I was looking out the window and could see this guy from 15 feet away.  A monarch cat.  After looking for less than a few seconds I saw three more.  Yeah for tropical milkweed.  Plus, even though I'm in zone 6b, I notice a bunch of small milkweed plants that are only about 2 inches tall.  Great fresh food for these guys.  Most of the plants have just started releasing seed and are blooming heavily.  My favorite milkweed!!! 

Right next to the milkweed was this zinnia with a friendly ladybug visitor.

 My newest blueberry additions.  They were 1/2 off at Home Depot so I couldn't pass them up.  Here are Bluecrop and Jersey.

 My Golden Delicious had a bad case of rosy apple aphids.  Lady bugs to the rescue.  There is also another underneath a nearby leaf. I love these hungry beauties.

 My Dwarf Honeycrisp apple tree from Stark that I planted last Fall.  She's branching and leafing out nicely.

 Fat N' Sassy peppers are starting to bloom.  They are thriving in the crazy heat we've been having.

The "shell" garden.  Petunias, impatiens and nicotiana line the back edges.  Onions are the large patch in the front.  Freshly planted geraniums (a gift from my mother-in-law) are near the birdbath and front center.  One Cherokee Green and two Celebrity tomatoes are staked behind the birdbath.  Scarlet Nantes carrots and 3 Salad Bush cucumbers are to the right of the birdbath.  I may hate this heat and humidity, but the garden is thriving so far.

 Pretty combination.  Double Knockout rose, Maynight Salvia, daylily, and heuchera.

 A surprise volunteer.  I haven't grown coreopsis in two years.  I used to grow Tequila Sunrise.  A lovely dwarf variety with variegated foliage.  It only survived about 3 years.  Two years later...surprise.  What a fun plant to pop up in the crack between the house and sidewalk.

 My dwarf Alberta spruce has had issues since I planted it last summer.  Lots of browning along the bottom and huge sections died off.  Since we had such a severe drought last season, I figured that I must not have been supplementing it enough with moisture.  Turns out, mites are most likely the continuing problem.  Check out all the webbing.  Ugh.

 Guacamole hosta shaded with pink and white azaleas.

 My Golden Delicious apple tree had some funky leaves.  I peeked inside to find lots of ants and aphids.  Yum.

 After unrolling the leaf, here's what was inside.  Where are the ladybugs when you need them?

 Felix Crousse peony with my new birdhouse in the far back (left side).  We just put the birdhouse up today.  I can't wait to see if we get some curious renters.

 Fat N Sassy peppers are loving the heat today.  The Kennebec potatoes are doing well in their containers.  I will have to fill them up the rest of the way with soil now that they are tall enough.

 Reliance grapes are starting to form.

 The entire vine.  Now I only hope I can keep the birds away from them this season.  They ate EVERY grape OVERNIGHT last season.  EVERY GRAPE!

 Ville de Lyon clematis gracing the porch.

 Navaho blackberries are blooming their hearts out.

 Raspberries are already in bloom!

Double Knockout Rose.

Bumblebee on bolting Golden Acre cabbage flowers.My bed of Yukon Gold and Red Norland potatoes. There are two Mucho Nacho jalapeno and two Fat N' Sassy pepper plants in the bed. Yesterday I added more straw mulch around the growing potatoes to keep them from turning green. Then I added even more straw around the strawberry plants to keep the berries away from the soil.
I purchased seed for Common Milkweed. Asclepias syriaca. Only one of them germinated. I hope it not only survives, but thrives and multiplies.Nepeta Walkers Low. It may be low but it sure isn't petite. This ONE plant that I added last summer is at least 4 feet wide. This is after I used a shovel to slice off a large chunk to plant out front. The bumblebees are absolutely loving it!Yesterday I placed some clothespins on the dwarf fruit trees I planted in the fall. It may not be attractive, but it will help with maintaining wide angles for the scaffolds. This is my dwarf Golden Delicious apple tree.I found apple aphid clusters on the new foliage of this apple tree. Their buddy, an ant, was hanging out with them. I didn't want to dig out the hose and haul it around the house to blast them off with water. I couldn't find my spray bottle either. What to do? Improvise. My kids' squirt guns came in handy. Not as good as a hose, but it slowly worked.

Garden Critters

Swallowtail in three different stages. A maturing cat, a young cat, and an egg (upper right) are all within this picture.My cleome was filled with critters. From bugs to butterflies. Another variation of a harlequin bug.
Check out all the Harlequin bug and babies below. They were covering the cleome. Looks like these two bugs were working on making more as well.
On the underside of a leaf, there were eggs deposited. Black with white stripes. This cluster had some of those and ones that looked like they were hatching.
Tiger Swallowtail.
I have to look this one up.

