Gayfeather and Monarchs

The fall blooming season has officially started in my garden.


As far as I am concerned, it is not fall until the Gayfeather (probably Liatris mucronata) start blooming.


It seems like it took a little longer for the flowers to kick into full bloom this year. That may be because September was exceptionally dry. At the official DFW rain gauge, only .06 inches of rain fell for the month. Through the end of September, rainfall was 10.69 inches below normal for the year. Last week, I even decided to run the sprinklers one more time. That makes two times for the year.


Even with limited water, the garden looks pretty good now that the temperatures are not as high. Having some plants in bloom helps the appearance too.


Here is a view of the garden through the Pine Muhly, Muhlenbergia dubia.


More Pine Muhly with Giant Hesperaloe in the foreground.

News Flash
We interrupt this blog post for a special report. Monarch butterflies have arrived in Plano. Repeating, monarch butterflies have arrived in Plano.


A cold front blew through Thursday evening bringing a little rain and damaging winds for some. The monarchs flew in right behind the cold front.


As they make their amazing migration to Mexico from as far away as Canada, quite a few monarchs stopped off here for food and lodging.


They were primarily interested in the Gayfeather flowers, but they were also feeding on the flowers of Gregg's Mistflower, Frostweed, and Mexican Milkweed.


This was the scene all across the front garden. There were more monarchs that I could count. It was quite a surprise since I only saw two monarchs this spring. Below is a short video of some of the visitors to put their numbers in perspective.

Getting Bugged

Ahh, springtime in the garden. All looks peaceful and serene.

The plants are green and blooming, despite the harsh winter, late freezes, and dry spring.


One of the Pale-Leaf Yuccas has two tall flower spikes.


And one mysteriously writhing flower stalk.


Bluebonnets and Gulf Coast Penstemon bloom around the Giant Hesperaloe.


I finally divided the Brakelights Red Yucca that I bought a couple of months ago. I was hoping to get at least three plants and ended up with five. All divided easily and should survive. I planted three near the Giant Hesperaloe and still need to decide where the other two will go. They are in their own pots until I decide.


But looks can be deceiving. Amid all the beauty of spring, destructive little beasts are lurking around the garden and feasting on some of the plants.


Large numbers of the beetles feed on Missouri Evening Primrose in the front garden. I think they are flea beetles. 


Here is a close up of the beetles on the Missouri Evening Primrose. Interestingly, in the back garden, they are feeding on some wild Gaura that I collected from a field and they are not touching the Stemless Evening Primrose, a close relative to the Missouri Evening Primrose.


Four lined plant bugs suck the juices out of the leaves which results in damage that looks similar to a disease, rather than an insect attack. They are quite fond sages. Damage to Autumn Sage is pictured above. They are also attacking the Mealycup Sage and Big Red Sage.


In addition to the sages, the Four lined Plant Bugs are feeding on the Gayfeather. A couple of them are barely visible in this photo. Had I seen them when I was taking the picture, I would have attempted to squash them between my finger and thumb. They are hard to catch because they drop to the ground when threatened. I spot sprayed the flea beetles and four lined plant bugs with light horticultural oil in an attempt to get them under control. That is the strongest insecticide that I will use and it seems to have helped some. I have to be careful with the spray because I do not want to hit any good bugs or predators of these pests. This fall, I will put out some beneficial nematodes to see if that will help control the overwintering pests.


Another pest attacking the Gayfeather and a few other plants are spittlebugs. The nymphs live in the foamy mass they create on stems and suck juices from the stems. Fortunately, they usually do not cause much damage. I will try to get rid of them by washing them off with a stream of water from the hose.


In addition to the flea beetles, hummingbird moth caterpillars are quickly consuming the Gaura leaves and flowers. It is interesting that they are different colors.


I don't mind this caterpillar too much because I will eventually get the benefit of more of the moths in the garden and more opportunities to try to take a good picture of one. This blurry one is feeding on the flowers of Gulf Coast Penstemon.


Too bad for the caterpillars that they were discovered by a female grackle over the weekend. She ate just about every one of them. Who knew grackles ate anything besides french fries in parking lots?


