The Starving Monarch Butterfly: A Parable of Creation

Adult Monarch Butterfly

Some people feel much better about Creation if the six 24-hour days are stretched out to six epochs. This allows a blending of Creation and evolution. Many have felt this was an ideal solution, but I have found a terrible flaw in their reasoning.

Of course, as any world religions professor (atheist) would be glad to propose, there are endless versions of Creation, some of them gross and disgusting. How this clarifies the situation is beyond my comprehension, but it is often said, to justify a modern mytho-poetic counterpart to what they call the Creation myth.

The foundational flaw is naturally the power and efficacy of the divine Word, which is not dependent upon time or the approval of man. Addressing Creation with science is like pounding tent-stakes with a manual lawmower. It can be done, awkwardly, but why even try?

I was planning a butterfly garden for myself and others when I went over the basics in my mind. When my mother lived with us in New Ulm, she spotted milkweed growing nearby and snagged some caterpillers for us to watch. We obtained a large glass jar, installed the caterpillers on a stick, and fed them milkweed leaves daily. The following shows what happened.

The ever fatter caterpiller weaves a jade coffin with golden nails, far more beautiful than the photo above. Here is a close-up -

 The so-called golden nails really look metallic.

He turns into liquid and reconstitutes himself as a Monarch butterfly. The wings show through and he emerges, ready to lay eggs on milkweed, the only food for the babies to eat as they grow.

Here is his problem with hybrid Creation. Lacking milkweed, the eggs hatch with nothing to eat. Some butterflies can use various plants for their young, but not Monarchs.

Monarch Notes:
Q. What do monarch butterflies eat?
A. Adult butterflies eat nectar and water. Sometimes liquid from fruits. Larvae eat only milkweed.

Thus the Monarch life cycle requires milkweed immediately available.

But, the rationalist objects, God would have created the milkweed first and the butterflies second, taking millions and billions of years.

Then we have hundreds of thousands of other objections, since all life requires other life-forms above and below them on the food pyramid. 

No, this does not prove Creation, which is revealed by the Word. But we can reverse engineer Creation - in a feeble way - and see these hundreds of relationships before our eyes.

The Monarch's life cycle is a miracle and that is God's work. We may see it any summer day, anywhere, but it is still astonishing to watch:

• Egg
• Caterpiller
• Tent-maker
• Goo - where the caterpiller turns inself into liquid!
• Butterfly.

Milkweed pods

 Milkweed in bloom

 Butterfly Weed is closely related to Milkweed, but not appealing to Monarchs. However, BW does attract other butterflies and is just as colorful as this photo shows.

Garfield Grade School in Moline Being Repurposed as Garfield Arms

Groundbreaking for Garfield Arms Apartment Building

Garfield Elementary School was constructed in 1901, with an addition built in 1955. In 2015, the Moline-Coal Valley School District closed the school, sending students to Hamilton and Lincoln-Irving elementary schools.

That same year, Gorman & Company, of Oregon, Wisconsin, bought the school for $75,000. When completed, the renovated building will offer 52 one-bedroom and five two-bedroom apartments for low- and moderate-income seniors earning between 30-60 percent of area median income.

 "I liked the old Gashouse Gang Garfield better."
Jim Kron turned away, so they could not see the tears.

We loved Mrs. Park.
I can remember most of the faces and half of the names. Let's see.
Front row from left: Linda Hicks, Greg Jackson, Kathleen Wilcox, unknown boy, unknown girl, John Schneck, Ann Pascall.
Middle row: George Small, unknown girl, unknown boy, unknown boy, Billie Seasland, unknown girl, Jim McCandless, Jenal Vencus.
Back row: Terry Thompson, Tamara Gustus, Bonnie ?, Steve Warren, then Jeff Hall on the far right, Cathy Pobanz next to him. The rest are unknown at the moment.

The school's corridors will be brought back to their original condition with restored ceilings. Classrooms will be renovated into apartments, and the gym space will be converted to house common space and amenities, including a multipurpose room, a kitchen and a fitness center.

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A three-story wood-framed addition also will be added to the east side of the existing building.

