The meadow is really just a field that we mow once a year – whatever grows there is sown by Mother Nature and it changes from year to year. There’s a good display of black-eyed susans this year (Rudbeckia sp.). Lots of fleabane (Erigeron spp.) and yarrow (Achillea) too.

Black-eyed Susans and Fleabane

We have our share of buzzy pollinators in the meadow, but I’m more attracted to the big colorful insects that float over the flowers and grasses – the dragonflies and butterflies.

Calico Pennant

Black Swallowtail

An incomplete list of some of the native flowers blooming in the meadow today:

• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia sp.)
• Fleabane (Erigeron spp.). We have at least 2 species of Fleabane, and I haven’t positively identified them.
• Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
• Maryland Meadow Beauty (Rhexia mariana)
• Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum sp.)

Thanks to Gail at Clay & Limestone for championing native wildflowers!

Last week I started to compose a post about recent butterfly visitors to the garden but decided it was really lame compared to this video. We have an abundance of butterflies now that the nectar plants are in bloom. Monarda menthifolia (also goes by the name of Monarda fistulosa ssp. fistulosa var. menthifolia) wins the prize for best butterfly plant this year. I grew them from seed last year – they made attractive clumps but no flowers last year – and now, well, just watch the video. I saw even more butterflies there after I took the video – there were 5 or 6 Great Spangled Fritillaries at once. They’re the largish orange butterflies in the video. The two other large butterflies are Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (the yellow one) and Spicebush Swallowtail (the black one). The mangy-looking bronze fennel in the first part of the video has been all but devoured by Black Swallowtail caterpillars. Usually they prefer the rue next to it.

Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)

No, really, that’s the name of this butterfly. Question Mark, or Polygonia interrogationis. Cool names, either one. I see these butterflies and their cousins, the Eastern Commas, flitting around the edge of the woods, but haven’t often gotten a chance to photograph them. And I think photography is about the only way to see the “question mark” in the middle of the hind wing. Can you see it in the picture above? Hints: click the photo for a larger image and then rotate your screen 90° to the left (kidding, but that will give you a better idea of what to look for). The Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) has a similar marking, but lacks the dot.

Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)

This is how they look from above. Much nicer, I think, but the “question mark” is only visible from the other side.

This butterfly was fixated on the gravel driveway and returned repeatedly to the same spot, and that’s how I was able to get these photos.

Cuphea llavea 'Tiny Mice'

It must be time for my annual post extolling the virtues of Cupheas. But  you could just go back and read one of the previous ones. So instead, how about  the virtues of red?

I planted all the hummingbird favorites next to the front porch again this year and hummingbirds are almost constantly sipping from these flowers. I’m not sure that red flowers are necessary to attract hummingbirds – I’ve seen them visiting plenty of flowers of other colors – but I happen to like red flowers myself and if they make the hummingbirds take notice, so much the better. Bat-faced Cuphea (Cuphea llavea) seems to get most of their attention.

Cuphea, Coleus, Salvia

This is very nearly the same plant combination I had in 2008. Cuphea llavea ‘Tiny Mice’, Coleus ‘Pineapple Wizard’, and Coleus ‘Palisandra’ are old favorites, but Salvia ‘Vista Purple’ is new to me. The hummingbirds like every flower in this grouping so I ignore conventional wisdom and let the coleus bloom . And sometimes you get free self-sown plants that way. I didn’t plant ‘Palisandra’ this year; it just came up on its own.

Cuphea, Angelonia, Zinnia

Blue/purple Angelonia and white small-flowered Zinnia are also attractive companions for Bat-faced Cuphea. Angelonia is absolutely unshaken by any type of summer weather in my experience. It’s almost boring. You plant it in the spring and it blooms non-stop without deadheading or any attention whatsoever until frost. But it apparently has no nectar because I’ve never seen a bee, butterfly or hummingbird near the flowers. (I’ll update this as soon as I remember the variety name of the little Zinnia, but it’s also been a good performer in this hot dry summer.)

Cuphea ignea

I didn’t plant Cuphea ignea this year, but I have it anyway. Another volunteer. I’ve had several cultivars of this in other years, and also the plain species, so I’ll just call this one C. ignea and leave it at that. It’s a very orange-y red, but I think it qualifies as red.

Lantana 'Dallas Red'

‘Dallas Red’ lantana is always eye-catching, although it’s generally more orange than red. The butterflies and hummingbirds love it, the deer and other herbivores hate it, and I think it’s pretty.

But look at this red. This took me by surprise last week. I know the heat and drought has been very hard on plants this summer, but it seems way too soon for this.

