Monarch Butterfly Seen

While securing tomatoes to their poles today, a flash of large orange and black caught my eye.  A tattered and tired looking female butterfly was in the garden very close to me.  Not being new to this, I decided to enjoy seeing the first monarch of the year and did not even try for a photo.  She was in front of me long enough to make a positive identification possible but was gone in the time needed to get the camera.  She had flown over our sizable milkweed patch before dropping down into the garden.  Milkweed is needed only when eggs are being deposited while she can feed on any flower.  A male monarch must be found before she needs the milkweed.
  

Day lily, Spiritual Corridor opened its first flower today.  The combination of contrasting colors and wrinkled petal edges makes it hard to believe that this is a living flower.  Add in a subtle but sweet scent and the total package is impressively complete.  This one has been with us long enough to be a candidate for division next spring.

Becky Lynn has a tough time getting started here this year.  Nearly all of its early growth yellowed possibly in response to our bitter weather.  We removed all of the dead foliage with scant hopes for its survival.  Survive it did and even produced flowers.  This one has no scent but sharing a name with the lady of the garden made it a must have variety.  Less hardy than our other day lilies, we should move this one out of our frost river and plant it in a more protected location.
 

Organdy Eve was a free gift to us that brought along with it a horrid weed.  Diligent deep weeding over three years appears to have eliminated the sedge.  Resetting the day lilies was required following each weeding session.  A sweet smell and complicated petal structure makes this variety a keeper well worth the effort needed to save it.

This was another great day in the garden.  Seeing the first monarch was a genuine thrill.  There is no question about the danger of imminent extinction for this butterfly.  We allow acres of milkweed to grow here.  One plot has been kept mowed until now so that fresh leaves will be available for later eggs and caterpillars.  For now we will continue to watch and to hope.

Which Twin Has The Toni

Gilbert H. Wild and Son, LLC is a grower and seller of perennial plants.  Our first order from them this spring included 10 daylilies.  We were wildly enthusiastic about their freshly dug, field grown plants.  All settled in here easily and all have flowered.  Then a possible problem appeared.  Growth that strongly resembled daylily foliage began to appear at the base of three of our new plants.  What we thought was desirable new growth revealed itself to be a very nasty weed.  This weed has never presented itself in our garden before this year.  We knew nothing about its habits.

This morning I was dismayed to find more new growth some distance from the daylily.  Determined to remove all of this weed, I began to expose the root.  It was firmly embedded in the crown of the daylily.  Larger tools were used to lever out the entire plant.  What I thought was a four fan daylily turned out to be a two fan daylily and two nasty weeds.
 

Pictured above is the weed.  Its below ground parts are visually different from similar parts of a daylily.  The white roots are the travelers, spreading outward to form new plants.  Removing all of these roots is a problem.  Despite gentle handling, breaks occur and some of this root was left behind.  Time will tell if a small segment of this root can grow into a complete plant.  For now all of this plant is in the garbage.  We will not compost it.

For comparison, here is a close up of the daylily.  Tan roots and tubers belong to the desired plant.  This specimen has been transplanted twice this year.  We hope for a full recovery without much of a set back.

This is the form of a new weed plant.  That tangle of underground body parts is what survives winter. Our aim is to leave none of this behind.  We want no trace of this plant to appear here next spring.

I am unsure of the direction of our future relationship with Gilbert H. Wild and Son.  They are an American farmer and that is reason enough to support them with future purchases.  Our inquiry about this weed was well beyond their guarantee but they did go the extra mile and identify this pest for us. It would have been extremely helpful if they had included pictures and text about this weed with my order.  With some clear information, I may have been able to remove all traces of this pest before planting.

This weed is a sedge.  Gilbert H. Wild and Son identified it as leafy sedge.  A truly nasty characteristic of this plant is the ability of its tubers to penetrate the underground parts of other plants.  I have oriental lilies planted near this beast.  Bulbs will have to be removed and inspected for piercings.