September 6, 2012 -- autumn crocus

My garden is such a wreck. I walked over to a weedy corner to see if things were really as out-of-control as I thought they were, and they were. Sigh. But then, as if to give me hope, under a tunnel of weeds I spotted these autumn crocuses blooming.

I'm calling these lavendar flowers autumn crocuses, as most people do, but they are really colchicums (Colchicum autumnale), an entirely different species. When colchicums bloom they bloom on naked stems (their big, strappy foliage comes up later). I've combined them in this inkwell with a sprig of hypericum foliage and a few blades of an ornamental grass.

September 6, 2012 -- lineup of green gourds

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure some of these aren't squashes. The warty ones are definitely gourds. Couldn't resist lining these up in the windowsill today, because I just like looking at them!

Just realized I'd included a patty pan squash (fourth from the right).

September 5, 2012 -- so seasonal

I picked all this from the roadside (in the rain) this afternoon: tickseed sunflowers, ragweed, and (the black things) Queen Anne's lace seed structures. I really love the tickseed sunflowers (Bidens bipinnata) because they bloom absolutely every year at this time--when school is opening. In fact, don't think school should be allowed to open without them. And I  love how black the Queen Anne's lace seed structures look when wet.

These flowers were filled with nice, non-threatening bugs when I brought them in the house, and for a few minutes after I dropped the flowers into these vases (bought yesterday at WalMart), they (the bugs) were flying all around the kitchen. Most of them look like a cross between lightning bugs and beetles .

September 4, 2012 -- lots of stuff

This is a rearrangement of yesterday's flowers, plus a few more. Among the things I added were the hosta flowers I'd picked and used in an arrangement on Aug. 3. I knew I'd left them sitting on the windowsill for a reason! This is really way too elaborate to qualify as a windowsill arrangment (and you can see I had to sneak it onto a table), but it seemed to be what I wanted to work on today. I just love all these flowers in combination: zinnias, coxcomb, blue ageratum, hardy begonia, snapdragons, blue salvia, obedient plant, hosta flowers.

September 3, 2012 -- zinnias, etc.

This wasn't created for the windowsill; I made it for the kitchen table, but it must do double duty on the windowsill this afternoon, because I don't have time for anything else. Seeing this photo makes me realize there are ways I could improve this arrangement, so maybe I'll play with it again tomorrow. On the other hand, some things that look good in three dimensions, just never look good in two dimentsions (i.e., a photograph). I love the pressed-tin container, which a friend gave me not too long ago when she was cleaning out her vase stash.

Included in this are zinnias large and small, some pink cosmos, blue salvia, hardy begonia, magenta coxcomb, yellow coxcomb, a couple of snapdragons (way low), and a snapdragon seedhead or two.  

September 2, 2102 -- tiny marigold

I'm so thrilled to have this tiny marigold again. (Its blooms are smaller than a dime.) I couldn't find it in any seed catalog this spring, but I had saved seeds from the few plants I had last year, and I planted them with great care. A very few plants were coming up from those seeds when my husband inadvertently weeded them out. I was afraid that was the end of my tiny marigolds forever, but then I noticed four volunteer plants coming up at Flower Camp. They had that unmistakable tiny, tiny, very dissected foliage. Yay! I'm guarding them with my life and will try to save more seeds this fall. Here are a few stems I cut and dropped into the nearest vessel available--and empty spice jar.

Here are the flowers and foliage up close.

And here's an update on the butterfly attached to yesterday's cosmos flower: this morning, the dead butterfly had fallen from the flower and was on the porch floor. The spider had devoured most of its thorax and abdomen.

September 1, 2012 -- amazing butterfly, spider, cosmos flower!

I noticed this swallowtail butterfly on a pink cosmos flower today around noon, but there was something weird about it. The butterfly wasn't moving at all, and it seemed odd that its wings were spread so wide on such a cloudy day. Even when I watered near the cosmos plant, the butterfly didn't move. I finally decided it must be dead, but it wasn't until I cut the flower (with butterfly attached) that I saw what the real trouble was--a spider that must have paralyzed the butterfly and begun to eat it. The spider is whitish green. Absolutely amazing.