Detecting a Real Fall Trend Here ...

This past weekend certainly had all the harbingers of fall in sway ... with cool, rainy days and nights, and as we experienced today, some of the very windy, remnants of Ike blew through. I saw on the regional radar last night that a few former outer bands of Ike's stormy weather were actually passing through the SE corner of the state, into Illinois and beyond. I suspect that more than a few midwestern gardeners also noticed these effects as well... Indeed, Fall is creeping quickly on to the gardening scene around Casa IVG, as the rest of this post will show, I hope....

Anyway, as you can now see, the Chrysalis has now been officially vacated ... it must have been sometime Thursday (when last we checked it) overnight or during the day Friday, which was a very rainy day and night here ... in any case we wish her/him well on the journey ahead, and hope s/he comes back next year and brings friends! I guess I know instinctively what's coming ahead in the season, and with the imminent departure of the butterflies, it's near certain proof that it's time to quit boating in denial, and just accept it.

The Praying Mantises are still around and quite visible, especially on the aphid infested Heliopsis (aka: Yellow Rogue) out by the shed. Both Fernymoss and I got shots of this guy at work, but I liked this series that Fernymoss got, so his photos won out. Just a Saturday afternoon session at the Lunch Counter for this lucky Mantis pal of ours ... and most days if we take a good look around, we can usually see this or one of his friends hanging out as well. I hope they do realize that they are the only reason why these Heliopsis haven't been dug/ripped out of the ground by now. Fortunately those aphids don't migrate to our other plants, and we've decided that the Mantises definitely have had something to do with that. Anyway, as most now know, we're tickled to have these guys in the garden ... we think they may be here to stay now that we've two full years of Mantis Guard....
Out in the savage back veggie garden, Punkinstein is still running amok and now crawling over the fence we have up to keep the dogs out (it doesn't work well with Pepa!), and into the back yard. They're still blooming prolifically, and are producing a few pumpkins --unless there are some as yet undiscovered ones, which is possible-- but we're assured we'll have at least two small ones ... now the question is whether they will fully ripen to orange by Halloween. We went grocery shopping today and saw they already had pumpkins for sale, but I somehow suspect they came from another place, because I'd find it hard to believe Iowa grown pumpkins would be that ripe already ... anyway, time will tell. Now, what might Pepa be peering through the fencing to see?
Yep, it's one of Punkinstein's progeny lying just on the other side of the fence, and when I looked at this new one last time, I recall it was about baseball sized, and now look at it! I'm sure they appreciated all the cool, rainy weather we've had for the last week and have really been (literally) soaking it up. Even though the veggie garden has been a savage jungle the last month or so, we're really proud of two of our more unusual growing attempts ... we had several rows of our own, organic corn that gave us several good meals, and now we seem primed to have our own organic Halloween pumpkins as well! The corn stalks are starting to dry on their own, and the few tardive ears that have developed --since we stopped harvesting a week or so ago-- will be shucked and left to whatever critters in the yard may want them. I suspect the tree rats will likely be the recipients, but I wouldn't mind if a raccoon happened through and found them ... one of our mild concerns with the corn was that we'd lose it to raccoons, but if they've been around, they have either been very discreet in thievery or respectful ... in either case, we got a crop out of it, and have even more Halloween decorations drying out back...
Though this is anything but a 'fall' flower, the abundance of fiery orange certainly suggests (ok, it screams) autumn hues. Both 'Sun Showers' and 'Erin Rachel' (more on them in another post) were blooming abundantly this weekend, and both of us ended up taking very similar shots of them (though independently of each other!), and we both focused on getting close ups of this particular bud, with another open bloom in the background. Both sets turned out pretty well, but I selected this one from Fernymoss' because I liked the detail and the overall composition ... aren't those buds as delectable as the open flowers? I have to say, 'Sun Showers' is the most spectacular tropical hibiscus I've ever owned (even when pitted against the double blooming red Chinese one I had through college and grad school), and it was worth every bit of its high end price of $45! You can bet we'll be pampering these two more this winter to keep them happy, and even perhaps blooming! Anyway, such vibrant orange leads to thinking of Halloween, which then leads to thinking of Halloween themed colors, such as black....
While I was out looking for the Chrysalis yesterday, I spotted this spider working her web in the vicinity of the now-voided chrysalis ... I can't provide a positive ID on her, but she looks a lot like that one I posted a while back (the one who was carrying her little ones). In any case, when I shot her, she was pretty mellow (Fernymoss tried later and scared her a bit), so I was able to get up fairly close. Hmm, spiders, fall, black after orange ... there is definitely a fall trend going on here.

