Blossoms and Early Butterflies

It's been a beautiful late Spring. Plenty of rain has created a verdant period with lots of beautiful blossoms. The pastel lychnis coronaria (Rose Campion) plants are going strong in one of the front garden beds this year. Yesterday, a neighbor stopped by and asked if she could have a few for her garden. She came bearing a group of hot pink

lychnis to make an exchange. That wasn't necessary, but it was appreciated. Next year it will make a nice accent in this garden of purple and soft pinks.

The new plant is struggling but, I think it will make it.

I was very relieved to see two Lavender Lavinka columbine seedlings appear. The mother plants that Julie sent me in 2017 died out last September. I found one which had seeded at the trunk of the Japanese Maple. It survived the move to a better spot in the garden.

The Brite Eyes Rose performed beautifully this year. I love having the multi-colored blossoms ranging from pink to peach as they mature. That's a chickadee on the feeder.

I didn't take a photo, but the climbing rose in the photo has been considerably thinned out. This went from a healthy lush looking rose bush to one with with dark spots on the limbs and limp flowers. I hope that we have saved the plant by doing this hard prune. I don't know what happened, but it was definitely looking sick. Perhaps, there was too much rain this season.

Another favorite bush is the mock orange that is growing in deep shade. I assume that this is a native because there is no scent. This was one of the nice finds in the far back of the yard. We added a painted bamboo wind chime to add an ethereal quality to the fern bed. Anyone notice that's the color that we used in the renovated bathroom, Sherwin Williams, Dewy? It helped salvage a rather tattered looking wind chime.

Yes. I mentioned butterflies in the title of this post. Last year I planted tall veronica bonariensis in the herb bed for a little color. These plants attracted a Variegated Fritillary and a Monarch. I was really shocked to see a Monarch this time of year. Normally, that happens in late summer.

The Black Swallowtail progeny is feeding on the parsley. I believe this is called an instar stage for the caterpillar.

Yellow Snapdragons in the "meadow" garden in the front yard have added a great pop of color while we wait for more of the blue Love in a Mist plants to open. I had some difficulty getting a good photo with the bright sun.

This afternoon has been overcast as a cold front (the dreaded Polar Vortex) rolls into the state. In May?! It allowed me to get a good photo of the dark purple iris in the pond. This year the yellow flag irises are blooming late. I hope there will be some bloom overlap between the two types of iris.

Speaking of irises, I'll close this post with my favorite, Beverly Sills. This photo was taken on May 6th.