Some updates on previous “In the Garden” posts….
Back in June, I posted about trying to start two different types of hydrangeas, a pink hydrangea and a shooting start hydrangea. In addition, I attempted rooting sunpatiens, dragon wing begonia, pentas and a geranium.
So far it looks like the pink hydrangea, the geranium, and the dragon wing begonia rooted. The rest were failures. This was the second time I attempted to root the shooting star hydrangea with no success. Michelle suggested that it might be a hybrid created so it won’t propagate. Makes sense to me!
In another post I mentioned that my favorite plants are given to me by friends and neighbors or ones that I’ve rooted but the Carolina Bluebells that Yvonne gave me hadn’t survived the winter. But they did, they just took awhile to come back. Forgot to tell Yvonne about their revival and she showed up with two more plants. Yeah! She also told me that they aren’t really Carolina Bluebells, that’s just what her daddy called them. What!!! They are actually creeping bellflower. So I did a little research and found out that it’s a really bad invasive plant that can’t be eradicated–which is exactly what I wanted! The place I have them planted needs ground cover and it’s surrounded by concrete so I don’t thing the bellflowers will get away! (Hope I don’t regret those words!)
Last week I posted a picture of an Eastern Swallowtail. As I suspected she was busy in the parsley and I went out to check for caterpillars today. I didn’t find any but most of the parsley has been stripped of its leaves so they were there!
The Gulf Fritillary caterpillars have almost completely striped the Passion Flower Vine. Okay with me, that vine will take over if given a chance. Plus I only planted it because I knew it was a host plant!
Love the butterfly pictures! Are they cooperative models or does it take infinite patiences to get their picture?
Lots of patience. And luck! Sometimes when I go out there isn’t a butterfly in sight, but if I go without the camera, they are everywhere!