Show your butterfly and hummingbird gardens/plants

[bower]

That peacock butterfly is a beauty! I've never seen them before.
Worth, that is a very impressive yucca. Would love to see your bats.
Here are a few of the flowers that keep our bees and butterflies busy.. The blue spikes in the background seem to be popular with the butterflies but I can't catch them when they're on it... it is a garden Speedwell.
Oregano seems to be everybody's favorite (everyone with wings that is).

[SpookyShoe]

Bats are pollinators, so bring on the plants that they like! I remember from biology
classes that the Yucca is pollinated by only one moth, correct?

Donna

[SpookyShoe]

Beautiful photos!

Donna

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by SpookyShoe

Bats are pollinators, so bring on the plants that they like! I remember from biology
classes that the Yucca is pollinated by only one moth, correct?

Donna

some are I guess but what ever moth it is it probably didn't follow the plant here.
This is a mountain yucca that is thought to be a natural cross from the high areas of Mexico.
Bought it when it was a baby.
Looks like it is about to branch out.
I know the tree frogs like it and I bet I know why, they ain't stupid.
I find them all the time perched inside those sharp spines.
Worth

[bower]

Well today was the first serious butterfly day of the season! I glanced out the window and saw them fluttering about. So I took the camera and went for a stroll. Only two types of butterfly - the Comma and the red Admiral - but there were a dozen + of each of them. I went all around the garden and every butterfly I saw was on.... oregano! The other flowers are just for show. Actually the bumblebees are working everything but there were a lot of them busy on oregano today. It must be in primo nectar condition right now.

[SpookyShoe]

They finally arrived in my backyard. It looked like a Ruby-Throated on one of the feeders. They'll be here for several weeks before heading further south for the winter.

Donna, Texas Gulf Coast

[MissS]

Congrats Donna!
The birds on the East Coast have started moving. Here in the Central Region they don't start migration until September. I still have a male who is just going through his molt. He will not move until his new feathers are in. I find this interesting because most adult males molt and migrate here in the end of July or early August. I also still have one female who is tending a nest, so these birds will not be leaving very soon.

[SpookyShoe]

Originally Posted by MissS

Congrats Donna!
The birds on the East Coast have started moving. Here in the Central Region they don't start migration until September. I still have a male who is just going through his molt. He will not move until his new feathers are in. I find this interesting because most adult males molt and migrate here in the end of July or early August. I also still have one female who is tending a nest, so these birds will not be leaving very soon.

Wise is the bird who waits for his feathers. These plants were beautifying the parking lot for a public tennis court/baseball diamond in my area. I saw them on the way home from shopping. The butterflies and bees were feasting. Dwarf poinciana "Pride of Barbados," asclepias, Knockout Rose, and Duranta.

Donna, Texas Gulf Coast

[bower]

Those are lovely flowers, Donna.
Got another surprise - dozens of colorful caterpillars, but not on the oregano with their mothers. They were all on agrimony, on both sides of the yard, none other.

[Worth1]

ZERO set flowers on the yucca plant twice in two years.
I have never seen these things set fruit.

Worth

[Worth1]

All of yalls flowers look nice.

[SpookyShoe]

I haven't been able to get any good photos yet, but I'm working on it. Birds won't come to the feeder if I'm near it. I need to earn their trust. My neighbor was able to get this picture of a Ruby-Throat on his feeder.


Donna, Texas Gulf Coast

[GrowingCoastal]

Skittish, yes they are. I have noticed that they particularly do not like seeing my feet move on the ground. Must be predator awareness. The youngsters are much more relaxed but still will not tolerate much movement. There is one older male who leaves as soon as i flip my camera open. We do so much for them and they just won't sit still for the camera!

[bower]

All the birds and animals here seem to be very camera shy, to the point that I've been turning it on and setting it up before I even go close to the subject - or even step up to the window. My camera has a lens that retracts when off, so when I turn it on there's motion and their eye seems to catch it every time!

[SpookyShoe]

I was sitting under the shed, trying to catch a bird at the feeder. I got one, but it's not great, as the background is a tree trunk. I'm going to get better photos eventually. It looks like a female Ruby-Throated.

Donna, Texas Gulf Coast