Butterflies/Moths

July 05, 2011 Austin area gardeners are fortunate to have a number of good independent nurseries, run by people who know our plants and local growing conditions, at which to shop. (Click on Nurseries in my sidebar for more info about and photo tours of those I frequent.) Now I ...

June 29, 2011 As always when visiting a beautiful garden, time was short, so the Walled Garden and conservatory were our final stop at Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, earlier this month. The grounds slope steeply down from the grand house, through the Italian Garden and Shrub Garden, leading ...

November 05, 2010 I spent yesterday in the garden, digging holes for new plants, delighted not to break a sweat in the perfect fall weather (mosquitoes didn’t bother me either–yea!). Beforehand I snapped some photos of the fall garden and new fence. Pictured above, fragrant-leaved Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida) ...

September 20, 2010 Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI, was a butterfly’s paradise last week. The monarchs will be migrating south soon, and they were fueling up. Gomphrena attracted this little white butterfly. I believe this is some sort of skipper butterfly enjoying the Verbena bonariensis. Another look Butterflies improve ...

September 09, 2010 On Labor Day we spent the afternoon with my husband’s family in southwest Austin. My in-laws have a lovely native-plant garden designed to attract wildlife by providing food for butterfly larvae (i.e. caterpillars), nectaring plants for butterflies and bees, berrying plants for birds, and sheltering layers of ...

August 24, 2010 Just in from a morning stroll through my garden, and what delights I witnessed. A tiny, blurry-winged hummingbird making the rounds from Mexican oregano to flame-leaf acanthus to Turk’s cap to Agastache. Honeybees spelunking for pollen. A leggy, spotted fawn tucked into a stand of bamboo muhly ...

August 21, 2010 For a nursery located within spitting distance of downtown, on South Congress Avenue, The Great Outdoors is surprisingly large, which befits a place featuring a nearly life-size topiary elephant as its mascot and another on its sign. From the street you glimpse a colorful mural, a screen ...

May 04, 2010 One of my favorite Austin garden tours occurs this Saturday, May 8: Gardens on Tour, produced by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I’m pleased to offer you a sneak preview of one of the gardens on the tour, the Reynosa Drive garden, which I’m particularly fond ...

April 15, 2010 For Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in central Texas this month, nothing can outdo Mother Nature’s garden. (My own is shrouded in oak pollen.) So here are more pictures from last Saturday’s drive on RR 1323 and the Willow City Loop through the Hill Country. Above, Indian paintbrush ...

November 27, 2009 Queen butterfly in the Wilkerson Center’s native-plant garden The siren song of beautiful fall weather, combined with school holidays last week, pulled us, unresisting, outdoors every day to enjoy local sightseeing in Austin. On Wednesday I took the kids to the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) on ...

November 27, 2009 Queen butterfly in the Wilkerson Center’s native-plant garden The siren song of beautiful fall weather, combined with school holidays last week, pulled us, unresisting, outdoors every day to enjoy local sightseeing in Austin. On Wednesday I took the kids to the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) on ...

November 10, 2009 Here are a couple more images from the Antique Rose Emporium in San Antonio. Hope you’ve enjoyed the cheery pink zinnias as much as I did—and that butterfly. Have a great day! All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...

November 10, 2009 Here are a couple more images from the Antique Rose Emporium in San Antonio. Hope you’ve enjoyed the cheery pink zinnias as much as I did—and that butterfly. Have a great day! All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...

November 09, 2009 Garden path at the Antique Rose Emporium Rose Garden: two words that induce irrepressible yawns. I’ve never enjoyed traditional rose gardens, where different varieties of roses are spaced out across a sunny square and unaccompanied by any other plants. It makes for a hodgepodge of color and ...

November 08, 2009 A monarch and honeybee share space on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundiflora) Twelve Austin garden bloggers caravaned to San Antonio on Saturday to visit San Antonio Botanical Garden and the Antique Rose Emporium, with a stop along the way at Madrone Nursery in San Marcos, a native-plant ...

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 ...