You think you see everything, but quite often, you’re missing something.
Case in point: I was taking a photo of fleabane. I saw a little bug on the plant, so I quickly snapped a picture.
I kept shooting because I wanted to make sure the fleabane was in focus. And look what I got:
Two little bugs flying around!
I love surprises like this.
The oriental poppies should be opening soon. (I hope it’s before I leave for NYC, otherwise I might miss them.)
This fern has been popping up in one of my beds for a couple of years. This year it’s pretty big. I’ll have to keep my eye on it, because it’s right next to some coneflowers. But I like it.
And this morning, I walked out to the porch and saw this:
First daylily blooms!
It’s a rainy day, but so far it’s a gentle rain. I sat on the glider as it began to fall. It’s a strong sense memory for me, afternoons sitting on the porch of my childhood home, watching the rain fall, staying there as long as possible before the rain started to hit my feet and legs and I had to run back inside the house.
Yesterday was incredibly hot and humid and my allergies have been through the roof, so I mainly stayed inside in the A/C. Of course, I couldn’t help but go outside a couple of times to pull a few weeds and I had to water everything as well, but mostly? Inside.
I watched hours of coverage from the Chelsea Flower Show on YouTube. Amazing. The British are true garden lovers, of course, but as far as I can tell – correct me, British readers, if I am wrong – the BBC covers the Chelsea Flower Show twice a day. There’s an afternoon show, and then there’s a prime time show in the evening. And I think it goes on for a full week.
Can you imagine that happening in this country? HGTV can’t even give us an hour or two of garden programming.
My ancestors were predominately British, so maybe it’s in my blood. Goodness! I love seeing their passion for gardening. I’m going to watch more today. The perfect escape.
Happy Sunday.
I love seeing the new blooms in your garden. What fun to have caught the bugs in flight. I have been out and about everyday this week so today is a stay at home day.
Stay at home and relax. I want to be out but it’s raining quite hard at the moment and I wanted to go to the outdoor nursery!
Thanks for the Chelsea Flower Show info. I’m going to check it out. I’m leaving for Europe in a couple of weeks and will visit a friend in England. I’ll be helping her in her garden as circumstances prevented her from maintaining it for awhile. I’m excited about going but also about working in an English cottage garden!
You’ll have such a good time! Enjoy, Wendy.
I believe the fern in the photo is sensitive fern (Onolcea sensibilis). It’s a native deciduous fern, and it most often found in moist woods. Not surprised it’s doing well this year… you’ve had a wet spring.
Sensitive fern is sensitive to cold temperatures, suffering damage from the first fall frost. It’s also sensitive to drought, and the fronds may turn brown and “disappear” in times of severely dry weather.
Transplanting is tricky, and it may be better (and more successful) to move the coneflowers if the sensitive fern seems to be crowding the coneflowers.
The surface is almost waxy feeling – is that what sensitive fern feels like, Amy? By the way, thank you so much for sharing this information!
Yes, the fronds may feel waxy or leathery.
Couple of good links that include information and photos:
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=onse
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=l300#AllImages
http://newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=1281
Even though it is deciduous and I always worry if the winter has been too harsh without sufficient precipitation to offset the drying nature of harshly cold temperatures, I’m always thrilled when the first few fiddleheads of sensitive fern appear each year.
Sensitive fern is one of my favorite native ferns.
It’s such a lovely fern! Thank you so much for all this information, Amy. I’ve become very fond of it. We had a lot of snow this winter and a lot of wet this spring, so it’s certainly thriving!
These are some especially beautiful shots today! I can just feel that fuzzy poppy bud—can’t wait to see it pop! (Hope you don’t miss it, fingers crossed.)
I hope I don’t miss it, too!
I think it’s fun just to shoot pictures, and see what pops up that you weren’t expecting…like those flying guys. It is blisteringly hot here…so, have to water. No gentle rain for us, unfortunately.
Our air conditioner was not working yesterday. A service person came this morning to fix it….thank goodness. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see him. I’m not so cranky today. Our Stella D’oro lilies are about a week or two behind yours…buds, but no blooms yet. Hope it’s not too hot to sit on your porch! ;)
A pox on the air conditioner! Glad it’s fixed. It rained all day, so it wasn’t too hot. The weather is going to be in the seventies this week, so it should be nice, though it looks like the weekend in NYC will be rainy.
Very very hot here and oh-so humid. Actually kind of miserable. I am gearing up for going outside to water around 6 or 7. The mosquitoes and gnats are so bad. I truly don’t remember them being this bad so early. Supposed to be 96* tomorrow.
Love the little insects in the photo, and, oh, how I love poppies. I think they look like crepe paper when they open. So pretty! One good thing about the rain is you don’t have to water. I don’t think we have rain in the forecast until Wed. Lots of watering ahead with these temps. I bet you are so looking forward to next weekend. Such fun ahead!!!! Hope the remainder of you Sunday is a good one.
Not a fan of hot and humid, so I feel for you!
It’s going to be rainy this weekend in NYC which is not so good. But it’s good for my flowers because I won’t have to worry about not being here to water them!
Those photos of the bugs are amazing. Your flowers are lovely. You have such atalent with flowers.
Marilyn
Thank you so much, Marilyn!
Just catching up on your last two posts and, OMG, that new planter is stupendous! That shop is a magical place. Always enjoy your floral pics because I spend the summer doing the same thing. I’ve been fortunate to accidentally capture all sorts of “wildlife” as well. I’m sure neighbors who have watched me take picture after picture of a butterfly flitting around the front yard flowerbeds think I’m nutty. I never tire of it. :-)
Same thing here! I’m often found outside in my pajamas, taking all sorts of pictures!
I just love seeing the pictures you take of flowers with bugs on them…so natural…there is a lot of ferns in the woods beside my house…I don’t know if they are the same as you have…Your daylillies are so pretty!
I will stand still for a long time in order to capture that on film. I love bugs and butterflies.
Hi Claudia, Most days last week there were 3 programmes from Chelsea each day, and tonight we’re getting even more ‘highlights’. I could listen to Monty Don all day though and I have to admit Adam Frost is beginning to grow on me (no pun intended, honest) We have masses of gardening programmes on TV here in the UK. This afternoon there was the first in a new series of ‘Garden Rescue’ It’s one of my favourite shows. Are you able to watch it? My garden is beginning to look quite good. My only problem is buttercups. I’m over run with them, but they look so pretty I can’t bear to get rid of them. Love your pics of insects. What a great shot. Blessings
Wow! Three programs! Inconceivable here in the States. (I think I need to move to England!) I’m not sure whether Garden Rescue is on BritBox, I’ll have to check.
I have a lot of buttercups as well – they’re on the the lilac side of the lawn. But I love them, so I welcome them.
Garden Rescue is on for 45 minutes Monday to Friday for the next several weeks. Monty’s Gardeners World is every Friday evening, and on Thursdays we have The Beechgrove Garden, that comes from Scotland. We also have lots of other gardening programmes that are repeats. (Several every day) I love watching them. My DH has just arrived home with some more tomato plants. A gardener’s work is never done! Blessings
We over here in the States are quite jealous!