As the garden winds down, inevitably, there are still bright spots to be seen, mostly among the remaining annuals you'll see over the coming days ... some of the perennials (namely the Ligularia dentata) are still in full swing --yay Toad Lilies! Yay Queen Rudbeckia!-- but the general trend is definitely on the winding down side of the cycle. I picked a few tomatoes yesterday and they're ripening much too slowly with this recent cool weather, but are still tasting pretty good ... my miserable peppers are now rebounding (too little, too late), but I still hold out few hopes to see much from them. So we were blessed by the garden gods in some respects and eh, slighted in others? Such is the gardening cycle we play every year ... we play with what we're dealt, and given the unusual nature of this particular summer, I think we still came out pretty well, all things considered. At this point, we're still pretty pleased, despite the onslaught of weeds this wet summer brought upon us....
I'm sure no one saw this coming ... Halloween Full Bore is nearly upon us here at Casa IVG. As long time readers already know, this is our big decorating event of the year (aside from Christmas blogging). While we were out shopping today, we made one of our periodic trips to Big Lots, one of those stores we like to check out every couple of months or so, just to see what they have ... and where we can often pick up many grocery items we'd pay more for at the regular places.

Of course, they had all their Halloween regalia on display, but aside from the usual items astute Halloween shoppers see, this particular item, 'Mr. Foggy, Mist Making Skull,' caught my eye, imagination and $20. It's actually a quite fun --and different-- Halloween decoration that does something ... it produces ample water vapor illuminated by interior LEDs. So I thought I'd include this short video just for fun ... I think you'll get an idea of what it does, even from this rudimentary set up. What we really intend to do with it is a bit more thematic ... some gravel, rocks, bones and other items placed around it. But I couldn't resist showing it off as it gave one of its début performances. After a while, it actually makes a nice, quiet gurgling ambient sound, but what you'll hear most prominently is the sound of Rolly panting in the background ... this recent weather with so much humidity in the air hasn't been kind to either humans or animals, but it too will pass soon...

Update on other matters: In case anyone was wondering what I was up to this weekend, other than neglecting the blog, I was very much involved with searching out and testing various programs to produce the Urban Oasis Calendar 2009. After upgrading to the most recent version of my photo editing software, I realized that it really lacks the capabilities to produce the kind of calendar we want to do, so I went hunting on the tubes to see what I could find that would do what we want to do. After testing out about a dozen or so programs (all rejected for one reason or another), I've almost come to a decision, and it may be a somewhat costly one, but still ... We want to produce a quality product we can proudly give our friends and family.

At this point, I still have a couple of other programs I want to check out, but I'm tending toward the higher end (e.g. expensive) solution offered by SmartDraw. It has the kind of ultimate hands on control of all options of the calendar I want to be able to manipulate, but it comes at a price ($99.00 US) ... we'll see what wins out, but at any rate I wanted to say that we're working on the calendar in the background, and it's pretty certain that it will happen eventually (I'd like to have it wrapped by mid-November). Fernymoss has been busy of late compiling some really cool and helpful enviro-friendly tips about pest control and other topics ... we'll also be including all the usual (and unusual) holidays, as well as the moon phases, and even more that Fernymoss will probably contribute. We've got the basic layout (depending on the software I choose) established at this point, and some preliminary photos have been identified, so it's just a matter of time ... and software chosen to do the job! I'll keep you updated....

