I have a bajillion beetles. Weird looking though - usually I have Japanese Beetles with pretty irridescent green. These thing are are darkish grey with lighter grey stripes, but otherwise they have the same shape and behave a lot like the JB. I'd swear that they are sickly JB's, especially since I have seen absolutely none of those. Talking about bugs, about 10 days ago I saw this on my ramp railing. Never seen one before Using the plant label as reference it was a bit over 1" long. My Google-fu failed in finding an ID, so I emailed UNH Extension. My question in part,"Measuring the plant label in the second picture, the creature is about 1" long. The yellow legs are throwing off my Google search as the most likely suspect, the Locust Borer is said to have red legs. Also that black patch on its back seems to be strange." Their answer: This is called a sugar maple borer (looks a lot like the locust borer, but is much larger and the pattern is different). The sugar maple borer is found throughout the northeast and usually lives in the trunks of the trees. The presence of these beeltes [sic] can be observed on the trunk of affected trees at the outset of an infestation. Galleries excavated by the young larvae can be recognized from the bark dust piles soaked with sap that are present near egg-laying sites. Another obvious sign of attack is the presence of an elongated swelling in the bark, which will eventually split open, leaving a wound. Damage results from the larval galleries which disrupt sap flow and reduce the tree's vitality. Some branches will die after being cut off from the sap supply, and if there are many galleries, the whole tree may die. The sugar maple borer, is believed to be native to North America, and is considered the most destructive pest of maple
Not any thing that we planted, but after all the rain we've had this week, this resurrection fern on a few pecan logs we got recently os a really vivid green...I just might save a log...
Day Lilies - some I know the name of and some were either mystery lilies to begin with (local nursery will put pots that have lost tags up for sale), or I lost the tags. A couple of years ago I got smart and started taking pictures of the tags and placing those in their own folder on my computer - but I should have started way sooner. Night Beacon Wish I knew - this is in teh driveway garden so I'm surprised I don't have an ID This one was hard to get a pic of since it is in the shade garden that I let go wild. I am not surprised I don't have a name for it. I always forget it is there until it blooms - it really sticks out in that dark part of the yard. Purple D'Oro
Other Flowers Left side of the mixed Echinaceas in the roadside garden (backed by a Coppertina nine bark) Right side of the mixed Echinaceas With a Funny Valentine Day Lily in the right side of the picture (up by that tree trunk in the guy wire) Echinacea - Sombrero Grenada in the left side picture but too far in the background Black Eyed Suzies (I believe that Midwinter gave me a starter bunch a couple of years ago) Gayfeather (liatris or Blazing Star or a gajillion other names) One of the two yucca decided to bloom this year Another day lily that did not make it in the last post. I don't know this one's name either. A picture of the beetles I have on flowers this year. Earlier in the week they were climbing on top of each other in almost every type of flower I looked at. Yesterday when I went to take pictures, this is one of two beetles that I found. I also remember seeing lighter beetles in the mix previously - after Googling NH Beetles, I'm thinking they were Shining Leaf Chafers and maybe the pictured one is too.. And, although they seemed to act like Japanese beetles by swarming the flowers, the flowers are not decimated .
Very nice bogieb. black-eyed Susan's are fantastic. We had a few hummingbird moths on the butterfly Bush. Caught a pic of what I think is an Eastern black swallowtail.
I have also seen hummingbird month around. Don't see them every year, so it is a treat when they stop by. Naturally, I never have my phone on me to get a pic. My two butterfly bushes struggled this year. One gave up the ghost (you can see the sticks next to the echinacea in the first picture) and the other, as of yesterday was 6-8" tall. Although I've watered them during the drought, the dryness just came too early in their development (I planted them fall of 2019). The site of their planting didn't help as the left end of the roadside garden gets pretty dry for some reason. I dug up the live one and put it in a pot to see if I can get it going better. Okay, dug is a strong word, I pulled it up so it lost some roots - may not survive my handling. I actually had a plan as I had gone to Agway earlier to see what they had that would go well and I found Echiekia. No, that isn't a typo, a cross between echinacia and rudbekia. I also found a lily that should The one on the left is Echibekia Summerina Orange and the one on the right is Echibekia Summerina Yellow - which I think does a nice job of transitioning from the Sombrero Granada Gold Echinacea (background) to the Summerina Orange I also found a day lily that will go nicely in between the two. And, while I was working in that garden, I saw that American Revolution was in bloom
Does your roadside garden bet covered with plowed snow? If it does, maybe road salt is a contributing factor to dryness.
It may get some salt, but not much. there is 13.5' between the side of the road and the rock wall, that far end being the furthest from the road, so that end gets minimal salt exposure. The other end of that garden gets more salt since I snow blow the berm at the end of the driveway there. The middle gets more salt too because the neighbor across the street's driveway is directly across and his plow guy deposits some snow into that section (he moved some of the blocks the first year) - don't get me started on how happy that makes me. Being a raised bed doesn't help but there are other factors in play. It's a weird combination of getting more sun but less rain and being slightly uphill compared to the rest of that garden. That section is the narrowest also, so the rock wall and block retaining wall heating up probably has an effect. It's also at the very end of the reach of my garden hose so I may not have watered that as well as everything else.
Rose of Shaon is loaded with flowers. Phlox below the RoS in bloom. Not many blooms on Hydrangeas this year. I need to better understand fertilizing, what and when. I'm still enjoying them, however. Stargazer lily, now and soon Tiger lilies waking up And in a different corner of the yard, mountain ash is loaded with berries turning orange
Awesome MikeInMa . The RoS you gave me have't bloomed, and I don't see any buds, but it is the first year after transplant (and they had a tough 8-9 months), so I'm not really expecting them too. The slowpoke that I feared had not made it has lots of leaves. Looks like the tops might have to be trimmed back as those are bare, but other than that it is doing well.
They both leafed out? Nice! Give them time and they should do just fine. The one I moved in my yard, set buds in the 3rd year after moving. It had lots of buds now in year four.
I thought I should contribute something while I'm enjoying everyone's pictures. Here's something a little different. Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
