Friday morning there was a Monarch butterfly nectaring on the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia). It seemed so intent on the Tithonia that I was able to get pretty close and took a picture with my phone. Judy then came out, saw the Monarch, then ran back in for her good camera. I posted my cell …
I hope a lot of people pay attention to the opinion piece by Mark Winston in today’s New York Times. Winston, a biologist at Simon Fraser University, argues that we should be looking at the destructive synergy created by all the factors contributing to bee decline – pesticides, intensive agriculture, disease, etc. He warns that …
When we arrived home from the airport today there were two Red Admirals fluttering around the front garden. I chose to view them as our welcoming committee. A Red Admiral is not a Soviet naval officer but a butterfly. They’ve been present this year in limited numbers. We haven’t gotten any photographs, though, because they …
Judy took this series of photos of bees on the Tithonia. Here are three I particularly like. One thing about this picture is that it shows very clearly what a composite flower is. What looks like one flower is really a bundle of flowers – you can even see the tiny pistils in each. …
Yesterday Judy and I went out to take pictures in the garden when I spotted a black swallowtail butterfly nectaring on the ‘Raspberry Wine’ Monarda (Monarda didyma). The sighting was a notable event, given the scarcity of butterflies in the garden during the last couple of years. So Judy spent some time trying to capture …
This morning Judy was taking pictures in the garden and she saw a female swallowtail butterfly nectaring on the pansies. No, I haven’t yet replaced the pansies. It’s hard to tell the difference between a female eastern tiger swallowtail and a female spicebush swallowtail. Can anyone help with this? The eastern tiger swallowtails are far …
There is an article in the most recent Science section of the New York Times on efforts to fight the worrisome decline of bees. The focus is on increasing the availability of plants in agricultural areas that provide forage for pollinators. In California, researchers are testing native plants for use in hedgerows or among crops. …
Oh, the wages of indolence. Last year I wrapped my young trees in hardware cloth to protect them from rabbits and voles. This year, however, I got distracted by other things. And then it got so cold. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I found much of the bark chewed off the lower trunk …
I don’t want to put a damper on anybody’s holiday. The New York Times didn’t ask me if now would be the best time to run another article on efforts to halt the rapid decline of Monarch Butterflies. But they did run it today, and people should read it. Actually, the issue was presented in …
The new issue of Chicagoland Gardening magazine has an article that provides more evidence that European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) is an evil plant, at least in those areas where it is invasive. Most objections to European buckthorn are based on its impact on native plants. In much of North America, this shrubby small tree is a …
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