Hummingbird Moth

These pictures were just taken...right at dusk....






They keep their wings pretty much in motion, like hummingbirds, so I was quite pleased to get a few pictures that weren't blurry. There were two going after the self-seeded Nicotiana....funny, I had just been thinking I needed to pull it all out. The striped colors on its body are quite eye-catching.

See, DH, what you were missing by not taking the dogs out?? Lol.

For more information on these creatures, see here....

Update: Many thanks to Dr. Roger Downer who identified this moth for me as Pink Spotted Hawk Moth (who knew) and provided this link...

The website butterfliesandmoths.org is a wealth of information and where I sent in my request for identification which was most speedily answered.

Someone Else on Alert...

...and watching as I turned on the hose...

***

There are daylilies that exhibit a very desirable characteristic called bud building. These daylilies continue to add buds, making for a very long bloom season...which is what we want.

While some daylilies are known for this characteristic, others will exhibit it only occasionally. Pictured below is an example. Look at the tiny new bud, just forming...


....neat!

Rainy Day.....

...some are still hard at work...

Good Bugs....

A ladybug working on a daylily leaf (lots work to do...get those aphids!)...


What I think is a paper wasp...the larva eats insects...


I have these two handy charts of good and bad bugs and it appears to most closely match the paper wasp...a bunch of species (like 24 or so...)...this is a tiny thing, as you can tell...the Rose Campion 'Occulata' is not a large flower...

Without the wasp...


My first tomatoes...Early Girl....now, if only I had planted my other tomato plants, they'd look like this, too...


Of course, there are a few daylilies blooming...

ARTIC LACE...


TILTING AT WINDMILLS....


BALLERINA ON ICE...a fav year after year....


Non-Daylily (*grin*)....


and...a fly...a tiny one...

A Welcome Visitor

Look what I found this morning on my daylily seedlings! How he (or she) found his way there is a mystery; any clean up, however, is welcome.

How's Your Parsley (or why you plant more than you need)?

No, these are not "Parsley Bugs"! Lol! I heard that at a Butterfly Gardening lecture I attended (which reminds me....I didn't post about that, did I? Something else for the 'to do' list.). If you are interested in butterflies, these little guys are signs of success. In fact, if you look above the bottom one, you'll see parsley totally eaten. They gotta eat, you know.

These will turn into, hopefully, beautiful swallowtail butterflies. I don't really garden for butterflies, but I've always found if you plant parsely...they will come! Which is one reason I have lots of parsley....plenty for sharing. Parsley seems to reseed pretty easily. Right now I have scores of it in with my iris (that's where this one is, actually). I probably need to eliminate some of it...but when I saw these guys, I didn't have the heart.

While I'm on the subject, I really grow parsley for the beneficial insects it brings to my garden (and to eat, natch). I let it go to seed because those tiny flowers bring out the garden warriors...they fight the bad bug battles so I don't have to. You should try it!