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Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed |
My garden and I are in the summer doldrums as the beautiful cottage-garden perennials die back, droop, and fade. I really thought I had little to show for Bloom Day, until I attempted to gather a bouquet for the tea table, and found more blooms than I expected: obedient plant, purple cone flower, shasta daisy, zinnia and black-eyed-Susan -- enough to make a cheerful centerpiece. My daughter arrived to pick up my grandson who stayed with us for a few days. He is my baking buddy and he insisted we make a 'tea party for Mommy'.
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Flowers for the Tea Table |
As my daughter and I stroll around the shade garden, we notice the heuchera are still in bloom.
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Heuchera 'Coral Bells' |
There are several signs of the changing season. The Chinese lanterns are turning orange and there are buds on sedum 'Autumn Joy'.
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Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and Physalis alkekengi, Chinese lantern |
In the cottage garden, Cleome is going to seed but there are a few lovely blooms still.
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Cleome hassleriana |
My climbing rose, 'Iceberg,' hasn't quite given up yet.
The pond is still pretty with waterlilies. And on the bank of the pond a succulent of unknown (to me) species has pretty white flowers.
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One of the stonecrops? |
Sunflowers tower over the kitchen garden, where the tomatoes have finally started to ripen.
And everywhere there are butterflies; I don't know all their names.
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Swallowtail butterfly on budlehia |
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Common Buckeye |
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Pearl Crescent? |
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Painted Lady |
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Tiger Swallowtail |
While budlehia is certainly a butterfly magnet, the most important butterfly plant in the garden has to be milkweed. I have five or six milkweed plants constantly covered with monarchs and other pollinators. As well as the monarch in my lead picture, I am showing some bees on milkweed also ...
I look forward to seeing the next generation of monarch butterflies feeding on my milkweed, as it is the host plant for the monarch caterpillar. Milkweed is a signature plant for me. Diana at
Elephants Eye challenges us to choose a 'must have' plant each month; milkweed is my choice for August. I am also linking to Carol's blog,
May Dreams Gardens, for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.
I look forward to visiting those two wonderful blogs to see what is blooming in other parts of the world. I hope to see you there.
Finally, I must show you a picture of a less-welcomed visitor to my garden. Black bears are common in the Poconos, but this is the first time I saw one so close to my house. He climbed the catalapa tree in the shade garden. The picture is a bit blurry because I took it through the screen in the den window.
Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (a bit late)!
Pamela x
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Victoria Sandwich - a tea-time treat. |
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