When the native flora begins blooming and the native bees
come out, spring is here. On Sunday the trout lily opened up.
come out, spring is here. On Sunday the trout lily opened up.
The honeybees have been out for a few weeks, and now the
carpenter bees are out too, chasing everything in sight.
carpenter bees are out too, chasing everything in sight.
The first butterflies are here, female Falcate Orangetips that were fluttering around much too quickly for me to capture with my camera. They are a lovely first sign of spring.
What wonderful pictures. The insects are a sure sign of the spring, but I think I like the trout lily much better in my garden-gotta get some soon!
ReplyDeleteHi Alicia,
ReplyDelete(That's your name, isn't it?) I am reading your last post in blotanical. Have you been able to navigate here yet? I had already faved your blog, I see. I just picked this post.
I love that trout lily, and the violet, I have here. Your bee photo is so crisp and clear. Awesome!
Lovely! I just put some trout lily rhizomes? or tubers? in the ground, and am hoping something might come of them!! Are your violets 'wild violets'? Those are in my yard and have taken over to the point I am going to rototil the whole are to get them out! Yours are hopefully NOT that type! Mine are pretty, but so invasive!
ReplyDeleteBoy, those carpenter bees can be so destructive. Have you had any problems with them? Last summer, they drilled holes into the wood of our screened porch. Every few feet there was a deep hole, as if an actual drill had done it. Perfectly shaped, half the size of a dime, but circular...and they would crawl in there to nest. We finally got some sort of spray to put in and they didn't come back for a while. They are amazing drillers, very interesting creatures! Yet, destructive to property.
I am not sure what kind of butterfly you saw; I'm not sure we have them where I live, although, VA isn't far from NC...Perhaps if I saw a photo I'd recognize it!!
Good morning. What welcome pictures. It's 9-degrees here this morning. I won't be seeing any delicate trout lilies or native bees for a long, long time.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
Thank you Tina. I certainly don't love all insects either lol and Carpenter Bees can be a nuisance, but the males can't sting. I think they're beautiful though, but I can see preferring the Trout Lilies. :) They are a wonderful wildflower.
ReplyDeleteHi Sue,
ReplyDeleteAlicia is right. I keep putting Sweet Bay down everywhere as a habit.
I need to go back over to Blotanical and see if I can access my messages. Blotanical sounds like an easy way to access favorite blogs.
I love photographing Carpenter Bees. They tend to take a bit longer working over a flower, so often they don't take off between focusing and pushing the button, lol. I like that my lens allows detail, but not too much. :)
Jan, I keep seeing the word corm with regard to Trout Lily. lol I need to look up the differences between the various root types.
ReplyDeleteYes, those are the common blue violets. And I transplanted them here! lol I love them and need as much groundcover as I can get. I wouldn't mind if they did get into my lawn, but that's still too poor and compacted from grading after the house move.
The Carpenter Bees do drill into the porch railing and into the rafters of the hay shelter. I just let them do their thing, since they don't directly damage the house. We are surrounded by a lot of pine woods here, so they do have the option of drilling in soft wood everywhere around here. After 12 years they still haven't affected the integrity of anything, but it sounds as though they were going after your porch much more aggressively than they do here.
What's funny is the males fighting over the hay shelter. They can't sting and so they wrestle, often rolling around on the ground.
I think the butterflies are female Falcate Orangetips, but I would like to get a picture. They were literally dancing around so quickly, I didn't have a chance to get a shot the other day. lol Before I knew it they were 50 feet away!
Marnie,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry. 9 degrees is brutal. When I lived in PA for 3 years I loved the snow, but spring didn't come nearly soon enough.
Hi Sweetbay, I am following along happily going yes, soon for us until you got to the butterflies! Now that is big, that is huge! There is still a chance for below freezing temps here, so while the flutterbys are much loved, we don't want to see them too soon. Our trout lily leaves were just spotted today, along with the Virginia blue bells, hooray!
ReplyDeleteFrances
Sweetbay,
ReplyDeleteTroutlilies...nothing says native woodlands like troutlilies...They grow naturally here and last year I found a little white one! You know exactly how I felt finding it! Thrilled! ...I love your wildflowers...keep them coming!
I did want to tell you that the little tree/shrub that I was trying to id...is a blueberry! I happened to see a few at a nursery but at the time didn't realize I ought to have purchased one or two~~ It is a sweetie pie of a plant and needs a few others to cross pollinate. I understand their fall color is outstanding. Do you grow them?
Take care...I hear colder weather is moving into the south...sigh.
Gail
Gail your yard is a real treasure trove too! I was just looking at a white Trout Lily on line and thinking how nice it would be to have some -- I've only seen the yellow in the wild here, how exciting to find the white one in your own yard.
ReplyDeleteI have wild Highbush Blueberries here. They do have excellent fall color, with some turning bright pure red even with some shade. (I'm still trying to propagate that one. I need to get out the instructions that someone kindly sent me.) However, I have noticed that the Blueberries that have glaucous foliage don't develop the same kind of fall color.
The weather isn't going to be as nice for a while -- such is spring...
Hi Frances,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've been loving this warm spell, it always makes me leary -- are 20's far behind? The butterflies really got set back 2 years ago by a freeze after weeks of warm weather.
Our Va. Bluebell leaves are coming up too. I am so glad, as I was afraid I'd lost most of them during the house move.
WE also found the Trout Lilies blooming on Sunday, perhaps hundreds of them and they were just starting. I too have a posting about them. I have added your site to my blog roll.
ReplyDeleteHi Randy and welcome. I've seen big colonies of Trout Lilies in a couple of places: the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill and one of the walking paths that goes around the Duke Golf Course. Hundreds of Trout Lilies blooming at once is a wonderful sight for sure.
ReplyDelete