The redevelopment will be constructed to Enterprise Green Communities and Energy Star standards, using energy efficient appliances and mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems designed to reduce overall operating expenses.

New roofs will be completed at both wings, and new energy efficient storm windows will be provided at the inside of the existing windows.

Financing partners for the project include the Illinois Housing Development Authority, JPMorgan Chase, RBC Capital Markets and Greater Metropolitan Area housing Authority of Rock Island County.

Guy Johnson stopped by to take some pictures of the old classic. We still remember the new addition, which is now about 65 years old.

 Like other teachers, Miss Dickson spent her own money on the class.

Liz Copeland's mom was a favorite teacher among many great ones.

 Mrs. Forsyth was another teacher everyone remembered with great affection.

 No-o-o-o-o-o!

This classroom project is where an engineer's career was born.

Building a Butterfly Garden

 We took Monarchs for granted when milkweed was abundant.

Mosquito spraying is very effective against ladybugs and butterflies, but people can still build a butterfly garden and enjoy the results.

 Joe Pye Weed kept topping the lists for fun plants to grow,
so I started two and they were pollinator convention centers in bloom all summer. Butterflies love Joe Pye.

The first requirement is the sunniest place in the yard. That is also the least viewed area for us, so it was also ignored. I had a marvelous crop of crabgrass, actually a grain brought over by thoughtless Europeans. Then I tried a straw-bail garden, which proved to be a holiday resort for slugs, with this formula - start with straw and soak with water. That combination gives them all the food, water, and housing they need to conquer the area.

 Almost Eden sold me two Clethra bushes, and now they are well established.
Tiny flowers bring big results, and they are aromatic - songbirds like them as well.

So I turned over a new leaf and dedicated the area to butterflies. The following are great butterfly plants:

• Joe Pye Weed, which can be six feet tall or the shorter variety, Little Joe. Butteflies always congregation around the blossoms.
• Clethra - aka Summersweet aka Pepperbush - known for attracting all pollinators and butterflies.
• Milkweed and Butterfly Weed are for Monarch butterflies.
• Borage is unusually easy to grow, just scatter the seed. It grows flowers and drops seed all summer.
• Hollyhocks are associated with old-fashioned gardens, perhaps because they stand out against a building and seed themselves.
• Parsley brings Black Swallowtail butterflies.
• And more - such as zinnias, lupine, etc.

I have a small sunny area, so I am going to fill it with Joe Pye - already established - and Clethra, mints, borage.

The rose garden is leavened with various pollinator plants - mints, Joe Pye, and daisies. I can add more in the future.

 Borage is the tiny version of its cousin Comfrey,
and so easy to grow. Tis another butterfly plant.

Freedom - We Do Not Have What We Fail To Use

 Walther kidnapped Bishop Stephan at gunpoint
so he could become the pope of the cult.

I have always been puzzled by my peers acting as if they are locked into place, as if in a prison, in their pathetic, failing synods. The clergy are the worst, of course, because they feel tied down by the golden chains of salary, benefits, housing, and health insurance. Yes, the synods are more powerful than God, because those poor souls will starve and huddle naked outdoors in the snow and sleet if their anti-Luther sects desert them.

These prisoners are the worst kind of chess players, because they play the players, not the board. That means everything will go their way if the others perform as they hope. The rest of them are the same, so the ones who become district presidents and professors are the same who made the right guesses for the moment.

The chessboard, my analogy du jour, is the Word of God. One does not trump the Word of God by schemes, clever strategies, and a thousand deceits. The result of trying to defeat the Word is a bunch of timid clowns hoping they can get by with their plans.

I know this from talking to the worst of them. When they are caught in their lies, they are terrified and look for help or cover. If their little foam castles are threatened, they respond with angry tirades.

The Gospel means freedom, so clergy and laity are not bound to those gilded chains - they only appear golden. The family objects? Jesus asked "Who is my mother, my brother, my sisters?"

Matthew 12:46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.

47 Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.

48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!

50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

If people want me to stick with an abusive anti-Gospel sect, they are themselves abusive and anti-Gospel. They may not see this until later. There is certainly evidence that Jesus' mother was in company of the Apostles (Acts) and that His brother was also an early leader (James). 