Japanese Maple 'Seiryu'

Most of the summer I don’t notice this ‘Seiryu’ Japanese maple much. It’s still a small plant which stands at the edge of the woods and blends in with the rest of the greens. When I walked by and saw red, I had to grab the camera.

Zebra Swallowtail on Lavender

It was very fresh and very fluttery and appeared in the garden after a rainstorm yesterday. I only mention the rainstorm because it was so hot and steamy outside that the camera lens fogged up. Repeatedly. Fortunately, the butterfly stayed until the lens cleared.

There was a faint wash of pale blue on the upper side of the wings. You may have to click through to enlarge the picture enough to see it.

Notice the pale blue color close to the body.

I’ve noticed that all the swallowtails are besotted with the lavender this year. The variety is ‘Munstead’ from seed, if that makes any difference.

And I found another use for green garlic. Green garlic butter! I first made it as an accompaniment to homemade Camarones Brochettes, similar to those served in several local restaurants. I puréed green garlic (the whole stalk, roughly chopped) in a mini-blender and then added cold butter (and salt because the butter was unsalted) and whirled it just enough to combine. I think it would be great with any kind of seafood and I can verify that it’s delicious tossed with ravioli and coarsely ground black pepper.

… all taken at Tangled Branches South over the last few days …

Tiger Swallowtail comes in two color schemes. This is the black version, a bit worn.

And is this the more-familiar yellow version of the Tiger Swallowtail.

Clouded Sulphur also comes in two color schemes. This is the yellow version.

And this is the white version of Clouded Sulphur. It's very unusual to get a good look at the upper surface of their wings.

A lucky shot of the upper side of an Orange Sulphur, proving that it IS an Orange Sulphur. They look a lot like Clouded Sulphur when their wings are folded.

Back to the yellow Clouded Sulphur again for a peek at the upper surface of the wings.

Great Spangled Fritillary, slightly worn. I saw a very fresh one today.

Gray Hairstreak, a small butterfly, on Horehound.

Eastern Tailed Blue, another small butterfly, on White Clover.

Hoary Edge. At first glance looks much like a Silver Spotted Skipper.

Silver Spotted Skipper, so named for the large white (silver?) spot on the hindwing.

I took this picture from the front porch. The Red Spotted Purple was on a tree across the yard. Check out the bee. It maybe be a European Hornet, but hard to tell.

This is why I don't grow broccoli. Cabbage White, the most common butterfly in my garden.

Seen, but not photographed:

• Monarch
• Painted Lady (probably; if not then it was an American Lady)
• Little Wood Satyr
• a zillion confusing little brown skippers
• Red Admiral (landed on my shirt and stayed a while)

Typical butterfly photography session. "Nyah, nyah - can't catch me!"

This is what I saw.

I think it’s a Fowler’s Toad, but it may be an American Toad. I’m no herpetologist, although living in central Virginia I’ve learned much more about reptiles and amphibians than I ever thought I wanted to know. This account says that Fowler’s Toads hide in burrows in the sand during the day, and that sort of fits with what I’ve observed. The creature has been there every time I’ve looked for the last several days, except once. On the other hand, my toad appears to be larger than the photos accompanying that description. So I don’t know.

There’s another little brown creature in the woods lately. Can you see it?

Look closely

How about now?

Little Wood Satyr

I wouldn’t have seen it either except for watching it flit and flutter around the edges of the woods.

But I’m hoping to attract a much larger, unmistakable butterfly – the Zebra Swallowtail. Their larval food plant is the Paw Paw tree (Asimina triloba). I planted two the first spring we were here. Unknowingly, I planted them in the midst of our huge patch of poison ivy. It was dormant at the time and no harm came of it (to me), but the Paw Paw trees suffered from drought and having herbicide applied nearby. Surprisingly they’re still alive.

So, while chasing the Little Wood Satyr (that sounds a bit odd) with the camera, I noticed this shrubby thing. Is it a Paw Paw?

Paw Paw (Asimina sp.)?

There are two Paw Paw species native to Virginia – Asimina triloba and Asimina parviflora – although only A. triloba is reported in central Virginia according to the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora. Still, this looks to me more like the photos I’ve seen of A. parviflora. Here’s a closer look at the leaves.

Paw Paw?

I really want this to be a Paw Paw, and one that Zebra Swallowtail caterpillars will find tasty. I’ve seen Zebra Swallowtails in my garden in northern Virginia, but not central Virginia. All these photos are from central Virginia, by the way.

