Four Out Of Sixty-Seven Garden Pictures

The star of this picture is clearly the perfect Black Swallowtail Butterfly sipping nectar from the Purple Coneflower.  That would be a native butterfly on a native plant, but the Gloriosa Daisies and the slightly perforated leaf of a Mexican Sunflower are my favorites too!

Another favorite of mine, the Grey-headed cone flower, is a native too, but it is not native to New York.  It seems to have no shortage of pollinators just the same.  I love the way these lovely yellow flowers float above the stone wall on slender stems.  I wonder about the name since the buds look green to me and the tiny flowers are clearly dark brown.  This photo shows how the flowers begin at the bottom and finish at the very tip. Like most composite flowers these look gorgeous for a long time.

You might think that a plant named Arnica Montana would be native to Montana, but no, it comes from Europe.  Amy planted this one from seed.  I checked to make sure and the leaves definitely match the desired plant.  We actually have two of them. At first I thought we had nothing but weeds here but the Arnica is coming on strong and will win in the end especially if it gets a little help.

This wood betony plant is hardly ready for a photo op. It's flowers are nice, but the leaves are obscured by the cage and weeds.  It is the Clearwing Hummingbird Moth that makes this picture special for me.  If you have never seen one of these unique creatures You have missed something amazing!

Ed's daylilies have been so outstanding.  The brilliant  red to orange to yellow color of this one makes it pop against the green background.  Why even the ant is in focus.  I always think of my  Father when I take 67 pictures in one afternoon.  He would have loved  digital photography!  Many of today's pictures  have been already hit the trash.  Others have been saved perhaps to be used later.  These four I had to share!