May Garden Bursting with Color, Zone 10

A lot of photos to share, but I hope you will enjoy them.

 We start off with some beautiful visitors.  It is fun to watch them flutter around the my little garden patch.

 Last of the Tonda di Parigi, carrots.  I will sow more in late summer.  A favorite to grow.  Opie likes them too.  Seeds from Botanical Interests.

A container of Swiss Chard, nasturtiums and bush beans.  Lets see how this turns out. Love to experiment with containers. 

 My latest bouquet filled with a little bit of everything. Sweet Surender rose, Sweet Williams, larkspurs and yarrow.

 Red Yarrow

 Sweet William

 Pink yarrow

Thank you for visiting my blog.  

Wishing you a lovely day.

Chasing Butterflies and Bees

  Yesterday, I took my camera out into my little garden. 

I noticed on the three Mexican Sunflower plants, were a lot of butterflies and bees on them.

 It seems the Painted Lady butterflies were out in number yesterday.

Here you can see I tried to get all three. The two butterflies and one bee.

 I spent a while outside trying to get these photos but it was really fun and beautiful to watch.

 I am trying to get use to my new camera.  It is a Panasonic LUMIX ZS60.  A much heavier camera for me, but Hubby thought this would be the right camera for me to use for my garden photos.  I was so use to using my light weight my mini CoolPix S600.  The LUMIX has a lot of neat features which I'm going to have to sit myself down and try and learn how to use them.

I was very pleased with the photos.

Mexican Sunflowers

MORNING DEW

 They brighten up any garden and home.  

 The Mexican Sunflower has attracted several different butterflies.

Gray Hairstreak butterfly

This photo shows two separate plants.  They grow tall and bushy.  The branches are fragile.  The plant will need some support.  In windy conditions, the branches will break or the whole plant will fall over (from experience).

This beautiful flowering plant came from the seed packet, Bring home the butterflies, Botanical Interests.  They re-seed well in my garden.

Orange Sulphur Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

 I'm a little obsessed with these beauties.  It seems I cannot get enough photos of them.
But I do want to show you what a lovely flower they are.

Pincushion Flowers

The Pincushion (Scabiosa) is great flower to grow.

Love the centers of these flowers.

A wonderful cut flower and I did not realize the different colors they came in.

Hubby and I bought a large seed packet from our local garden center that carries Botanical Interests, Inc.  This packet is called "Bring Home The Butterflies".
There is a mix of flower and herb seeds in this particular seed packet.

I thought we would see the usual lavender and white Pincushions.

But a few other colored Pincushions popped up.

They are prettier in person.

They attract a lot of butterflies and bees too.

Can you see the Praying Mantis in the Pinchusion?  It blends so well into the flowers. I have not seen it lately.  I think it went off to find its mate.  

This beauty is a container variety called "Mariposa Blue". I purchased this at my local garden center about two years ago.  It is a great container plant and it blooms a lot.  Just repot in early fall or spring. The last time I repotted the plant, the root clump was large enough to make two more new plants for the garden.

In a few weeks I will be repotting this one and I hope I can get another plant from it.  They are a beautiful plant to add to your garden or your container garden.