And, as I've said before, if anyone would like to nominate particular pictures they've liked over this year, feel free to point them out in the comments ... we've got each month mapped out provisionally, but are certainly still open to suggestions. Depending on what software I eventually choose, we can probably include multiple images on certain pages (cover, interior page, back cover), so if anyone has any favorites, let us know!

Return of the Mantises Part II

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....

... Meet Some of the Garden Help ...

The Mantises have definitely arrived (or emerged from hiding) in the garden now, and we couldn't be more delighted! After yesterday's discovery out front, we were thrilled to find two more --bigger-- ones hanging out on some of that weedy Heliopsis I ranted about back in July (it's not ex-ter-min-ated by a long shot). These were destined to be pulled at some point, but now that these guys have apparently taken up residence, we may reconsider that. For some reason, this year these 'Yellow Rogues' (as we call them) have been afflicted seriously by aphids (you can see them all up and down the stems), and we suspect that's exactly what drew the Mantises. Honestly, for a Mantis they must seem like an all you can eat Tapas bar or some Happy Hour spread somewhere. Hey guys, knock yourselves out and grow fast and prosper! Nobody wants aphids around (though they don't seem to bother our other plants), and if they're tasty to a Mantis, so be it and good riddance to the aphids!
Don't ask me what this weed is, but we have it everywhere, and when we clear an area, this is one of the first things to go (and this one went shortly after this shot was taken). The only reason to include this was to showcase that flashy little leaf hopper we saw earlier this summer on one of the 'Sun Showers' Hibiscus flowers. All we know is that it is some kind of leaf hopper, but when you see him up close he's really quite the snazzy dazzler, and to me he looks a lot like the Neon Tetra of the insect world, only he doesn't need an aquarium! There's no end to what we find insect wise in the gardens, but at least this one seems to do no harm, and is quite pretty we think.

Guess who's been playing with the video again? I'm really loving the video capabilities of the S700, the more I experiment, and I caught this little 16 second snippet of a bumblebee working a Cat Mint bloom in front of our old decrepit excuse for a garden shed. I was staking out the Praying Mantises nearby, but thought it would be fun to catch a bee at work, so here he is. I also took two short videos of the Mantises, but I'm going to have to edit them somewhat to get them reduced in size and duration, so I won't post them just yet. As for my video capabilities, they're still in their infancy, and I'm just starting to get the hang of focusing properly and using the zoom, so one day I hope, I can get some really great footage of things around the garden. My next targets will be the Goldfinches who are starting to come around for the Annual Coneflower Seed Feast and the various butterflies we've been seeing in abundance lately, so stay tuned for more to come.

Still photos by Fernymoss and video by IVG, all taken August 24, 2008.

Return of the Mantises ...

As I mentioned in passing a few days ago, we'd been catching glimpses of mantises in the garden, but today while he was weeding, Fernymoss discovered just what we've been waiting to see and managed to spend some up close and personal time with him and these photos give a good representation of the encounter (the shots of him scurrying off weren't the greatest, so I left them out). Here, he's clearly spotted Fernymoss and seems to be saying 'Hello there ... what are you doing in my territory?' Since we love having these guys around, we give them plenty of respect and space when we encounter them, and so far we have cohabited peacefully (and gratefully on our part).
I suppose one could debate the utility of having Praying Mantises in the garden, because they are voracious predator insects and will catch and eat anything they can feasibly ingest, and as such, they might also be preying upon some other beneficial insects. But overall, we're convinced that their presence is beneficial and most warmly welcomed in our garden, and we're glad they're here! Here, our little friend appears to be returning to what he was doing, but still keeping an eye on that huge creature pointing some strange object at him and moving menacingly too close ... let's keep an eye on this situation.
Finally, he has warmed up a bit to the situation and returns briefly to his business, before being hounded even further by Fernymoss, who took probably another 10 shots of him, before he really rejected posing and took off for other parts of the front bed. I'm sure, though, that we'll see more of him and his family around as we move into the late Summer and Fall season, when they were most predominant last year. And of course, all quality Mantis sightings and photo shoots will be appearing here!

