It's Like Spring All Over Again

Other than our shorter days and the southerly angle of the sun Florida's fall gardening is much like a repeat of spring. The garden calls out for the gardener to plant, to prune, to seed, to cut, to mow, to propagate... but more than anything to take time to breathe in the beauty of each day.

Our gardening days are full with plenty to do in order to keep things tidy since the passing of our endless summer. With a look ahead to springtime there are cuttings being taken for rooting new plants. This year I've made sure to pot up some of my favorite tender plants that I know I will lose if we get a random frost like last winter. They will find a place indoors if the threat occurs. Which means I'll be assured to at least have some starter plants without having to purchase new ones.
Please Don't Make Me Go Inside

Cassius Blue on Flax Lily bloom (both the flower and the butterfly about 1/2" in size)

It is so delightful to enjoy our butterfly friends who visit even throughout the cooler months. On the warmest, sunniest days many of them treat us to their company while we work.

There should be some caterpillars on the milkweed soon as the Monarchs have been sighted still laying eggs.

We have had the most divine weather of our autumn season so far. Finally, the humidity has given us a reprieve for the length of about ten days straight. Whew! It has been glorious outside with our lows at night hanging right around 60 and our daytime highs right around 80. What a glorious and much welcomed change it has brought.

This is perfect gardening weather! It's perfect outdoor weather! These are the days when I figure out how to spend every possible moment outside. I even take my paperwork to the back porch so I don't miss a minute of the splendor.

There are two large plantings of Plumbago auriculata, or leadwort in the back garden. They've both been blooming all summer and still they are putting on a great show with their true blue blooms. One does better than the other due to better placement in more sunshine.

They have a habit of sending out suckers making new plants all on their own. Not in an invasive sort of way but in a way that adds to the bushiness of the shrubs. I dig up those volunteers occasionally and pot them up for pass-alongs or to put them in a more convenient spot in the garden.

Last summer I was determined to see if I could get a cutting to flourish and to look pretty in a container planting. That poor thing has been moved around from place to place trying to find where it would be happy and produce. It was the scraggliest thing for the longest time. Just last week it flushed out with presentable blooms for the first time. It's always fun to try something new. Maybe by next year it will really good.

So many plants in the garden come alive and perky this time of year just like they do in springtime. Summer is relentless around here and plants have to be tough in order to survive it. But even the ones that tolerate the stress of summer nicely just seem to come to life again in the fall when the nights get cooler and the sunny days fade away much quicker.

We don't have too much in the way of foliage change this far south. It's the trade-off for the year-round tropical temps. So we opt to create our own autumn vignettes with shades of foliage helping to reflect the season.

At summers' end this un-named coleus what brought home from a nursery in north Florida. Making several more plants from cuttings it is giving us fall colors of bright gold on the upperside and deep magenta on the underside. A wonderful sort-of garnet and gold combination. *grin* Just right for the season. It's mixed with cuttings from persian shield filling out behind them and ground orchids blooming deep lilac flowers in front of them.

Speaking of deep foliage the Pseuderanthemum nigrum, 'Black Magic' offers a nice contrast in autumn. I like the way it echos the deep purple leaves of the purple queen across the pathway from it (seen behind it in the above photo).

The drooping white clerodendrum C. Wallichii 'bridal veil' is a happy bloomer that waits for autumn's change to flower its fragrant blooms.

You may remember the two Giant Spider Lily Crinum augustum 'Queen Emma' my neighbor gifted to me. One was situated in the back garden and became the centerpiece for the tropical pathway.

Autumn's Backyard Garden
It has adjusted to its new home with ease. One of the main joys of foliage plants is the way they remain steady all year. They just keep on giving in every season.

I do hope your autumn is filling you with joy. Have a wonderful weekend. Meems

Autumn Makes A Grand Arrival

Florida's endless summer has finally bowed its knee to autumn's brisk coolness. Might we just shout a little hallelujah and say we are quite happy gardening in its invigorating presence.

White Peacock
After two weeks of record-setting highs in the 90's our Southerly spot on the map finally dropped down into the upper 50's overnight this weekend. A much needed rain shower ushered in the first true cold front of the season.

