Ranger Bob came over to order some truck parts, so we took Christina out (to the porch) for coffee.
Bob decided to tell me how he would have planted Joe Pye, since it grows so tall. I listened in astonishment. "This is the landscaper who found a collection of Hog Peanut Weed plants carefully cut and placed in a little pile in his yard." Bob jumped in to tell Christina, "I knew who did that the moment I saw it."
In defense of my plans and plants, I pointed out that I had no idea that Joe Pye could grow over eight feet tall and spread out as well. The beauty of this plant is that I can cut individual branches off - to give more sun to roses - and the rest of the plant will thrive.
The gardening industry seduced me with the Butterfly Plants genre and then expanded that to Pollinator and Hummingbird Plants. But now the dreams can be harvested daily. The late-blooming Joe Pye and Clethra are attracting butterflies and hummingbirds as surely as those ads caught my attention.
We had hummingbirds competing in the backyard for glads and in the front for the feeders.
Plant Insect Nostalgia
Our rural romps as children led us to breaking open milkweed pods to scatter the seed, opening the stems to see the milky sap. They were easy to find and taken for granted. Now people buy milkweed plants (as I did) and hope the crop will last. We want Monarch butterflies to prosper.
I have been aiming for them since we moved to Springdale. I got Butterfly Weed going and added many butterfly plants, but no Milkweed grew. I forgot that I planted some along the tiny front porch fence and they finally grew up and formed buds.
Yesterday, before anyone was around, I saw a Monarch stop at the row of plants along the porch fence. It settled down - making my day.