Friday night, we finally caught up with a series I've been recording that the Logo network has just begun airing, Sordid Lives: The Series, and it appears to be every bit as promising as the 2000 film version of a play by Del Shores (that originated in Los Angeles), which chronicled the indeed sordid lives of a bizarre extended terminally trashy, family, friends, and enemies in a small Texas town. Yes, it's pretty high camp, but it's done so lovingly by those involved, it's hard to not be drawn into the absurd dramas of these people's lives... Like many of our favorites, it's not for everyone, but for those whose tastes venture into the realm of John Waters-esque trash comedies, this could really fit the bill. The movie version features the likes of Delta Burke, Beau Bridges, Bonnie Bedelia, Olivia Newton John (also in the series ... she must really need the work), as well as lesser known, but equally eccentric characters who make it all come together so hilariously. If that sounds up your alley, check out the links (Logo has extended clips of the series you can watch) and take a look. Very lightweight, but funny stuff they're doing.

Here's a quote by 'Brother Boy' from the original movie:

Brother Boy: Well I did it. I walked all the way down that hall with one less piece of female attire... that is, if you consider a wig attire.

Kopper King Gives An Encore

Given yesterday's enthusiastic reception for the Kopper King, he's graciously granted us another brief audience ... I took these shots on August 16, late in the afternoon when he was starting to close up shop for the day, so that accounts for some of the petal ruffles, though others just never fully opened during the day because they were crowded together so closely. In this first shot, you can see how densely the buds pack themselves together, and on truly lucky days you can get 3-4 blooms all open at the same time on one stalk of the plant.

And, to address a point that Annie in Austin brought up in the previous post's comments, somehow I neglected to mention how big Kopper King actually grows! I can't recall (in his 7-8 years here) that he has ever gotten any bigger than 4 ft, which is right about where he is this year as well. As perennial hibiscus go, he's got a very neat growing habit, compared to say, a 'Lord Baltimore' or 'Blue River' who can get pretty tall and ungainly at times, which puts them at significant risk for damage from wind. There's nothing quite as discouraging as seeing a 5-6 ft tall stalk loaded with buds and blooms toppled after a violent thunderstorm. Often, such stalks can be saved if carefully re-staked immediately, but sometimes they just snap, and that it's for that part of the plant for the year.
I was also trying in these shots to capture the fantastic veining in the foliage as well, since that's the feature that most attracted me to it when I got this plant. This shot also shows that he has sustained some minor foliage damage, most likely during one of those thunderstorms we had last week when we got the first hail of the summer (that did a number on the pumpkin leaves). Fortunately we haven't had much in the way of insects bothering this plant (unlike poor Shady Gardener does this year), which might be due in part to the Praying Mantises that have taken up residence in the garden. We haven't been able to get close to any this year, but we have had fleeting glimpses of them around the back yard, so are keeping an eye out for them so we can capture them (with the camera of course)! If you're interested in seeing some up close and personal, click on the Praying Mantis label below to see last year's posts on them.
As for this third shot, I wasn't sure that I'd manage to get the textural look I was aiming for, but I was pleased with how this turned out. I even knew at the time I took this what I'd call it (I rarely give photos a title other than a descriptive one): Shybiscus. Usually the blooms have their inner bits proudly displayed to the world, but not this discreet bloom, thus the name.... This shot also demonstrates the depth of the red and veining these flowers have ... they're truly among the deepest reds I think you can find in a perennial hibiscus, though I suspect the Fleming Brothers have also developed other varieties with this color trait. I can see that I need to spend more time on the Fleming Flowers website, though I know full well I'll be way too tempted to pull out the credit card and go crazy snapping things up. And worse yet, I'll have Fernymoss wagging his finger at me asking the usual question: And where do you think you are going put this one? I do have an answer where next year's acquisition is going though ... in the spot where I yanked all that Coreopsis out last weekend. It doesn't have to be filled this year, and some of the Coreopsis is likely to reappear anyway, at which point I can either transplant it or yank it out. So I'll just use that site as a 'wish list' for now, then order for spring delivery, so I don't make too many spur of the moment plant purchases, something I'm well known for doing when it comes to plants!
Last weekend, when we were doing some end of the day weeding out front, I just had to get a few more shots of this new variety of Celosia called 'Caracas.' It was a new discovery for us this year, and since we got it at a end of season discount, we had to give it a try. When we got them, they were already about 2 ft tall, and have since grown to between 3 and 4 ft at present. It's obviously a cultivar of the Plumosa type Celosias, with a bit of the bronzy red foliage that you find in other varieties such as 'New Look,' though the latter never reach this height. We used to always plant the big Argentea cristata or 'Cockscomb' form, those old fashiony types with the huge "brain clusters" of flower heads, but the past few years we've been too occupied to get them planted in time. I'm thinking now that we could really save a lot of money on annuals if we just started them indoors under lighting, so maybe this winter we'll actually get motivated enough to set that up and avoid having to buy them.