White Peacock
Following the rain we have been gloriously free of humidity and enjoying the most pleasant weather we've had in many months.

Orange-Barred Sulphur
It was a day for butterflies when once the wind subsided.

There was a flurry of activity as I practically skipped about the garden doing some fall planting. [You'll be interested to note ... all the photos in this post were taken in a matter of minutes ... the butterflies were very cooperative.]

Orange-Barred Sulphur
With sunshine galore and temps in the upper 70's it seems my flying friends were released all at once to flutter about and catch up on some nectaring.

Cassius Blue

Two of my favorites were visiting simultaneously. The white peacock and the super-tiny cassius blue each sipping from the bushy lantana that is a magnet for so many variety of butterflies.

The male blue was captured in a rare moment of wings spread open wide while basking in the warm rays.

Even though there were blues, sulphurs, gulf frits, monarchs, and a lone white peacock all sharing the sunny corner of the back garden the skippers out-numbered them all. Often dancing through the air in pairs.

Since I don't know each ID I hope you don't mind if I just display the photos.
I'd be guessing... like I did on the orange-barred sulphur (*grin*) hoping it is correct. But please, if anyone knows for certain I am always up for learning so ... feel free to indicate which is which.

Yes, autumn is a second spring (in the words of Albert Camus). It has been good to be reminded by the beauty of the weather and the critters that bless me with their visits how marvelously inspiring this second spring is.

Butterflies Galore Today: Zebra Longwing

Black Swallowtail, Papilio Polyxenes asterius

The September garden is always chocked full of butterfly activity.

Today was no exception.

Juvenal's Dusky Wings, Erynnis juvenalis

The morning started off with the rather drab Dusky Wings making its way around to the blue porterweed in the veggie garden. Drab brown or not they still fascinate me.

Long-tailed Skipper, Urbanus proteus
Flitting about with its quick movements the skipper landed on the confederate jasmine leaves momentarily.

Cloudless Sulphur, Phoebis sennae eubule
...Nectaring at the Firebush, Hamelia patens.

Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius theonus
One of my very favorite butterflies.... wingspans range from 1.4 to 2.5 cm. Host plant in my garden is the plumbago. They are just so dainty, yet flitty, and erratic in flight. Their beautiful blue wings when open are brilliant.

A perspective of its size with its entire face buried in the small opening of one of the trumpet shaped lantana petals.

Plumbago, host plant, offers refuge for egg laying.

We have enjoyed a large population of Zebra Longwings, Heliconius charitonius tuckeri this summer.

I've convinced myself it is due to the passion-flower vine, passifloraceae which is its ONLY host plant. I planted it in the spring hoping to attract more of the Longwings to hang around.

Last-stage caterpillar. It seems the Gulf Fritillaries made the vine their home in the spring and now the Longwings are taking their turn.

A closer look and even I was surprised to see so much activity going on high up in the air on the tips of the vine.

Many generations are produced each year.

Elongated yellow eggs are laid in small groups on the young leaves of the food plant.

Today, I witnessed this process in action.

And now there are more eggs just seconds later.

Adults of the Zebra Longwing occur all months of the year in south and central Florida.

Zebra Longwing is unusual in several aspects of adult behavior. One such behavior is pollen feeding. Females visit flowers not only to sip nectar, but to gather a ball of pollen at the tip of the proboscis. Regurgitated enzymes digest some of the pollen into smaller components, especially proteins, that can be used for producing eggs.

The Firebush, Hamelia patens, a native plant is sited right next to the host plant. Regardless, that firebush gets visitors of all sorts. There was another hummingbird on it today as well. I hesitate to even say it. It was way too fast for me or my clicker. Out of nowhere it came and it went away the same route.

The Zebra Longwing became the official state butterfly of Florida by an April 1996 vote of the legislature.

Its flight is slow and fluttering and graceful unlike any other butterfly... at least in my garden. It is one of my favorites for that aspect alone.

It was a good day to be in the garden.

Solar Energy for the Butterflies

It's been a hot and muggy August (who am I kidding this has been going on since June) here in Florida. Even so, I managed to spend lots of hours in the garden this week.

