The October skies are blue. I expect that this time of year. The morning temperatures are cool. I am grateful for that. The garden continues to produce bright fall flowers. I am grateful for that too.
Garden work is so much easier in these temps. It is still dry so a lot of work is being done. The butterflies are still abundant and the hummingbirds are still with us.
I hope you enjoy today’s photos. I will be joining the Six on Saturday group tomorrow and posting my blog there. Come look if you are curious. Here is the link https://gardenruminations.co.uk.
The swamp sunflowers are finally blooming. These blooms are bright yellow atop this 6 foot stem. The bottom leaves have browned as a result of the low rainfall.
The Solidago is attracting bees as you can see. The yellow is very intense.
The toad lily opened its blooms this week. There are several dozen blooms on this plant. The rest of the year it is nondescript. It does well is this part shade area of the garden.
The tea olive is very fragrant. In fact, I can smell it on the other side of the house from which it is located. It is a very pleasant fragrance.
I caught this swallowtail cat eating my parsley. This parsley is almost spent for the year so I was not unhappy about it.
The hydrangea is one of three that I bought last month at the Birmingham Botanical Garden Fall Plant Sale. This cultivar is in the Endless Summer series which blooms on this years growth and blooms for months. I will keep my I on it.
Hope your weather is favorable for gardening.
Happy Gardening!!
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I love the Tiger Lily. No post from me this week, there is a big storm passing through.
Be safe Rosie.
The swallowtail is amazing!
It was appropriate because I attended a conference Thursday in which Paulette Ogard gave a talk on Alabama butterflies. She has spent 34 years in the study of them.
The Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar is a beauty.
It’s worth losing some parsley.
Gorgeous toad lilies! I’m still waiting for mine, which often arrive a little later, towards the end of October. Nice shot of that caterpillar: has it caused any other damage?
No. They only seem to like my parsley. Their preferred substrate is the tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) at the edge of my yard.
My parsley still looks pretty good given that it is lost in my inadvertent basil forest. I had fewer BS cats this year, but one of them was actually on the native host that I planted for them. They usually seem to favor dill and parsley to my Zizia aureus (of course, I do not mind sharing!). The toad lilies are worth waiting for – very sweet little flowers.
I’ve tried to grow Toad lilies but the slugs like them too much. I know they’re all part of nature but I’d be a lot less unhappy about losing a plant to a tiger swallowtail caterpillar than to a bunch of slugs.