Some clergy leave one system of dictatorial abuse and join another one, comfortable in being told how to think, dress, and vote. Perhaps they dream of being that dictator one day, as Walther did. Every Ft. Wayne seminarian seems to have a bishop's hat in his briefcase: McCain, Webber, Cascione, Heiser, and the Preussian Union. They are all self-appointed bishops.

No other era has been so free for believers and so full of potential for those who want to enjoy that freedom. Clergy can start a congregation without a mission board, a million bucks in debt, and all the strings attached thereto. Laity can gather and call a pastor, without begging and waiting years for Holy Mother Church to respond. No one has to bend the knee to Thrivent, Jeske, and the Wolf of Wall Street.

Fun with Pollinators in the Creation Garden

Sassy wants her morning walk by 7 AM, and I finish a mug of pour-over coffee by that time. She interprets certain signals favorably, such as donning socks and speaking certain words, such as go, walk, and morning crunchies.

We inspect the rose garden at the same time, for different reasons. I look for the latest blooms. She noses about, looking for signs of wild life.

On Friday I wonder about what will be blooming Sunday morning. In hot weather the new rose blooms appear rapidly. If I want more roses,

1. I prune mature rose flowers, 
2. look for death stars (blooms with no petals, ready to develop hips), and 
3. cut away dead wood. 

All three suppress new blooms, so I follow John 15 and cleanse the fruitful to make them more fruitful. But Sassy is a busy executive, with people to meet and places to explore. She hurries me along with some happy barks. Pruning waits for her permission, later.

I am watching the plants I obtained for pollinators. At Almost Eden, that word came up often - pollinators. That includes bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The gardening sites all work very hard at exploiting those categories, especially butterflies and hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds love three plants I am promoting in the rose garden:

• Hostas - for their trumpet flowers;
• Bee Balm - for their trumpet flowers;
• Trumpet Vine - for their trumpet flowers.

The common factor seems to be...Bueller, Bueller, anyone? anyone? Worth mentioning is the hummingbirds' need for tiny insects. Hummingbird feeders offer sugar water, but flowers offer nectar and tiny insects.

Hummingbird flowers will also be popular with bees, and I like having a constant cycle of blooming, which start with early spring weeds, mints, and dandelions.

Butterflies seem to need a specific plant for each kind:

1. Milkweed for the Monarch eggs and caterpillers, 
2. Parsley for the Black Swallowtails.

I am working on Butterfly Weed (related to Milkweed) now and Milkweed for next year.

Teeny-Tiny Insects
Joe Pye and Mountain Mint draw groups of tiny insects and butterflies. I wondered why they sold a small version of Joe Pye called Little Joe. Now I know why. My mature Joe Pye is ready to bloom and almost 6 feet tall.

Likewise, Mountain Mint is so tall that people ask what it is. Do not laugh, but I have made three attempts to divide and replant some. I missed the one day of spring for that, and the roots are welded to the clay soil for now. Laugh all day - I have Mountain Mint and most people do not know how valuable it is.

 Cletha - aka Summersweet aka Sweet Pepperbush, etc.
Poke a bloom and see a tiny insect cloud.

But I also like the tiny insects that do so much to attack insect pests. Their small size contributes to overlooking their value. If I wiggle the right plants, a tiny cloud of them will take flight and settle down again - quite a sight.

About Clethra - From Gardening in Tune with Nature

If I had space in a small garden for only one woody plant, I would grow summersweet.  I’ve always grown it and frequently written about the heady perfume of its summer flowers and its unique brassy yellow autumn leaves, but its status as a “must have” plant for the garden insectary was secured last August as I stood among a colony of the cultivar ‘Hokie Pink’ flowering in Marjorie’s Garden.  I recalled the summer day ten years earlier when we knocked each of the five small plants out of its one-gallon pot and planted them around the bole of the old white pine growing off the porch steps.  A decade later, as I twisted my way into head-high branches crowded with racemes of soft pink flowers, it was impossible to say where one plant stopped and another took over.  Even a chipmunk has a hard time weaving through the interlaced stems to reach the base of the pine.

