Hummingbird Moth - 2001 - Page 1

 Hummingbird Moth

(Hemaris thysbe)(I think)
We were delighted to see hummingbird moths on the monarda in 2021 at our house in town.  But we have not gotten pictures as good as those D took in 2001.  Here they are.
August, 2001
On BeeBalm (Monarda)
Photos by David

These photos were taken in Norwich, NY, on WayStead Acres Farm, Chenango County.

Hummingbird Moths and Bees love this plant!

It looks like a winged lobster to me!

On to Page Two of Hummingbird Moths

Hummingbird Moths - page 2

 There are six pictures on this page.

Hummingbird Moth
Norwich, New York
Photos by David
August, 2001

The hummingbird moth comes several times a day
to the pink Bee Balm (Monarda)

which it is forced to share with bumblebees.

It is a strange creature, and at first we thought it was a hummingbird.
It buzzes and sounds like a muffled hummingbird.
And, like the hummingbird, can hover and fly backward.

~
The proboscis is kept curled when it is in flight,

Then it unfurls to get to the nectar at the bottom of the petals.

~
Notice that the wings have transparent sections where scales have fallen off.

These creatures were fascinating in August.

There are at least three different ones that were photographed, and we have lots more pictures,
if you are interested!
Actually, we have lots more if you are not interested, too.

Click to see the earlier hummingbird moth pictures.

Garden in the end of June 2021

 The spring bulbs are done.  The alliums are thriving.  The peonies and irises are finishing for the year.

D likes a mixed garden, and there is always something interesting to find.  Included with the iris and zinnias and gladiolus, you can find marigold, daylily, tomato, cosmos.  There are probably more that I don't recognize yet. . . 

We bought two Itoh peony plants - also sometimes called tree peony - one bloomed.

Isn't this a strange flower?  It's called Astrantia or masterwort!

It's a shade loving perennial suitable for zones 4-7.  It seems to be more popular in England than here.

It does need moist soil, and we have planted it next to the downspout water barrel.

The leaves you are seeing are from a hollyhock.

Last year, this section of the front yard was tomatoes.

D sprinkled poppy seed.  They dance in the breeze.

A happy flower.

We always had wild mallows at the farm.  They need no care and seem happy anywhere.  This one surprised us, since we did not plant it!

The orange flower is calendula.  The lilies have buds but no flowers yet.  Isn't that delphinium a powerful purple?

The calendula are self-seeding annuals, and boy, do they ever seed!

We started with a couple along the front sidewalk.

Now they are in every garden.  I guess the birds or squirrels did it.

The strawberries are done.

We put the last ones to good use with pancakes!

Now, it's a wait until they do their second season in August.

We can't complain.  We ate or froze 11 quarts in June.

We have flowers in lots of different gardens, but I asked D to make me a cutting garden, where I could feel free to remove as many blooms as I wanted without destroying the effect of the garden.  On the left are dahlias, then snapdragons, then lisianthus (check back another time for more on this), then statice, then glads and strawflowers.

This photo is taken while standing in the back door of the garage.  On the left is a brugmansia, and the right is a shrub that makes sweet scented flowers in the spring.  Straight back is hedge marking the southern end of the property.  

Check back when there are posts for July and August to see how does this garden grow.

Did I say, "Let's have a wok in the garden?"

Actually, I did. . . It's hard to tell if it's raining when everything is soggy, and we needed something like a birdbath so that the raindrops would show.  This works perfectly.  I can look out my window and see if it's drizzling.  And it makes me smile!

2021 Garden Pics

March

April

May Part 2 and Part One

Part one of June

Flowers of June

To see 2020 garden pics:

Second half of September

September 1st half.

Second half of August

First half of August.

2nd half of July.

First half of July garden.

Garden at the End of June

And the first half of June is here.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

Here is the first week of May

Daffodils 2020

The middle of April is here.

First week of April.

Flowers of June 2021

I began to worry that I had just too many pictures for one post, so here are some of the individual flowers for the end of June 2021.

There are going to be lots of daylilies soon.  These are the first:

This is related to Stella di Oro, which bloomed in early June.  

This is a bit more of a melon color and the petals are recurves.

The first marigold.

The first dahlia in the cutting garden.

The first zinnia.  This is a white one - or at least as white as zinnias get.

One of the fun things of a busy garden is that it forms a test for alzheimers.

Is this a larkspur?  Delphinium?  Foxglove?  Wolfsbane?  

I know it's not monkshood, since that's not blooming yet.

Finally!  A lupin has bloomed.  Two plants survived.  

One bloomed.

The sweetpeas have a wonderful fragrance.

This is a bouquet of sweetpeas, zinnia, and kale.

Check back to see the Gardens of June (end).

2021 Garden Pics

March

April

May Part 2 and Part One

Part one of June

To see 2020 garden pics:

Second half of September

September 1st half.

Second half of August

First half of August.

2nd half of July.

First half of July garden.

Garden at the End of June

And the first half of June is here.

You can see the end of May, 2020, here.

Here is the first week of May

Daffodils 2020

The middle of April is here.

First week of April.