I invite many caterpillars into the garden by planting the host plants that they eat. One example is bronze fennel which supports black swallowtail caterpillars. In this example, the damage caused by the caterpillars is barely noticeable. 

Some insects can be a pest in the garden, but they are usually just a temporary annoyance. The flea beetles and four lined plant bugs should disappear as quickly as they appeared and new growth should replace the damaged leaves. 

This is the second year these two insects have attacked the garden. I hope biological warfare this fall with beneficial nematodes will keep their numbers in check next year.

Is your garden getting bugged too?

Untold Stories of 2013: When Insects Attack!

While we wait for spring to come, I thought I would share some of my untold gardening stories from 2013. The blog posts I started and never finished.

One of the things I remember most about 2013 was the invasion of insect pests in the garden. Perhaps "plague" would be a more accurate word. Insect pests were everywhere. Some caused quite a bit of damage, while others were more of a nuisance. Some of of these invaders I had never seen before. 

The insect to cause the most widespread damage was probably the colorful Four Lined Plant Bug. I never got a good picture of this critter because they drop from the leaf they are feeding on when you approach. I did happen to get a picture of one having its juices sucked out by an Assassin Bug. Still not a great photo.

Having your juices sucked out by an Assassin Bug is a fitting fate for a Four Lined Plant Bug because that is what they did to the leaves of my Gregg's Mistflower, Gregg Salvia, and Liatris. You can see some of the damage in the upper left of the photo above. Since Gregg's Mistflower and Gregg Salvia grow so fast, they quickly outgrew the damage to their leaves.

The damage to the Liatris, however, was so intense and prolonged that the leaves turned almost white with scabs and I think it cause several of the plants to die when they began blooming. I must say that I am not 100% certain that the damage to the Liatris was caused by the Four Lined Plant Bug, but I am pretty certain.

I tried controlling the Four Lined Garden Bug with a light horticultural oil, but since the insects drop to the ground when they feel threatened, they are hard to hit with a spray of the oil. 

Light horticultural oil is the strongest insecticide I use and I only use it on rare occasions. It is paraffin based must come in contact with the insects to kill them by suffocation. If you can't coat the insect with spray, it will not die. Light horticultural oil also works pretty well on leaf fungus too.

Grasshoppers are always present in Texas. In fact, I disturbed a 3.5 inch long one in the garden this past weekend. The season started out looking like it would be a bad grasshopper year, but I never noticed any more damage than is visible on these rain lily flowers.

The Coreopsis Leaf Beetle is another pest that caused damage last year, specifically to Coreopsis plants. My photos of this insect must have been really bad and I deleted all of them. You can see a great photo and find more information at the link. This beetle pretty much destroyed all of my Correopsis plants last year. I used light horticultural oil a couple of times to control this pest.

I have four varieties of milkweed plants to provide food for monarch caterpillars. I knew when I planted them that I would also have aphids. The two seem to go hand in hand or plant in mouth. 

The aphid infestation on the milkweed was actually pretty light last year. They hit once in the spring and never again. They are fairly easy to keep under control by spraying them off the plants with a strong stream of water from a hose. There are almost always a few lady bug beetles and their larva feeding on the aphids too.

Another pest common to milkweed is the Milkweed Bug. They appeared in the garden about three years ago and feed on the milkweed seedpods. The do not seem to do much damage to the plants otherwise, but they are very prolific. I keep them under control by squishing them between my thumb and forefinger, usually gloved, but not always.

A newcomer to attack the milkweed in my garden is the Swamp Milkweed Beetle. To the uninformed, this pest might look like a large lady bug. Instead of eating aphids, like a lady bug, the Swamp Milkweed Beetle will quickly defoliate milkweed plants. I have only seen the beetle on tropical milkweed in my garden. It does not seem to bother the native varieties of milkweed. This is another pest that is easy to control by the squishing method.

Who knew that an insect attacks the Texas Bluebonnet? I did not, until last year when I found the seedpods covered with Conchuela Bugs. This was another new pest to me. They began appearing after the seedpods began forming. I assume they were feeding on the developing seeds. 