• My empty vegetable beds got a good dose of bone meal and dried blood mixture worked into the soil. We'll let that rest for a few weeks before we plant some seed for a fall harvest.
• I planted some tomato seeds in small containers too.
• There was some attention needed at the back of the property.

One of the keys to keeping the garden from getting out of hand is to keep up with trimming and cutting back. This time of year it is especially important with everything growing at rapid speed.

Even in areas where I want the foliage to blend together creating a lush density, boundaries are required for a sense of order. In this particular area, my solution is to trim the plumbago (which would literally take over its neighbors if left to itself), the snowbush, and the philondendron from the bottom up. This way the tops of the shrubs still have a free-flowing appearance but the base of the shrubs are nice and tidy and not growing into each other. When looking straight on one's eye takes in all the layers of gently varied textures and forms rather than one massive planting.

Even though the skies have looked like this many times this week we haven't had any significant rain. That's the way the weather pattern goes in the summer. The afternoon thunderstorms roll in and rumblings of thunder and lightning can be heard all around but the showers can miss specific areas and neighborhoods all together.

It wasn't our turn this week, I guess. Hopefully, next week we'll get a good drenching or two.

Butterflies Were Abundant This Week in all the Sunshine
Our summer sunshine is giving the butterflies lots of flight energy and they are plentiful. Of course they have to fly to search for food and escape from predators so they are dependent on good weather.

Their wings are their muscles, so to speak, and their bodies have to be heated up to around 82 degrees in order to fly. You might have noticed you don't see too many butterflies flitting about on a cloudy cooler day. Even on cloudy warmer days we don't see them in great numbers.
Giant Swallowtail slurping penta flowers with its exacting proboscis.

Fat and full of milkweed are these fellows ...


... which turn into these dancing wonders of beauty.

During sunny daytime hours, you may see butterflies basking with their wings open to catch the warmth from the sun. When it gets too warm a butterfly may fold its wings and situate its body so the rays of the sun land on the edge of its wings rather than its fully extended wings.

It's a good idea to place some rocks (especially flatter ones) in your garden. When the sun isn't shining butterflies can use the stored up heat in them to raise the temperature in their bodies.


In Florida non-migratory populations of monarch butterflies can be seen all months of the year.


The prize of the week for me was capturing a Cassius Blue which happens to be among the teeniest of butterflies we have in our garden. They are especially attracted to the Leadwort; blue plumbago shrub on which they lay their eggs. Each kind of butterfly has its own unique way of flying. These little fellows are quick and rapidly flit about sometimes in two's and three's and if one didn't know better one would easily mistake them for a moth.























At one point just as I was about to redirect my camera this most amazing fly-in just 'happened'. First the female and then the male with wings spread widely (adult wingspan is 1.4 to 2.5 cm) open. Right there next to each other and my camera already pointing in that very spot. Okay... that was thrilling enough but then to actually capture a clear photo before they flew away in all of about 5 seconds... definitely makes for some wild excitement in the garden. Yeah... I know... I'm getting old.

My Camera Was Noticing all Kinds of Critters This Week, Too

Some of them we are familiar with like the happy red male cardinals that sing their cheery songs and daily visit the feeders.





Then there are strange beings like this grey insect I've never before seen. Stirring around in some bromeliads I startled it out of its roost I suppose. Anyone have a clue what it might be?
Blogger's note: Thanks to a Boyd Hill Nature Preserve commenter the mantis has been identified as a Grizzled mantis.

Never can resist an attempt at photgraphing a brilliant green dragonfly.

Don't let me interrupt your crunchy dinner, sir.

For mature audiences only...

Who knew? The voracious foliage/flower eating nemesis of my garden get started reproducing already! And I thought this only went on in the spring. Just after this photo these two love-hoppers met their demise. That's one less litter I'll have to track down later.










Have no idea the name or the intent of the green insect with the antennae practically as long as its body. Any one know what this guy is or what he's up to?














And ... the ever present Argiope aurantia (thanks again to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve commenter for ID) just hanging out between the salvia and the coleus. Don't mind me... I'm just trying to get some deadheading done.











This little flourescent green variety of spider is all over the garden this summer.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend and fitting in all your own gardening fun! Happy day.
Meems