Unfolding

Unfolding, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Unfolding,the map of the night
gets the location of every drop
of mist for anyone thirsting.
Be quick at dawn
before each place is extinguished by the light
and a new map draws itself.

About the best thing I can say...

...concerning "Japanese" Beetles (Popillia japonica ) is that they do not recite Vogon Poetry. If you don't know or have forgotten what Vogon Poetry is, here is a refresher: http://youtu.be/IxPeIiU2kx4

Oops!

Oops! I really wasn't going to eat this cucumber leaf: honest!

Prickly lettuce-Lactuca serriola

Prickly lettuce-Lactuca serriola, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Not one of my favorite plants. Very invasive in the garden and unpleasant to handle without gloves. Plus the flowers are small and pale yellow, seemingly an after thought. But even the most noxious weed has some redeeming features...OK maybe not musk thistle-but seen in the right light even this plant does. Also it turns out-if WIkipedea can be trusted that this plant is the closest relative of cultivated lettuce.

They're here!

What's better than the return of the swallows to Capistrano?  Of course! the first black swallowtail larva of the year in my garden.

 
This one is on Rue rather than dill or fennel.

Opuntia

From my garden, these cacti over winter nicely outdoors in Kansas.  The plant is beyond prickly- so hard to handle- but the flowers!

As if by their own light

Was out in the yard today after school with the sun out for the first time in maybe five days. Ironically though I got more interested in the textures than the color of the flowers in my garden.

Tulip- and the tulip is one of those "black" varieties.

Vinca

Dandelion

Friendship Garden

Friendship Garden, a set on Flickr.

Today I went to the Sister Cities Friendship Garden in Lawrence KS. This is a pocket park at 11th and Mass dedicated in the year 2000. Lawrence has several sister cities, this park dedicated to Hiratsuka City Japan. See the plaque for more details.

Oddly enough I had never taken photos here until today; the redbud and cherries in full bloom.

Mums

mums, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

This was a bad summer for my mums. The heat really stunted my plants but I did get some nice intense colors...just not very many flowers. I took this with my phone since yours truly left the house with camera but minus the SD memory card. Well as they say the best camera for the job is the one you have with you.

Goldfinch on yellow cone flower

Goldfinch on yellow cone flower, a photo by pdecell on Flickr.

Goldfinches have been picking through the heads of my yellow cone flower the last few days. Hard to get good closeups so these are cropped and filtered through Photoshop Elements sharpen tools

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Caught this little jumping spider on a daffodil today. I am just a sucker for these spiders.

12 Spot Skimmer

This summer has been a great dragonfly season in my yard. Today I went out to get some shots and this wonderful 12 spot skimmer nicely cooperated and kept returning to its perch in my garden, letting me get pretty close before leaving. Click on the image to go to my Flickr stream for a larger view.

There are are also widow skimmers in my yard. I had forgotten just how much sexual dimorphism there can be in dragonflies.

First the male with a greyish bloom and the same sort of grey in the wings as the 12 spot:



Next the female. Note she has no grey bloom at all.



I always think of my mom when I think of dragonflies. She had this this notion the the big green darners around our house would sting and she told me to watch out for them.

These big green dragonflies are commonly called darners or darning needles. One day I found out why when I manged to catch one in my hand. The insect twisted its abdomen around and poked repeatedly at my hand. It started me but I hung on to the insect, the mystery of my mother's fear and the name resolved.

Alas, no darners in my yard.

Dogbane Saucrobotys

Found these lovelies on dog bane in my backyard yesterday. They make silken shelters by pulling leaves together and were really doing a number on the plants. Bug Guide shows these as the dog bane Saucrobotys moth.

See http://bugguide.net/node/view/5411/bgpage

and for the adult:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/339331/bgimage

Some people...

...watch for the first robin of Spring. What do I watch for? Obviously, the first...

Be Careful What You Wish For...

The other week I was bemoaning the fact that I had very few monarch butterfly larvae on my milkweed plants. I had only seen one and I figured that was it. Yesterday, I found one of my milkweeds pretty much stripped of leaves-not decimated because that would imply only one of 10 leaves eaten. Looking more closely I found 9 or 10 fat monarch larvae some of whom were really desperate acting and chomping down on the flowers.



Well so now I have this superfluity of monarch larvae destroying their food source!

OK...today I was mowing the lawn, something that should have been done yesterday, when I noticed several branches on my ornamental cherry, which I had just planted this spring were stripped by these cute larvae. I am not sure what kind they are, and have a request for ran ID out in some of the insect forums I am on. Maybe some reader here knows about these guys.