Carefully moving branches aside, I positioned my legs and those of my tripod in the middle of the summersweet colony and waited for the wake of my disturbance to settle.  Soon the spikes of flowers, only a few inches from my nose, were crawling with bees, wasps, hoverflies, beetles, and several insects whose images remain on my computer desktop, waiting to be identified.  Bumblebees of all sizes and colored markings outnumbered all other insects.  A lonely honeybee joined the symphony of buzzing, along with several small native bees, some metallic green, others gray or black.  Two distinctly different hoverflies tormented me with their inability to settle down long enough for a photograph, but a tachinid fly obliged, stopping in its frenetic foraging for nectar long enough for me to get a decent shot.  (Both hoverflies and tachinid flies are predators of herbivores such as aphids and various leaf-munching caterpillars.  Hoverflies feed on nectar and pollen as adults, but their larvae feed on other insects.  Tachinid fly females lay their eggs on other insect adults or larvae.  When these eggs hatch, the tachinid larvae bore into the host’s body and slowly consume it.)

In terms of diversity of insects attracted to a single plant in bloom, nothing in my experience compares to what I witnessed on that August afternoon.  Through the tangle of summersweet branches I could see the vegetable garden a hundred feet away, the bright orange squash flowers beckoning.  When a bumblebee in my viewfinder took wing and disappeared, I knew where it was heading.

More about Clethra from another writer. I have two mature Clethras.

Where Yah Going on Vacation?

I am there.

J Post - Nothing Is Lost Or Erased in the Digital Age

One hilarious theme in the last few years concerned Hillary wiping her server ("like with a cloth?") and we heard - "using BleachBit" to erase it forever. Not only that, many good cell phones were pounded to bits "to erase all information."

The NSA pulls everything out of the air and off digital devices, storing the data. The emails were never lost. The cell phone material still exists. The NSA always had it.

I tell people "I just phone 1-800-NSA-HELP to retrieve my forgotten passwords."

However, another part of prosecution is introducing information according to legal standards. One enormous help is the legal standing of Weiner's laptop. When the emails and videos from the Insurance folder are introduced into evidence, many more connections will be made.

Backups of servers are made all the time, as a matter of policy. Some are copied at other locations.

The NSA can pull digital photos off smartphones. I could go on. It is a new age. If honest people pursue the truth, America can be restored, but not without God's help.

Beating the Heat in a Drought - Islands of Flowers

Double Delight

Some roses have spectacular blooms but are not as vigorous in their growth. I can think of various small plants with large blooms - Veterans Honor, Double Delight, Fragrant Cloud.

Also, when plants are getting started, the watering they get may give the weeds a better start than the plant. I am using the following to create zones where a plant can do well, rise above weeds, and hold more water in the soil.

Pulling grassy weeds will often not work well, because they want to pull the new plant up with them. Gabe Brown has taught me not to fear the weeds but use their root growth to some extent.

1. Anything growing can be used against itself, so I snip grassy visitors and leafy weeds with scissors  - or rose shears - sometimes with small battery operated clippers. The cut greens make a layer of mulch, high nitrogen fertilizer.
2. I place newspaper or cardboard on top of the plant material mulch. Newspaper can be torn to pieces to add to the shading effect, which discourages weed growth. Some small cardboard boxes (crackers, etc) open up perfectly to create an opaque area around the plant, giving it room to grow. This cardboard or newspaper layer blocks sun to hold down weed growth and keep moisture in the soil. Plants do not like hot feet any more than we like walking barefoot on the sidewalk to the mailbox. 
3. Newspaper and cardboard can be weighed down by wood mulch. I use cyprus rather than dyed wood. Wood mulch does not need dye. I am generous with wood mulch because it does not cost much and looks attractive. Wood slowly decomposes into the soil and boosts the hard-working soil fungi.
4. My first choice for extra watering is stored rainwater, the second being stored tapwater. Today I took stored rainwater and boosted nine young Crepe Myrtle bushes. Yes, in the not noonday sun. Why? Because if I felt miserable, they felt just as bad. I used the sprinklers on some areas that seemed burning in the heat and relatively dry.

If a plant is well established and healthy, a cool shower on a hot day is be good for it. Water droplets do not burn - they cool. 