Anyway, Gail also discovered this one as well and has it in her garden, so she's the only other gardener I know who has this particular variety. I'm definitely going to collect and sow seeds from this one this fall, because it looks like it's going to be a real performer for the rest of the season. I've at times mentioned on this blog that Celosia is particularly susceptible to "sporting" and producing odd mutants, so I'm curious if this one will cross with others in our garden and produce something different next year. You never know with Celosia volunteers, and I've found a few recently that are part 'New Look' and who knows what else. They're not blooming just yet, but I'll be curious to see what those look like.

If you've never grown Celosia, it's worth a try, if for no other reason than they bloom right up till frost, snort at heat, dry and humidity (once established, of course), and bring great splashes of colors to the garden when everything else is tending to look a bit past spent. And if you're really lucky, they may cross and give you some real oddballs in the garden the next year! One word of caution: when buying Celosia from garden centers, make sure you don't mistakenly buy the 'Jewel Box Mix' varieties, because they are dwarf cultivars that barely reach 5 inches high! I did that one year, and cursed myself all summer for that mistake as they got swallowed up by their bigger neighbors. The ones often called the 'Castle' varieties get taller and produce a lot more flowers as well ... and they come in a nice array of colors from pink to yellow and brilliant reds (my favorites). Under optimal conditions we've had those get over a foot tall and loaded with bloom spikes bursting with color. They're well worth a spot in your sunny garden, and make great front of the border annuals ... oh, and bees love them! Need I say more?

Sloppy Coreopsis

This is the Coreopsis I've been griping about lately ... well, and last year too, and the year before. I have a love hate relationship with this particular Coreopsis due to its sloppy habit of growing fast and inevitably flopping onto the sidewalk from within the Hibiscus bed where it's planted. It seems like I spend time finding a way to prop it up off the sidewalk and it just finds another way to get around my constraints. So usually about this point in the summer, I just give up!

By all rights, this should be one of my favorites ... it's a cheery yellow (and I have a big weakness for the fire colors as you might have already guessed), it's a prolific bloomer all summer and is planted in some of the poorest soil on our property and still manages to thrive. But it frustrates me by its sloppy growing habit! I know there are other varieties that manage to stay more upright, and when I bought this plant, I knew next to nothing other than it's reputed to do well in poor soils, even clay (take note, Gail!).

Earlier this year I was so disgusted with it that I nearly yanked it all out and sent it to the compost, but Fernymoss saved it by convincing me that it has a place, because this is where I discovered our first Praying Mantis last year. Having mantids in our garden was a real thrill for both of us, who had previously never seen any frequent our garden.

Anyway, back to the Coreopsis ... I think that if I can maintain my ambition (and energy levels) later this summer, I think I'll cut it back hard to promote a fall regrowth to kind of keep it in check. Or I could just divide it into several clumps (it has naturalized to other spots of the bed where I don't really want it, such as in front of the Butterfly Bush) and move it around. Yep, that's the idea! Then I might have it flopping all over the place, a real bright idea there. Actually a much better idea I've had was to just move the whole mass across the sidewalk and inside the fence in the wild bed with the Bee Balm, Hollyhocks, Rudbeckias and Baptisia ... I could plant it at the edge of the fence, so it would flop onto the fence and poke flowers through the fence. Hmm, I'll have to think this one out more, but I'm liking that idea.