I probably should spray, but I'm betting they pretty much grown so I don't think they will strip the whole tree. But they are making a good attempt at it as you can see here.



Unlike the monarch larvae, these guys live in groups-vicious packs actually. When they are disturbed they have a characteristic pose: both front and read ends up. Kind of the insect equivalent of the Yoga exercise known as the bow.




There are, by the way, lots of group living larvae and here is an excellent overview with plenty of pictures. Unfortunately my "pack" is not shown.

At this rate I will never get my yard work done!

Japanese Beetles in Kansas

Last week my wife and I went to Big Cedar near Branson and I was surprised to see Japanese beetles all over the plantings. This insect is a major pest back East because it will eat just about any garden plant and loves roses.

Since I have not seen this beetle in Lawrence, I decided to see what's known about its distribution in Kansas. It turns out there is a very nice data base called NAPIS, the National Agricultural Pest Information System. or “Pest Tracker”. Looking up Japanese beetle gives an information link with pictures of the sort of damage the grubs can do to lawns, tips for controlling the insect. They don't mention what we used to do when I was young namely pick the beetles off and plop them in jar of rubbing alcohol.

Alas there doesn't seem to be any quick fixes, but that is typical for most pest species. Instead the suggested approach outlined here is an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. IPM involves monitoring larval and adult populations, cultural practices and yes judicial use of appropriate pesticides and where practical biological control with pathogens that attack the grubs. For the Japanese beetle there are several biological control options including parasitic roundworms, bacteria such as Bt which you can buy locally, and milky spore.

The other thing to check is the distribution map on Pest Tracker. Fortunately this map has just been updated for the Japanese Beetle. Check out the full sized map on the Pest Tracker site.

Notice the beetle is widespread in the East and it appears to be moving into Kansas. In Douglas County, it has been found in surveys but is not widespread. There is one hot area of infestation, namely Wichita and the Kansas Department of Agriculture blames infested nursery stock for this.

So look at the beetle picture carefully. The beetle is easy to identify by the white markings on the side of the abdomen, the greenish metallic thorax and orange wing covers. If you see it collect one for verification, contact the local extension bureau for advice and don't bring uninspected plant material from another area into Kansas.

Dappled Water Lilies

dappled water lilies
Originally uploaded by pdecell

As a friend commented...you can't go wrong shooting pictures of water lilies but I really like the dappled light on these flowers. So enjoy. By the way these this year's blooms from the plant pictured back in 2006 here.

Hungry Baby

This newly hatched mantid was one of many on my Viburnum yesterday.

Such a handsome plant

This is a plant picture I took last month at Disney World. At first I thought the plant was some sort of viburnum, but while catching up with Jenn Forman-Orth's wonderful Invasive Species Web log, found this post showing a plant called Brazilian pepper, considered to be a highly invasive introduced species in Florida. So I sent the picture off to several plant identification groups on flickr and the ID came back... Schinus terebinthifolius AKA Brazilian Pepper or Christmas Berry.

According to the University of Florida's Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, this species is from South America and has been aggressively colonizing a wide range of habitats in South Florida, replacing native plants. As so many other plants, Brazilian Pepper was introduced as an ornamental. The orange berries are attractive to birds and mammals and this combined with a high germination rate under a range of conditions appears to be the main factor in it's spread.

You might think that invasive species are just a major problem in places such as Florida but Kansas has it's own collection of problem introduced species. The USDA's list of Kansas invasive plants alone has 35 species on it and the list is very incomplete. Some of these species such as musk thistle are obvious pests, but others such as Russian Olive, Japanese Honeysuckle, Tree of Heaven and certain types of St. Johns wort are less well known invasives.

An example of a potentially invasive ornamental, one that I have in my garden, is "Zebra grass", Miscanthus sinensis. This plant isn't in the same league as Kudzu but it is a plant to watch according to the Global Invasive Species Database.

So think carefully before you buy that ornamental. Get the scientific name and find out if it is an invasive species-not all invasive species are officially banned so you can't rely on the plant being environmentally friendly just because it is at your local nursery.

If you want a particular type of plant, often there are native or a least non invasive alternatives. One useful source for alternatives from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens also has tips on garden design and gardening for wildlife. Another useful site is the Global Invasive Species Database, mentioned earlier. This is a good site because it will clue you in to potential problems, such as zebra grass so you can do a little prevention. Also check out the Invasive Species Weblog for quick updates. Of course our local extension agents can help you as well.

Cardinal Flowers

Found these wonderful cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) at the Baker wetlands in Lawrence. If you have never seen these flowers live, they really are this intense red!



This photo links to my Flickr photostream. Enjoy.