Saturday, June 11, 2011

More Gardening or Milkweed, Monarchs and Mom's Iris

Hiding the stump in the backyard where Jon 'trimmed' the Buckthorn. 
Dear Mary and Jeni,   I went to Sunnyside Gardens and had a wonderful hour looking at all the plants and pots.
I went to Sunnyside and couldn't resist.
I was looking for Oxalis and found the burgundy one with the yellow flowers that I had at the farm last year.   Then I found the yellow planter and then I found a whole bunch of other burgundy and yellow plants to go in it.
A purple birdbath and a yellow planter.
 I have also been hunting up Monarch eggs on Jon's milkweed patch.  So far I have found 7 eggs and 6 first instar caterpillars.   They are being cared for by Jon at his apartment.  I wonder how E is with that.  Bugs are not her favorite things.
Jon's Milkweed
 Here is a closeup of one of the tiny caterpillars and the white dot on the right side is an egg.  At actual size the egg is the size of a dot from a sharp pencil.
Caterpillar and egg for Monarch Butterfly
Two caterpillars.  The one hanging on the side of the container
is working at shedding his first skin.  He is growing and it is
getting tight in there.  They hang when they are doing that.
Now I am pleased to give you a few of Mom's Iris as a contrast to the bugs.
This on smells great!  Sort of like grape jam.
This one has no scent at all.
Just a little scent for this one.
These belong to the people at 4429, but I love Siberian Iris so I adopted them.

This purple one with the white stripes is my favorite!
Love,
Nancy

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