 Whimpy Crepe Myrtle - when we moved to the cul-de-sac.

I am likely to give extra compost and mulch to those established plants, because their growth demands more food. Eventually their soil foundation is rich in organic matter, abounding in fungi and soil creatures, trapping nutrition and moisture for the best and healthiest growth.

 The same CM, a few years later.
Wait til this year's blooms are all out.

As I mentioned before, I took the whimpy Crepe Myrtle and doted on it, knowing the plant would bloom in the dry season without my help. I wanted more than ordinary blooms. I wanted the Fourth of July. Every time I had some extra mushroom compost, grass clippings, or wood mulch, the Crepe Myrtle got it.

Pruning is another way to boost growth, so I pruned it all the time, shaping and improving its look.

The Crepe Myrtle became the centerpiece for the cul-de-sac, an explosion of pink blooms that never seemed to quit, pruned away and blooming again.

Each autumn, I pile all the leaves (especially the wet slimy ones from the street) under the CM. The leaves are slowly decomposed during the winter, speeding up by spring, when I add a thin layer of wood mulch so the Calladiums can come through. Now we have them putting up their bright red and green leaves under the CM, a colorful counterpoint.

These ideas all stem from Creation principles, which are already at work, whether we observe them or not. I start with the foundation, the soil and what makes it fertile. Secondly, I avoid man-made toxins which hinder rather than helping the garden. Finally, I try to do extra tasks for plants, insects, birds, and toads, to get the team working faster, better, and more productively. That is roughly .00001% of the garden. God does the rest.

Mark 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Sassy Sue Sits for a Formal Portrait at J. C. Penney's. Her Staff Gets Bonus Photos

Sassy Sue is half German Shepherd, half Cattle Dog - intelligent, gentle. loving, and an expert in managing her staff.

Sassy has always been a bit shy around the camera, but we wanted a special portrait of her. Penney's did a great job last year, so we took her to the same studio. As always, awkward poses led to good results, and the photographer was very good.

Sassy was in a goofy mood and wanted tummy rubs to go along with her poses. She barked going in and barked even more while waiting for the selection of poses. She was clearly done with her job for the morning. Everyone loved her as they walked by the tiny office, and some wanted to pet her before and after. Sassy promotes a lot of affection. Ranger Bob insisted on a formal photo and wanted a print. He loves the photos, which were downloaded about an hour after we were done.

One studio posed Chris with plastic flowers, so I brought fresh roses from our garden.

The photographer had us sitting on the floor with Sassy, on our stomachs with her, and trying to make her a lap dog. We had a great time and got some extra photos. Our 49th anniversary is in November.

J Post on Current Developments

 MI - Ministerial Intelligence.

Today should be filled with news about the Inspector General's redacted report. People should call their political representatives and ask that the complete un-redacted report be released. Phone calls are tabulated - they count. So so emails, tweets, and letters.

House of Representatives

The Senate


Many current issues relate to the same set of problems. When we listen to Fox News, I marvel at how they ignore what is happening. However, when we turn to CNN, those newsies remind me of the WELS Appleton Gang - a collection of the inept, always outraged about the truth.

When I gave the last chapter of Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure at a WELS pastors' conference, three men had raging tantrums - Kovaciny, Oelhafen, and Adrian. That was when I decided the paper was the final chapter. NPH published it and and the Shrinkers did their best to get rid of me. The point here is - people rage against the truth, so CNN's behavior has a lot more behind it than Korea or some other topics. Their paradise is threatened and is coming down. We should help that happen.

One topic is world-wide and not recommended for reading. But it has come up repeatedly and unites many of the worst characters involved. Google - Keith Raniere (trafficking cult), Allison Mack (TV star and participant in Raniere cult Nxium), Catherine Oxenberg and her daughter India, same cult. Seagram's Whiskey was once controlled by the Bronfman family, which works with the Rothschilds. The Bronfman sisters spent $150 million supporting Raniere and Nxium. This one topic alone connects England (Jimmy Saville and the royal family), Pope Francis and Argentina/Chile. Additional names to search - or avoid searching - on this topic are Hillary Clinton, Haiti, and Laura Silsby.