My method of control for the Conchuela Bugs was to move the Bluebonnet plants to the compost pile before all of the seeds were mature. 

Leaf footed Bugs are regular visitors to my Red Yucca plants each year. They hang out and feed on the flower stalks and seedpods. The only thing I do to control these pests is to remove the seedpods. This seems to make them go away for a while until more seed pods form. The plants look better without the seedpods too. Once the flower stalks are about bloomed out, I cut them off and the Leaf footed Bugs will go away, but not far. 

They also like Datura leaves and seedpods. 

Flea Beetles appear during the summer and eat holes in the leaves of some Clammyweed plants. It is interesting that the insects will make some of the plants look like their leaves are made of lace, while a plant inches away will go untouched. The Clammyweed is usually about bloomed out by the time the Flea Beetles hit so it is not much of a loss. Besides that, I am removing the plants by this time of year to keep them from reseeding too freely.

And who could forget the attack of the Big Yellow Caterpillar? 

Bee Informed

A few months ago, I was contacted by Jessica Rykken, a Research Associate at Harvard University, through Kim Bacon of Texas Bee Watchers. Jessica found photos of my garden on Kim's website and wanted to know if she could use one of them in some educational bee observer cards she was working on for Encyclopedia of Life. Jessica ended up using a photo of my front garden from last year with an inset photo of the front yard when I bought my house nine years ago. 

According to the EOL website, "Observer cards are designed to foster the art and science of observing nature. Sets are [sic] cards are organized around Families of plants, animals, and fungi. Each set provides information about key traits and techniques necessary to make accurate and useful scientific observations. The tool is not designed to identify species, but rather to encourage detailed observations. Of course, identification can be possible with careful observations but the focus here is on the process of observing."

The observer cards are brief and informative. The cards describe characteristics and behaviors that can be used to help you identify and better understand bees. I found out that the bees that collect pollen in my garden every spring and cluster on stems of plants at night are male solitary bees. I have referred to them as homeless bees and it turns out that that is an accurate description. 

This is a photo of the male solitary bees that gather on plants in my garden in the evenings. Once they gather, they kick off all of the pollen that they collected on their legs. According to the cards, male solitary bees do not have a nest to return to at night, as the females do, so they aggregate as a defensive strategy and often return to the same location each night. 

If you would like to know more about these important and, often, misunderstood pollinators, you can open the Bee Observer Cards below. Click the Encyclopedia of Life link above and you can view Ant Observer Cards as well. Be sure to check the Texas Bee Watchers site for information about bees, plants, bee gardens and more.

Genus Melittia

I take pride in making my prairie a habitat for wildlife. It is certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, a Best of Texas Backyard Habitat by Texas Parks and Wildlife, a Monarch Waystation by Monarch Watch, and a Bee Friendly Garden by Texas Bee Watchers. See the Links section for additional information about these certifications.

Butterflies and moths are some of my favorite wildlife visitors. I plant nectar flowers to feed the adult butterflies and moths and specific host plants to feed the caterpillars.

I spotted this colorful moth in my garden recently. It is a moth, although it is often mistaken for a bee or wasp. This is either Melittia calabaza or Melittia cucurbitae. I cannot determine the species from the internet photos and it really does not matter. The common name for this moth is Squash Vine Borer and that is enough identification for me. Squash Vine Borers lay their eggs on the stems of squash and related plants. When the caterpillars hatch, they burrow into the stems and can eventually kill the plants. 

My wildlife habitat is also a human, Homo sapiens, habitat where I grow organic vegetables for my consumption. When an insect's feeding threatens to interfere with my feeding they better look out because I will be forced to assert my power as the dominant species in this  habitat.

So what happens when I see a Squash Vine Borer in my garden? Warning: The following image may not be suitable for sensitive eyes or stomachs.

I squash them! At least when I can catch them. Unfortunately, a couple of others escaped my wrath on this day. If they know what is good for them, they will stay away from my squash plants because I love my grilled squash.