And I found yet another good surprise this past week. There is a tiny patch (3 stems) of Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) at the edge of the woods. That’s one of my favorite wildflowers – not so much for the flowers as for the arching stems. I hope it survives to make a nice clump some day.

I’ll leave you with one pretty picture (this post has a shortage of pretty pictures). It was a surprise to me that American Lady butterflies like chives.

American Ladies like Chives

Keith Heidorn, The Weather Doctor, makes a good by-the-numbers argument for beginning the seasons on the Cross Quarter Days:

A good second choice for seasonal markers would be the solar year as measured by length of daylight or potential daily solar energy received. Now, if I divide the year into quarters and define the quarter with the most solar light/energy as solar summer, the least solar light/energy quarter as solar winter, and two transitional quarters of springing sunlight and falling sunlight, I would find the following:

1. The midpoints of solar winter and solar summer would fall on the solstices and the midpoints of solar spring and solar autumn would fall on the equinoxes.
2. The start/end dates of these four seasons would occur about 45 days either side of the midpoints. These we will call the cross-quarter days.

Or how about a completely different calendar – one with 19 seasons? Kathy Purdy pointed out a remarkable website recently, Nature Calendar. According to that calendar, here in Virginia we must be in Iris Season. Well, I see bearded and Siberian irises and peonies blooming, but some of the other indicators are out of sync. The forest colors have been more-or-less solid green for a couple of weeks. The meadow flowers have yet to bloom. Perhaps we can’t exactly map the Northeast seasons onto the Mid-Atlantic seasons, or maybe this is just such a strange year for weather that everything is out of sync everywhere. Of course, if I kept a good nature journal, I could compare this year with previous years and be a better judge of this. (Hey, that’s a good idea for a blog!) If I needed additional inspiration to write down a few nature observations, an excellent place to start would be Your Nature Journal. Just take a look, for example, at the suggestions for getting started in the spring.

With that in mind here are a few things I noticed today.

• I heard and saw a Northern Parula, one of the many migrating warblers.
• The Blue-eyed Grass has started to bloom.
• The first Red-spotted Purple butterfly of the season.
• The first Red Admiral butterfly of the season.

Postscript: I’ve written on this topic at the beginning of autumn ( 2006, 2007, 2008)  and the beginning of spring (2007), but this is my first time commemorating the beginning of summer.

Eastern Tailed Blue "puddling" in the potager

It was a gorgeous weekend to be outdoors. Some much-needed garden work was done, but the calls of nature kept distracting me. No, no, no, not that. Butterflies. Dragonflies. Birds. Wildflowers. That kind of nature.

Tiny Eastern Tailed Blue butterflies flitted around, basking on the moist earth in the kitchen garden. I don’t often get to see them with their wings unfolded. There were Tiger Swallowtails, a Falcate Orangetip, many duskywings (Juvenal’s?) and a largish orange butterfly high on the trunks of pine trees at the edge of the woods. I took this to be the spring “orange form” of Question Mark, but couldn’t get close enough for a photo or for ID. By the way, I love the Latin name for the Question Mark – Polygonia interrogationis. Interrogationis, get it? That has to be one of the most obvious species names in existence.

I saw the first dragonfly of the year on Saturday and several more on Sunday. All on the wing. Didn’t get a good look at any of them, but there were at least two different species. One was slim and one was chunky.

The previous weekend when I looked for spring beauties (Claytonia sp.) I didn’t find them, but Saturday they were blooming down by the stream. Further into the woods, the wild azaleas have begun to bloom. Usually I miss the day when the flowers are just starting to open and instead catch them after they’ve passed their prime. Not this year.

Native Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

Native Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

Native Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

They seem especially floriferous this year, but I still had to hunt for them. Partly this is because the flowers are over my head and partly because the woods are starting to get shadowy. The trees leafed out early in the hot weather last week. I had read that this species of azalea is fragrant, but this year, for the first time, I noticed the scent. Maybe because there are more flowers than before or maybe because I found them earlier, but I pulled a branch down in front of my face to be sure and, yes, they do have a lovely light sweet fragrance.

The woods held other suprises.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck...?

What sort of critter does this to trees? The only one that comes to mind is beaver, but I don’t think we have the correct habitat here. There are several areas on this same tree chewed like that. I didn’t notice it on any other trees.

But look here. This is my big news for the weekend.

Flower bud on wild orchid?

I think the wild orchid I’ve been watching for a couple of years is going to bloom this year. Doesn’t that look like a flower bud to you? I tried my pile-of-sticks trick on it and hope that will keep the critters away. Stay tuned, but right now, I’m excited and happy about this.