Shady Gardener asked me in a comment to post something of the backyard (which is mostly utilitarian planting ... veggies ... grass for the dogs, etc.), well this bed is almost in the back yard, just across the sidewalk!

And this is probably the most "planned" of any of the beds I established several years ago, and it's maturing nicely, even though I don't have it the way I see it quite yet. The centerpiece is Buddleia davidii 'weyeriana' with its lovely deep yellow honeycomb type flowers, a bee and of course, butterfly magnet with many Monarchs to arrive in August ... Oh yeah, and to the left of that, there's a big ole unruly mass of Coreopsis ... There are a couple of Kniphofias behind it, one of which is just now starting to bloom and though you can't see it in this shot, there's a small clump of Butterfly Weed (Asclepias) that I planted from seed about 3 years ago. The Centaurea montana I featured in a post recently occupies the other end of this bed, next to Kopper King and in front of the 'Blue River' Hibiscus (the really big one). I've put some various annuals such as 3 Flowering Kales toward the front (you can see 2 if you look hard, and they have grown since), nasturtium seeds, and a few 4 O'clocks to round out this year's caprice of annuals ... we'll see what thrives.

Personally I really have missed having 4 O'clocks the past couple of years because we once had them in abundance, as weeds even ... and they attracted the Sphinx Moths in droves! We just didn't keep up with them, and now that we've been trying again the past couple of years, they've just suddenly decided they don't like us? I don't think it's as harsh as that, because I looked yesterday specifically for 4 O'clock seedlings and found at least 5 of the 10 seeds I planted. They're still small, but they thrive on the heat and humidity the Iowa summer provides, and they, along with the Zinnias really spring into action quickly! And I really long for the return of the Sphinx Moths, one of our favorite garden visitors when we have the right things planted (4 O'clocks, Daturas). We did put out a bunch of petunias this year and they love those too ... maybe this time we'll have struck the right chord for them? I hope so.

Return of the Mantis!

The mantis is back! Well, Fernymoss spotted and caught a mantis again a few times last week. He took these two shots last Tuesday as s/he was hanging out on the stucco near the back door of the house. We're pretty sure this isn't the one he brought back from work a while ago, but we're not ruling out either that it might be the little one I spotted on the Coreopsis earlier in the summer.

This got us to thinking about whether Mantids have the capability to change colour to blend in with the surroundings, especially since this one was playing near invisible on the stucco. I don't recall reading anything about such a talent, but with the huge number of species of Mantids, I can't say definitively ... I'm not an entomologist, nor do I try to play one on this blog. So your guess is as good as mine!

Notes on these shots: Taken by Fernymoss, 11 September, 2007. I think the first shot really gives a good view of the wings in detail, something that we don't usually focus on (at least I don't) probably because the pincers are so arresting that our attention naturally goes there directly. There's so much to take in when looking at a Mantis, and since time is usually pretty short to view them, I think it's just amazing that we sometimes have the chance to capture them up so close. The second shot could easily be called here's looking at you, for obvious reasons! If you look really closely at the enlarged version, you can actually see its pupils.

Guest Photo by Fernymoss: Steppin' Out

Photo Courtesy of Fernymoss

Taken 16 August 2007.

While we're at it with the Praying Mantis pictures, I thought I'd just do a quick post of another shot Fernymoss got after we brought the new guy (still unnamed) home. In the comments several of you likened him to a belle in a poofy dress preparing for a night out, which I have to admit hadn't really entered our minds, but hey, what you see in a photo is what you see! But now that you mention it ... that spent Bee Balm bloom does suggest it ... so, with all preparations and ablutions completed, here we see him heading out to find a good lookout spot for prey.

