you are calling to report a power outage, do you hear the thud?  Earlier last week we saw there was a dead tree hung up in the branches of the tree next to it.  The trees are on the adjoining property, in the thick summer undergrowth of any one of poison ivy or smilax or raspberry briars, not the ideal place walk.   Since it was hung up in another tree we were unsure of how to get it down without hitting the Magnolias.  

The tree broke off its trunk during a storm sometime ago.... we aren't really sure.  Wednesday night with another storm, it twisted, broke the branches of the supporting tree and fell.  It fell in the perfect place!!   The tree was about 40- 50 feet long, about 30 feet of it in our yard.

It missed all three Magnolias, missed a transplanted dogwood, missed all the daylilies, and missed the wax myrtle up the hill.  

You can see the rotted stump in the woods.  The rot came from the ground up.

Charlie got the chain saw out yesterday and cleared the tree out of our yard.  The fallen tree can remain in the property next door for the critters to enjoy.
I walked around the yard on Thursday to assess the damage and see if there was any poison ivy in the area where the tree fell.  Have all sorts of blooms--- here is a volunteer Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica.  The rains have caused it to fall over.  Hoping it will reseed and there will be lots next year!

A purchased Lobelia  speciosa, Cardinal Lobelia is blooming now in the bed with the daylilies and Magnolias.  The hummingbirds like it.

Another new plant that is finally blooming-- Heliotrope amplexicaule 'Azure Skies'.  Hoping this one will be happy enough to come back.  I have some areas in my back garden that plants don't like.   Have been watering this area more and have amended the soil with each new plant added.

Lots of foliage under the Edgeworthia chrysantha.  I planted Caladiums, Japanese Painted ferns, and the Corydalis I just bought.  It is a nice shady area, the ferns and Caladium are happy...crossing my fingers for the newly added Corydalis.

Clematis 'Prince Charles' is blooming again!  

A super long blooming daylily is Hemerocallis 'Strawberry Candy'.  It has been blooming since mid-May!

Finally I have a bloom on my Resurrection Lily!! Lycoris radiata has been in the ground for more than two years and it finally had a bloom!  

Love these long anthers!!

In the woods next to our property is a large stand of Aralia spinosa, Devil's Walking Stick.  Love seeing all the pollinators all over the blooms.   There was constant motion from so many wasps, bees, and butterflies.  

Speaking of plants that attract pollinators, Lantana camara 'Miss Huff' is a magnet!!  

Long-tailed Skipper Urbanus proteus (thanks Randy!!)

Hoary Edges, Achalarus lyciades

All these were taken in the span of a couple minutes.

Dark form Eastern  Tiger Swallowtail, Pterourus glaucus

So many butterflies and moths!!

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

I have been trying to get caught up reading all your blog posts.  At this point in time I have 100 posts in my Google Reader.....working my way through !!!!  Have made some headway--- there were almost 200!



©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Gone and Back from Music City

Some of you know I spent last week involved with 'Mom & Pop Moving Co. Inc'.  Our youngest just moved to Nashville and we brought a truck full of her stuff from here to her new place.  Her sister and new husband helped by driving the rental truck from NC to Nashville.
After a long day on Monday, off loading the truck and putting beds together, Tuesday we had some shopping to do.   Driving into downtown we see the city skyline.  Doesn't the AT&T building look like Batman?

We headed into downtown to see the capitol, the Bicentennial Park and ......the Farmer's Market.  

The wall that runs along the street the length of the market has the history of Tennessee.  It is a wonderful historical display that has great quotes from all sorts of folks that impacted the growth of Tennessee.

The state capitol building is at the end (or beginning) of the block.  You see the the columns on the right have  dates of the timeline.  The black granite wall tells the story of Tennessee.   I will go back again and again, kind of hot this time of year to read ALL of it.

The area of the wall that tells of the Civil War is just across the street from the Food Court at the Farmer's Market.  

Time for lunch!!  Love the sculpture of the tomato and corn...the corn is a little harder to see, it is a bike rack.

The sculpture is titled "Corn and Tomato" by Dan Goostree and Paige Easter  

The Food Court isn't a fast food court like we see in the shopping malls.  It is wonderful small independent venues.  Here is a great write up on the different foods available.  We had BBQ, quite good.  Someone in the group had a patriotic cupcake.  Blueberry filled.

On the Fourth we opted not to go to the fireworks display, still really warm.   We did do a quick run downtown to go by the Ryman, Tootsies, and other great iconic music destinations.

Next visit we will walk around and spend more time taking it all in.

It was time to head home and let her settle into her new place.  The drive home we went through the mountains, past Asheville.  Saw something kind of scary----fire on the mountain side.  Hope the rain that came through took care of it.

Yes, it is blurry, we were on the highway.

Not good....

When we got into our neighborhood we saw something we don't usually see... a gray fox trying to get to the lake through someone's driveway.   Hope this little guy found his drink of water and disappeared back into the woods.

Really good to be home, nothing feels so good as your own bed.  Time to get out into the garden and do some major weeding!


©Copyright 2012 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.