Dragonflies

May 06, 2010 Faces of stone, metal, and bronze greeted me at the Wildflower Center on Monday—part of a sculpture show on display throughout the gardens. I’ve photographed her before. I think she’s part of the garden’s permanent collection. A pensive face for a green glade near the stream. Jumping ...

April 30, 2010 It’s the perfect time of year for sitting on the upper patio, looking out over the raised beds as a succession of plants burst into bloom. Little details please me, like this bird in my succulent dish. Dianthus ‘Bath’s Pink’ perfumes the garden with a delicious clove-like ...

September 05, 2009 This red dragonfly makes a daily appearance at the stock-tank pond, and it is really quite tame about letting me approach. He has suffered a wing injury of late, though it doesn’t seem to slow him down. The blue dragonfly comes around less frequently and proves to ...

August 03, 2009 I can’t resist showing off some more pond beauty on this Monday. Here’s ‘Colorado’ water lily, as lovely as a sunrise in her namesake state. And here’s our blue dragonfly again, standing out against the blurred background of lawn grass. Another look. Thanks for stopping by, dragonfly, ...

August 01, 2009 The floating flowers of ‘Helvola’ Nymphaea shine like pale yellow stars with buttery centers. A constellation of them have opened recently. A hardy dwarf water lily, ‘Helvola’ is the perfect size for small container ponds. Its diminutive flowers are about 2 inches across, and the cloven leaves, ...

July 27, 2009 Living in a drought for three years, now classified as “exceptional,” a gardener can get a little soul-weary. A still pond, I’m finding, has healing powers. The surface may be starred with the most beautiful of flowers, the water lily. This one is ‘Colorado.’ Orange and red ...

July 15, 2009 How do you attract dragonflies to your garden? Simple. Build a pond and put a vertical plant in it. This red dragonfly, which I spotted on a strappy leaf of the pond lily, skittishly flew away when I approached. But after buzzing back and forth across the ...

July 08, 2009 The unfinished stock-tank pond was making me feel lazy. So this morning I got out a measuring tape, level, shovel, gloves, bug spray, and sun hat, and got to work. My vacationing husband helped me measure and dig the trench for the retaining wall, and then he ...

July 24, 2008 Our final stop on our early July visit to Chanticleer was the Cut Flower & Vegetable Garden. How sweet, green, and lush it appeared—like an April garden in Austin. Old-fashioned lovelies like hollyhocks (above) and sunflowers gave height to the rows of cutting flowers. Bent-twig arches also ...

August 07, 2006 A green dragonfly visited my garden this morning. The big-eyed bug let me approach very closely to snap this photo. Perhaps it felt so friendly toward me because I was attracting plenty of mosquitoes for it to eat. The feeling was mutual. Go get ’em, dragonfly! The ...