Nature Friday – Bugs and Blooms

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. Summer is near the end and so is the growing season for the flowers in our yard. We still have a few daylilies blooming.

Rose colored daylily

Yellow daylily

Some of the hosta still have flowers too.

Hosta flowers

Another late bloomer in our yard is our non-vining clematis.

Clematis “Mrs. Robert Brydon”

The various bees around our yard seem to be working overtime collecting pollen.

Bumble bee on Joe Pye Weed

Bumble Bee on Blue Fortune Agastache

This little guy was so loaded down with pollen he could barely take off.

Now those are full saddle bags

Next I want to show you some dragonflies.

Orange Meadowhawk dragonfly

Orange Meadowhawk dragonfly on hypericum berry

Lastly I want to show you one of the many leopard frogs we have in our yard.

Leopard frog

There are so many of these frogs in the lawn that when I mow the lawn I have to go very slow around the edge of the grass (where they seem to be the most plentiful) to try not to squash or mow over them. We seem to be having a banner year for leopard frogs in our yard this year. It usually takes me about 2 hours to mow our lawn but since the frogs have appeared it’s taken me about 1/2 hour longer because I’ve had to go much slower. I want to get a bumper sticker for my tractor that says, “I Brake for Frogs”!

I hope you enjoyed this stroll around the garden today.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining our Sorrell the Feline Boss of the Texas Branch of the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

Daylily Delights

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. We’re entering into daylily season in our yard so that is what I’m going to show you today. There isn’t much to say about them so enjoy the show.

.

.

.

This next daylily is a hybrid that sprouted from the one above.

Hybrid from the previous daylily.

This is the largest daylily flower in our yard.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This is my favorite of all our daylilies. I just love the burgundy ruffles on it.

I hope you enjoyed this stroll around the garden today.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining our friends Arty, Jakey and Rosy (a day late, but better than never) for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Read Full Post »

Flower Friday

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. There is always something new blooming in our yard now. I like to call this our white and purple/blue phase. Let’s start with the trees and shrubs that are blooming now. (Don’t forget to click on the images to see a bigger version.)

Stewartia tree flower

Hydrangea Paniculata

Hydrangea Arborescens

Lil’ Kim® Violet Althea

The althea (or rose of sharon) looks more pink than violet so it is the only exception to the color theme. Moving on to the perennials. I know I’ve shown you our clematis already but here are some more shots.

Etiole Violette clematis

I just love how the flowers cover the top of the trellis in deep purple blooms. Here are a couple of close ups of the flowers.

Etiole Violette clematis

Etiole Violette clematis

Blue Agastache

The agastache is a favorite of the hummingbirds. Next up are a couple of the hosta that are blooming. We have so many different varieties that we have forgotten what they are.

White Hosta

These hosta flowers have a bit more purple than the others.

Last but not least is one of the new additions to our perennial garden.

Purple Rooster Monarda

We chose this variety of monarda for its mildew resistance and so far it is holding up well. We’ve seen lots of bees, and some butterflies using them and even the hummingbirds go to them.

I hope you enjoyed this stroll around the garden today.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining our friends Arty, Jakey and Rosy for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Read Full Post »

Nature Friday – Flowers and Insects

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. There is always something new blooming in our yard so here are a few of the flowers we are enjoying right now. This first one I showed you when it was just starting to open but now it is more open and looks so pretty.

Pink Veronica

Amsonia

Amsonia and Ladies Mantle

Purple clematis
(if you enlarge the image you can see a tiny visitor above the center of the flower)

I’ve been having fun with my new camera and tried out the panorama feature on it. I didn’t have a wide angle lens on but was still happy with how the panorama turned out and was amazed at how there are no distortions in it. Here is a view of the east side of the perennial garden.

Perennial garden from the east side
(You can click on the picture to see a bigger image)

We have also started to see many butterflies moving around the garden. They are a bit difficult to catch with the camera since they move so fast and are never predictable in their movements. Here are a couple we found this week.

White Admiral Butterfly

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

I hope you enjoyed this stroll around our yard.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

Today we are joining our friends Arty, Jakey and Rosy for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Read Full Post »

Nature Friday – Flowers Around the Yard

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. We want to celebrate the first day of summer by showing some of the beautiful flowers in our yard. Remember you can click on any of the images to see a bigger view.

Campanula – Clustered Bellflower

Burgundy Daylily

Campanula Blue Waterfall

Climbing Hydrangea flower

Rugosa Rose and a couple of friends

Goatsbeard

Pink Veronica

Agastache

Pink perennial geranium

We hope you enjoyed this stroll through our yard.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

Today we are joining our friends Arty, Jakey and Rosy for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Read Full Post »

Nature Friday – Spring Flowers

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. Spring is a beautiful time in our yard so we wanted to show you a few of the things that are blooming.

Columbine – Aquilegia

Miss Kim Lilac

North east corner – Deutzia, Azalea, Rhododendron

Deutzia

Red Azalea

Pink Rhododendron

Double File Viburnum

Deciduous Azalea

We hope you enjoyed this stroll through our yard.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

Today we are joining our friends Arty, Jakey and Rosy for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Read Full Post »

Flower Friday – See Beautiful

Hi everyone! Today we are joining Dory for Flower Friday.

Last week I showed you all the daylilies we had in bloom so this week I will show you what else is blooming. (Don’t forget you can always click on an image to see a bigger view)

First up is a look at a portion of the north side of the yard.

North planting with ragusa rose and hydrangea in bloom

Now let’s zoom in on the flowers in the above picture. First up is the ragusa rose that is putting on a great show for its second bloom of the summer.

Ragusa roses

The hydrangea are just buzzing with every kind of bee and butterfly you can think of.

Hydrangea flowers with a little pink

Next up is a favorite of our hummingbirds.

Red crocosmia

Yellow Crocosmia

The roseanne geranium are just starting to bloom.

Roseanne geranium

Here are some of the other flowers in the perennial garden.

Purple clematis flowers

Pink cone flowers

Joe-pye weed

I’m also joining Sugar’s {This Moment} See Beautiful blog hop.

I hope you enjoyed checking out what’s in bloom in the garden. Next week we will check out some of the critters that use the flowers.

Read Full Post »