Felix Crousse Peony

Here is my latest addition to the garden. A Felix Crousse peony to the left of my Lady Emma Hamilton rose. Unfortunately I didn't know that it doesn't have a fragrance, but I still can't wait for the blossoms to open. I decided to get this variety, because I saw "the sign". Should I get another white or the red? Hum... This one has a pair of ladybugs on it. Sold! I walked it up to the counter very gently, not to disturb the ladybugs. I have fresh growth on the tips of my roses that were covered in aphids. My two little friends would be a very welcome addition to the garden....If only I could get them home without flying away!

Darned if the little ladybugs stayed on that peony. They didn't fly out the car windows or fly away when I took the peony out of the car around the house. They hung on. I let them crawl on my finger and placed them each on a rose next to eachother. Right among a pile of aphids. They must have been hungry because they immediately grabbed hold of them and started to have their dinner. I've never seen anything like it. They stayed there eating while my family had dinner. I could see them munching away. They were gone the next morning, but so were most of the aphids! I hope those little ladybugs enjoyed their meal and decided to stay in my garden. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for them. I greatly appreciate their work!

Peony Buds

At the end of last season I added two Immaculee peonies (The ants seem to be enjoying one of them in the picture above). The first I bought at Lowes. Full price. The second I purchased on sale at the grocery store. There was no tag, so I figured I'd take my chance on a mystery peony of unknown color. It was priced low enough that I would take my chances. How exciting! Hopefully I'd get one that was a different color than the white one I already had. Turns out that when I went to plant the peony, I flipped the container and it had a sticker that stated, "Immaculee". A few weeks ago I added an Edulis Superba. I hear these are quite fragrant. Pink. I wanted a variety that reminded me of the large, double peonies that I had as a kid. Very fragrant. Beautiful in containers. I may have found such a peony. Since it was only planted a few weeks ago, I don't expect to see any blooms this year. The anticipation is still fun.

Aphids! Already! And other garden news.

I was so excited to receive my onion order from Dixondale Farms this afternoon. A long storage sampler with a blend of white, red, and yellow onions. They went into the ground just a while ago.

.

Check out what I found covering the upper part of two cane on my Brite Eyes climbing rose. Ugh. I have to worry about this already. The news said that temperatures are 11 degrees above normal for the month. 11 degrees! It's great to see everything blooming so early, but aphids. Gross. And some really tiny white flies. Even better! Where are the ladybugs and the resident praying mantis when I need them.

.

Recently I planted my two new raspberry plants. Fall Gold and Caroline. Fall Gold has broken dormancy and appears to be doing well. Caroline looks very dead. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also received a Reliance grape vine from the same company (Indiana Berry) that still appears very dead. The Navaho blackberry from them is breaking dormancy though. It's still too early to worry too much.

.

Strawberries are now in their Al's flower pouches, hanging containers, and strawberry planters. They seem to be doing well. I do admit that it is a pain watering the pouches everyday, but the squirrels are leaving them alone. Priceless. They're still digging them out of the planters though. You win some, you lose some.

.

The lilacs are in bloom in my neighbors' yards. The smell is intoxicating. Every year I'm so jealous of their blooms and wished I could snatch a few blossoms to bring in the house. Well I'm wishing no more. I caved and bought my very own lilac from Home Depot a couple of nights ago. Charles Joly. I can't wait to see how it develops over the next few years.

.

Well, that's the latest around here. Happy gardening everyone!

Aphids Beware!

Raising beneficials! My son and I had great success raising butterflies, so I purchased him the Ladybug Land Kit also by Insect Lore. You can see a larvae on the paper and on the wall of the dome. We've only had them about a week and just yesterday they started hanging on the sides of the dome (the beginning of their pupal stage). In about 5 days we should have some beneficial ladybugs to release into our garden!

The Garden In June: A Photo Update

My Lady Emma Hamilton rose is finally in bloom. The coloring is gorgeous. The scent is like a citrus, lemon Pledge. It's wonderful! Each rose have little green worm nesting inside the blossom. They don't seem to be doing any damage although I saw one toss a little piece of poop out of the blossom. Kind of gross, but I don't mind them so much.

My first attempt at growing celery appears to be a huge success. After the rainiest, record-breaking, Spring I can remember the only plants that seemed to thrive it were the Tango celery. All eight plants actually look like...celery. I wasn't sure how they would turn out at first. They were a bit floppy, but after all that rain they stood right up and have developed nice, thick stalks. It felt like it happened overnight. That was a great garden surprise.

Another great surprise, despite the rains, was how well this Red Morn Madness petunia held up. The other varieties took a few days to start blooming again. This variety just laughed at the rain. It's a real winner.

Unfortunately the rain took a toll on a few plants. One of my Autumn Joy sedum and about half of my Burpeanna pea plants rotted out of the ground. They just couldn't handle the massive amounts of rain this month. On a more positive note, I uncovered a nice-sized, Mucho Nacho jalapeno pepper yesterday while crawling around my raised beds. It won't be long until this little guy is ready. Both the Fat n' Sassy and Mucho Nacho plants all have small peppers on them.