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Author Topic: Sunflowers and others  (Read 4630 times)

Offline reinbeau

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Sunflowers and others
« on: December 30, 2006, 06:24:02 pm »
I have gardens all around our house.   We've only had bees for one year now, but I knew there was plenty for them to enjoy.  They loved the sunflowers, every day there were dozens at a time working them over.  This is an overall picture looking from the streetside of the bed of sunflowers, zinnias and the main part of my front yard veggie garden:



Here is a closeup of the zinnias with a few girls on them.  They really loved them!



I wish I knew the proper name of this little circling allium, the girls certainly love it:



I have other visitors as you might imagine.  I have dill self-seeded all over the garden, I leave it because it attracts gorgeous guys like this:



We were happy to get 55 lbs of honey our first year, and I was thrilled to have it taste just like the honey my parents produced some years back (Dad enjoyed beekeeping only for two years before he got sick).  My mother is a 16th and 17th century kitchen garden expert and herbalist, her gardens are full of treats for the girls, too.  We're hoping to put a hive over there this year for her.

Offline Cindi

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2007, 11:47:34 am »
reinbeau, beautiful flower pictures.  Do you know what butterfly the larva in the picture was of?  Very pretty, maybe the swallow tailed butterfly?

Your bees looked like they LOVED the zinnias, good for knowledge, and then their is some form of allium?  maybe garlic chives or something.  The bees love the allium flowers for sure.  The leek flower heads were ALWAYS covered with bees, and other beneficials (even that blasted yellowjacket).  Great day.  Send some more pictures.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline reinbeau

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2007, 11:54:18 am »
It's definitely an allium, I just don't know what kind.  The caterpillar will be a tiger swallowtail.  There were at least seven of them all at once in different parts of the garden; if I knew what their chrysalis looked like I'd try to find it - time for a Google search!  :)

I've got tons of garden pix, I need to work on updating my website.  Now that I'm laid off (it's a good thing!) I'll try to do some fixing on the page.  It's annzoid.com but it's very rudimentary.

Ann

Offline Cindi

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2007, 12:01:17 pm »
Ann, looked at your site, go forward with it now you have the time off.  Like the height of the hives off the ground for sure. 

Right, the tiger swallowtail.  We have that little beauty around here alot too, it is magnificent.  Thought I recognized the catarpillar.

I have so many pictures of my gardens too, one day I may get a chance to post a few more.  Great day.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Cindi

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2007, 12:18:18 pm »
Ann, forgot to ask you.  The red sunflower that is in the garden.  Does that cultivar go by the name of Moulin Rouge, or Colour parade mixed?  It is pretty, I have grown one that was very similar in colour to it.  I have a cool picture of one that is not fully opened yet.  I'll see if I can get it.  Great day.  Cindi



The one below is the Russian giant, self-sows every year.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline reinbeau

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2007, 02:29:39 pm »
Yes, Cindi, I believe it is Moulin Rouge.  I grew five different types in that bed, tried to put the tallest in the middle and layers out from there, it worked out well.

I did a search on the chrysalis for the Tiger Swallowtail and found this page.  What an incredible resource for the children of Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia.  I love stumbling on things like this while browsing.  Anyhoo, the pictures were neat, now I'm going to have to poke around outside and see if I can find one.

It's fairly warm here today, in the high 40's, maybe even low 50's, and the girls are poking their heads out a bit and flying around.  Surely isn't a normal winter for around here, usually we'd be below 20 by now!  :shock:  I wonder if this will be the winter that never was?

Offline Cindi

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #6 on: January 03, 2007, 10:52:08 am »
I loved the Moulin Rouge, was a beauty.  Sunflowers are heavy feeders, remember that, they love composted earth and lots of good stuff (LOL).  I use turkey poop and compost.

Did you get a chrysalis?  Our weather has been strange too.  We had a very cold snap for about 2 weeks in November, about 2 feet of snow, (unusual to have this amount, maybe we sometimes get a couple of inches now and then).  And now off to warmer, rainy, rainy, rainy.  Too cold for the girls here to poke out their heads yet.  Only +4 C, which is 39 F.  Oh well, warm weather is certainly coming sooner or later, we know that.  Great day. Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Kirk-o

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2007, 11:46:43 am »
Wow that is fantastic looking garden.What kind of catapillar was that
kirk-o
"It's not about Honey it's not about Money It's about SURVIVAL" Charles Martin Simmon

Offline reinbeau

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Re: Sunflowers and others
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2007, 07:42:39 pm »
Wow that is fantastic looking garden.What kind of catapillar was that
kirk-o
It's the caterpillar for the Eastern Swallowtail.