We're hoping that the spot in the back corner bed will provide well for him and encourage him to stick around, especially now that I did a spot of research on them here at Wikipedia. I hadn't known previously that there are some 2000 species of Mantids in the world, of which 20 are native to North America. Basically about all I knew was that they were a generally beneficial insect to have in the garden and that they will eat just about anything they can catch, including members of their own species. And when you get a close look at that mouth, you can definitely see you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of its attentions ... check out the Wikipedia link for a lot of fascinating facts about them, as well as photos of some really spectacular species (the Costa Rican 'Tropical Shield Mantis' was a real wowie for me). If you're a fan of 50's sci-fi (hello, FM?), for giggles and thrills you might want to investigate the 'classic' Universal Pictures cheeseball The Deadly Mantis, which I recall seeing as a kid and being singularly unimpressed. I used to be all over all of those radioactive or reanimated mutants, but I still have to admit that though some of the U.S. films were great fun, Godzilla and especially Mothra were and are still my favorites!

Our New Garden Denizen

Photo courtesy of Fernymoss

Taken 16 August, 2007

Today when Fernymoss came to pick me up from work, he asked "Do you mind if we give my little buddy a ride home?" And with that, he reached into the back seat and pulled out a small wooden box with a screened top ... containing none other than this magnificent Praying Mantis! He had told me last night that a really big mantis had been hanging out all day on one of the plate glass windows at work, disconcerting some of the customers who rummage around in the big containers of clearance merchandise in front of the store. Since he had to close, he looked again when he left and the mantis was gone, otherwise he would have come with him last night. Well, today he was back and he was ready for him ... so he carefully captured the mantis put him in his temporary digs until he got off work.

Once we got home he took him back to that overgrown mess that we usually call the back garden (it's savage garden central this year, alas) and introduced him to his new home. Of course I immediately asked "Why don't you go get some pics of him in case he decides not to stick around?" (though we hope he will as there's probably plenty of food back where he put him). So here he is in his new home amongst the False Indigo and spent Bee Balm blooms in the back corner. We're really hoping he adopts the garden as his new territory and thrives there, as it would really make us happy to know that we have mantises around ... though should he manage to find a mate that would surely be the end of him. So for now, we're just going to keep an eye out for him and hopefully we'll be able to get more shots of him lurking around waiting for dinner. We haven't seen the little one I shot earlier this summer lately, so as long as s/he stays away from the big one we might get lucky enough to have a couple around! We'll keep you posted ... any ideas for naming this one? I have some ideas, but have never had the occasion to name a mantis before!

Hanging Out At the Coreopsis Counter ...

Guest photo by Fernymoss ... 10 July, 2007.

S/He's baaaaaaaccckkk! Fernymoss wandered out for a while tonight with the camera and got some spectacular shots of Erin Rachel blooming in triplicate, as well as some more abstract leaf texture shots.. But the definite prize (to our surprise) was him finding our little friend the Praying Mantis back hanging out on the Coreopsis. We're thinking that at this point s/he's staking out territory back in this bed ... it will be interesting to see if s/he goes on up in the world when the Hibiscus moscheutos start blooming soon. I'm hoping that this little one now will take up residence and let us peek in on its life cycle (which of course we'd love to chronicle). If we can do it, you'll be sure to see more ....

Lunch at the Coreopsis Counter

Not a lot of commentary necessary for this shot I got this afternoon, is there? I wasn't exactly sure what I was going for when I first saw this little praying mantis on the coreopsis, but I knew I needed to get a few examples to figure it out! Upon closer inspection, it became even clearer that I had interrupted this little guy's lunch and it almost looks like he's giving me a dirty look to the effect of Back off buddy this is mine! (Make sure to view the enlarged version to get this degree of detail.)

It's that first nasty blast of July upon us right now ... sunny, hot, dry and perpetually in need of rain, of which there's nary a mention in the forecast until early next week. But I also did manage to get some other good photos today, including some wasps dining at the Sea Holly lunch counter as well. So, others you'll be seeing in the next few days include more gorgeous Calendulas, Liatris and Zebrina Mallow flowers ... I noticed as well that one of the hibiscus out front is just loaded with buds, so those can't be too far off either! Yay.