You can never have enough Butterflies gracing your garden with their presence - I don't think I'd really ever appreciated all the many insects that go towards making a garden a more interesting place to be - aside of all the beautiful plants of course!! Some of these insects are what actually enable some of the plants to exist in the first place by protecting them against pests that will strip them of their leaves or even worse eat them down to nothing!I recently read a posting by someone on one of the expat websites in France stressing the shortage of butterflies over here this year... not the case in our own garden - you only need to walk passed the Marjoram and a whole host of them fly off - this is one of their favorite spots - along with the Echinops (round blue thistle type flowers), and the Limonium (Sea Lavender).
A Meadow Brown enjoying the Thistles
Quite how many butterflies can you get on one flower!?
Gatekeepers on the Marjoram.
Another Gatekeeper on the brambles.
A Comma butterfly enjoying the Common Sea Lavender.
Even the Bumblebees enjoy the Echinops!
Then I discovered what looked like tiny moths on the Tansy - again would be very interested if anyone knows what these are.
And finally what I think is a Poplar Admiral - again would love confirmation on this one too.
9 comments:
Great butterfly shots! Guess I will have to plant some marjoram next year, since they like it so much.
A beautiful selection of butterflies and moths......I wonder if the reason yo have them in your garden is because you have the plants that they love....
The thistle attracts many species of butterfly but is much hated by gardeners....I grow it here in a meadow area purely for the bees and butterflies....
I love Tansy.....I enlarged the photograph but was not familiar with the species.....
Looked the butterfly up in my 'butterflies of Britain' and it is not in there.....so sorry Miranda cannot help you....
Lovely post though, a pure joy....
I have added an ornamental pond to the garden.....a wildlife pond would have been the ultimate but not with two young grandchildren....I have been amazed at the wildlife it has drawn in....
Have fun, enjoy August.....
Bonjour!
I'm glad you liked the pictures Connie - Any of the plants from the Marjoram family are great for butterflies - you could try the golden variety - fantastic ground cover at the same time!
Hi Cheryl - interesting that you couldn't find the butterfly in your book - I searched quite a lot and as for the insects on my Tansy - couldn't find them anywhere - maybe someone will be able to give me a pointer!?
I'd love to have a pond here - a project for sometime - just not quite sure when!
Meanwhile, it's raining again here and need to get Lucy out for her walk - have a good weekend and will visit again soon!
No summer without butterflies! Luckily, we've had plenty this summer - especially on the Nepetas. They seem to love them too!
I enjoyed your post a lot - very nice shots!
/Katarina
(I found your blog through Blotanical.)
Katarina - welcome to my blog - or at least I think this is your first visit! The Nepetas are great - but unfortunately near over in our garden so the butterflies are onto other things! Do visit again... Miranda
Hi Miranda, I'm pretty certain (size is difficult to gague from the photo), but I think your butterfly is a summer brood Map Butterfly (Araschnia levana). These come in three forms, and the summer one has the classic dark upperwings you show here. Sadly the moth remains unidentified, just can't get close enough to it but guess one of the Geometer moths, of which there are 12,000 species
Hi.. the insects on the tansy look like the passion vine hopper..I'm in new zealand...would you have them in the uk??
d
We have had very few butterflies so far this summer due to all the rainy days...but I'm hopeful :)
I'm so sorry for taking SO long in replying to your lovely comments - it's been a busy old time with both gardening and summer visitors -
Border R - thanks for your help as always - and hope you're enjoying a good summer...
Hi Dinzie - welcome to my blog - I'm actually in France so not sure if these can be found in the UK - quite likely though as we have very similar insect life here to back there. New Zealand must be a great country to live in!
Hi Wildie - sorry to hear about the lack of butterflies your end - hope they turn up soon....
Have just completed a long awaited post... so hope to see you all again soon - Miranda
Post a Comment