The more we are informed, the more difficult it is to fool us.

Dr. J Solves the Creation over Billions of Years Problem

In the 19th century, the Evangelicals and Lutherans faced the issue of Creation versus Evolution with boldness. The LCMS faculty at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has caught up with them - only a century or two later.

This scientific age creates a problem for churches - we cannot expect people to go along with Creation in six 24-hour days. Thus a solution developed in the 19th century - one so good that it is still being used today. A day could be any length of time, so God could have created over a vast space of time. When the going gets tough, reconsider and compromise.

Demi-Semi-Hemi-Creation Works out This Way

1. "Let us create the earthworm to mix, fertilize, and aerate soil." 
2. Millions of years later, "Let us create bacteria to digest the food in the earthworm gut."
3. The earthworms are all dead, because they were able to swallow soil and leafy material, but they could not digest their own food by themselves.
4. The created bacteria are dead, because they had no place to do their work and multiply.

I could go on with many more examples. No, this does not prove Creation, because Creation is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Word. Like the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ, Creation is a mystery revealed, not a debating point.

However, the field-workers who raise roses, hostas, berries, and Joe Pye realize something. Creation by the Word explains why multiple layers of plant and animal life work and thrive together in many ways at once.

They were created and engineered together, with far more complexity than we can imagine. The "simple" plant cell is more like a complex miniature factory, with many different engines working to move water, obtain food, grow, differentiate, and reproduce. 

If that were not enough, the timing of the natural world is exquisitely precise. 

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Earl of Oxford, As You Like it.

Our Crepe Myrtle mother ship leafed out late this spring, so the cardinals did not build their love nest in it. Instead, robins came, built, and raised their young, which were on the ground testing their wings the other day.

Now I am wondering if the Japanese beetles aka June bugs are making their appearance at night.

We have enough problems staging a play or passing a bill in the legislature. A wedding is a series of panic attacks, but God's Creation is managed around us, with few thinking about how endless complexities and dependencies are all organized together.

1. If a thoughtless gardener makes a mistake, and plants or animals are harmed,
2. If he gets a 10 horsepower tiller for Father's Day and uses it to wreck the soil,
3. If by chance, a finger gets in the way of the rose shears, and blood drips onto the garden,
4. Creation will eventually heal the damage.

If so much can take place without our anxious thoughts, how much more does the Creator mend, heal, and guide us.

Pruning Roses, Weeds, and My Finger

I got my Hidden Lily roots for a song, after the season last year. Now they are coming up in bloom.

Everything is growing in abundance: flowers and grass and weeds. Today, I enjoyed the chance to work on individual plants, pruning away the grassy weeds and dead wood, building up the mulch.

 Joe Pye is hardy, colorful, and the ultimate butterfly plant.

 Cat Mint

The rose collars make it simple to weed-eat some areas, then throw down newspapers and wood mulch. Joe Pye and Shasta Daisies are so vigorous, they almost make their own mulch by growing fast and dominating the space. Roses and hostas need the grassy weeds suppressed close to the plant, especially since squirrels love to plant nut trees with each rose.

I pruned into my left index finger, which did not hurt at all, but started to fertilize the rose plant. Finding a bandage inside elicited suggestions about being more careful.

 I am olde school - I grow my Hummingbird feeders:
Trumpet Vine and Hostas.

The big bloomers of the week are:

• Hidden Lily Wild Ginger
• The Mother of All Crepe Myrtles
• Bergamot
• Trumpet Vines, front and back yards (Hummingbird delight)
• Easy Does It roses
• Pokeweed
• Butterfly Weed (front and back)
• Elderberries and Blackberries

 Horse Mint is best marketed as Bee Balm,
and it is great for bees and Hummingbirds.

One can easily determine the popular plants by the ones already sold out at The Growers Exchange:

1. Common Milkweed
2. Bee Balm (Bergamot, above)
3. Borage (Bee Bread)
4. Cat Mint
5. Garlic Chives
6. Fox Glove
7. Fever Few
8. Mountain Mint
9. Mullein - a roadside weed in Michigan
10. Tansy
11. Valerian

 Mountain Mint