Gulf fritillaries, monarch, and others

The purple lantana against the walls in the lower lawn garden (next to the Discovery Center) have been alive with butterflies the last few days.

Monarchs, pipevine swallowtails, tiger swallowtails, gulf fritillaries, variegated fritillaries, and skippers of all sorts are all over the flowers.

Similarly, the new Butterfly Garden has been full of flowers, caterpillars, and butterflies. It's been magical.  I wrote a post about a Gulf Fritillary chrysalis, spotted early this week, on my Natural Gardening blog.

The 'new' butterfly garden

It's been a fabulous first year for our Butterfly Garden.  It looks great, but more importantly, has hosted butterfly adults and caterpillars in abundance.  This summer and fall, we've been thrilled to see Sleepy Orange, Cloudless Sulphur, Monarch, Gulf Fritillary, and Black Swallowtail caterpillars taking advantage of the host plants we planted for them.

Here's a piece I posted on Natural Gardening with a photo of a cloudless sulphur butterfly. 

This is a great example of how providing host plants means adult butterflies (they were fluttering around this afternoon).

Full moon walks

It's great fun to share viewing the full moon with others at the Garden.

For the Harvest Moon walk last night, I enjoyed doing a lovely stroll through the meadows (at dusk), dropping into the forested areas near the stream (as it became dark), and emerging up to the Arboretum just about the time the moon rose.

We caught glimpses of the full moon as it rose, up through the trees, and since it was clear enough, the full moon from the meadow was gorgeous.

It's magical.  So, last night we saw quite a bit.

The 'new' Butterfly Garden

Our new Butterfly Garden site, planted last fall and added to this spring has proved to be an excellent one.  Shelter from wind, combined with plenty of sun, has created a wonderful spot to see adult butterflies, and their caterpillars.

A recent Butterfly Garden tour (under the aegis of the Carolina Butterfly Society and the Garden) found us excitedly seeing Cloudless Sulfur and Dusky Orange caterpillars on Cassia, Black Swallowtail caterpillars on fennel, Monarch caterpillars on Common milkweed, and Gulf Fritillary and Zebra caterpillars on passionvine.  The caterpillars are exciting because host plants are a fundamental element of our butterfly garden design, in its new incarnation below the Children's Garden.

We saw plenty of adult butterflies, too. Quite a magical morning, in spite of the cloudy weather. Photos to come (it's been a busy couple of weeks...)

Visiting gardens

I'm away from the South Carolina Botanical Garden this summer, tending our mountain garden and visiting gardens elsewhere.   It's a great experience and opportunity for me, to learn from and appreciate other places, but also appreciate our Garden, when we're back home.

Talking with some fellow Garden bloggers at the Buffalo 2010 Meetup, I was reminded of how much we're grounded in our gardens and gardening.  Folks here in Buffalo, who have maybe 4 months of good gardening time, make the most of it -- their pocket gardens in the fronts and sides of houses are packed full of hardy perennials, all in flower now.

GardenWalk, in Buffalo, at the end of July, has over 350 gardens on tour.  Wow.  It's re-energized neighborhoods, rejuvenated blocks, etc.  Nothing not to like about that!

I love the idea of spreading gardens of whatever sort across neighborhoods and cityscapes, creating new vibrant green spaces.

Cherokee Worldview Garden Celebration

In spite of a hot, humid morning, close to a full house (judged by a packed Discovery Center parking area) enjoyed an excellent celebration of the Cherokee Worldview Garden today.

Events included a Cherokee dance performance, Cherokee story-telling, 'painting' with mineral pigments, and primitive technology and guided tours of the garden.

The heat didn't diminish the enthusiasm of the crowd, as willing 'volunteers' were invited to participate in the dances!

Cherokee Worldview Garden Celebration

If you're in the area, come to the celebration of the Cherokee Worldview Garden on Saturday, June 19 (10 am- noon). There will be garden tours, traditional music and dance performances.

The garden is devoted to plants that have meaning for the Cherokee people (whether medical, edible, or useful for other things) and is designed to help encourage you (as a visitor) to experience the connection with nature that is an essential part of the Cherokee world.