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Mantis Watch continues here at Casa IVG, and here are some of today's results! We (separately) found both green and brown Mantises lurking around today in the back garden. Fernymoss captured this one on the Phlox Paniculata in the savage back corner of the garden, most likely guarding and feasting on the numerous insects that must be skulking around in this most uncontrolled corner of our gardens. Interestingly, we've been wondering if we have two species here, one green and one brown, or whether the green eventually morph into brown, but no matter what, we're still happy they're established inhabitants of the garden (as I've no doubt noted before). So ... we wish them well, to live long and prosper, and above all, send forth their progeny next year!
Below, you can watch a brief video of how this one was spending his time observing the observer early this evening....
And here's one final shot of him surveying his Phloxy domain for food ... happy feasting our friend! And here's a video I took about an hour earlier of one of the green Mantises still hanging out on the Heliopsis (aka: Yellow Rogue) growing out by the decrepit shed. Though most of this video is in pretty decent focus, there are a few blurry moments as he was buffeted about a bit by the breeze, but it didn't need extensive editing (unlike those I took last week). Here he's just going about his business, as (if you turn up the volume) you can hear the sound of someone playing the bagpipes up the street to the north of our house. At first, we weren't sure if it was just someone playing music loudly, but when we heard people clapping, we concluded that we have a bagpipe player in the neighborhood. How cool is that? Who knew? (My favorite line from Transformers, by the way!) A nice touch to this (relatively sedate) short video, I thought....
Finally, here's a close up of a caterpillar who was doing whatever it does on an adjoining flower to the Mantis ... Fernymoss has already consulted his field guides and hasn't found out what this is yet, so if anyone can ID it, please let us know. If you look closely at this shot (click through, as always), you can see one of the red aphids lurking on this flower as well ... and as I noted in a previous post, I think this is what is attracting the Mantises to this weedy marauder in our garden. Rest assured, if not for the Mantises' preference for hanging out here, these would have been pulled a while back, but they escape, merely because they are apparently a Mantis magnet, due to their pests!
So there you have it for Sunday at Casa IVG ... lots of life going on out back, when one takes the time to really observe it. We thought it was a particularly rewarding afternoon ourselves, and the early evening temperatures were delightful for this part of late Summer. We couldn't have asked for much better! Today life was good in the garden....
I liked this nice macro I got of the emerging bloomhead, on which the buds are almost prettier than the actual flowers ... (Photos taken July 20, 2008, late afternoon in the 'wild bed.')
Ok, confession time here. I used to badmouth Phlox as too common and too pink for my tastes. Which, obviously, have been changing the past few years since we've had this one in the back (insanely wild now) corner garden. Oddly enough, it's from the same friend who gifted us with several aggressive plants (White Yarrow and the Lysimachia I profiled last week), but this one is, pardon the pun, really growing on me! Now, no one is ever going to convince me to plant that horrid creeping Phlox that looks fantastic for about a week or two in the spring, then turns into a prickly mat that you avoid instinctively ... nope, not at Casa IVG. The sedums do quite nicely in that regard, thank you very much!
Let's move in a bit closer and see what's going on with these blooms ... no wonder the butterflies love them (and I'm hoping Hummingbirds will too), because it looks like they probably have some tasty nectaries for those who can reach them.
When I posted a photo of this Phlox recently, Gail was kind enough to ID it for me as Phlox paniculata. Now, some may wonder why I never knew what this relatively common plant was. To be really truthful, I never really had any interest in it, nor did I know of its potential benefits as a garden denizen. Thus, I never researched it, passed it by in garden centers, and basically just ignored it. I'm just that way (well, both of us are) about certain plants, until something about them interests me (or someone gives me a pretty one, lol). But now I've seen how this plant behaves and what it gives us, I think it's earned its spot here. 
Now, let's pull back a bit to see the extent of its spread this year ... and remember, this was a plant we first put in in 2004, a clump from a friend (who I met at the Iowa Caucuses, in fact!), and it was reputedly the magenta variety though it seems to have strayed from that since then, though I guess it's not unusual for them to morph from seedlings that are not true to the parent. (That's precisely why I never collect Zinnia seeds.) Whatever has been going on back there, it's definitely going to need to be brought a bit under control later this summer, because this plant is quickly outgrowing its space. Actually, I think what I'd like to do is just dig up several big clumps, plant them along that (hard to mow) fence line along our neighbor's driveway. That's one plant that she'd probably approve of growing there (after the great Castor and Broom Corn Disaster of 1999 when they "tickled" her too much). And Why Not? The flowers are really pretty, abundant, attractive to the flashy garden visitors and bees, and smell really good? 
And for a wider view, here you can see how it fits in with the Monarda, Coneflowers, Baptisia and the numerous tree saplings we have to eliminate (grrrr.... don't say the word Mulberry around here!). I think at this point, we should just let these guys duke it out for territory in the back bed (unless someone needs starts of them) and surrender this space to the victors, Monarda, Coneflowers, Rudbeckias, Baptisia and the Phlox. It would be a lot less work for us, would lend a nice wild effect to the gardens.... I think we'll do that. As soon as I get that Coreopsis moved in there, and we move those poppies, I think this could morph into a quite nice corner, with some more Hollyhocks ... time will tell whether we can pull this off!
Ok, so now I've moved over to the Phlox Side ... I'm even going to look next spring for this 'Nicky' Phlox that Mr. McGregor's Daughter posted recently ...now, that's a Phlox that I'd really like to have around!
