OBY - JUNE 2019

Still loving some of the surprises that show up in our yard that previous owners planted.  We're also enjoying planting native plants ourselves!  Not only do native plants require little maintenance, but the pollinators love them and they improve air quality whereas non-natives don't. Win-Win!

June 1:

Eight-Spotted Forester Moth

June 2:

love the new blooms of our Rose of Sharon, aka: Common Hibiscus, aka: Althea

Our nextdoor neighbor, Deanna, who has a yard to die for , told me you can just stick a branch from this tree in the dirt and it'll grow another tree!

June 3:

love the look of the tropical hibiscus from Lowe's

I'd never had one until now.  It's growing well.

Jerri sent this Lobelia home with me from Rogers.  Really thought it was a goner when we got here with it.  But it's bouncing back.

I think we're in a zone where this plant could be annual or perennial  We shall see.

June 4:

Rose of Sharon

Looks like "doubles"

Nothing in the world smells any better than Gardenias

June 7:

Purple Coneflower that David chose at the native plant sale

our budding "grass" (story below)

June 10:

profile of a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird on our pine tree

Almost center, you can see her sipping nectar from our Rose of Sharon (Althea, Common Hibiscus)

on hummingbird feeder -- a couple of them come around several times a day

Near the bottom, you can see her hitting the flowers in my hanging basket.  They love tubular flowers.  

And evidently they even like the tropical hibiscus

these pine needles are tougher than they look

June 14:

this little Sharpsepal Beardtongue was nearly dead after I transplanted it from a pot to the yard about a month ago

But it has new life and seems to be thriving (native)

June 15:

Love seeing the male Red-Bellied Woodpecker (and sometimes the female) on our suet feeder.  The Common Hibiscus Tree (Althea) provides some good nectar and shade for several birds and pollinators.  The Ruby-throated hummers love it.

June 27:

Funny story about these Orange Day Lillies.  We had a ton of what I thought was ornamental grass around one of our pine trees.  Since I'm trying to plant as many natives as possible, and have a small yard, I dug most of it up and Bill and Pam took it.  Then I started noticing buds.  But, still glad I thinned it out!  During out 2 week trip to CO, our great nephew James Goff watered our flowers for us.  We came home to some great new blooms!

Sharpsepal Beardtongue -- going strong

Purple Coneflower

Catnip or Cat Mint

cats actually do love it, but it also fends off mosquitoes 

Amarillo By Mornin

new one for us and they looked like "bubbles" at 70 mph

June 27:  After a wonderful vacay in Kansas and Colorado, we spent last night in Amarillo.  Got up this morning and, knowing we have a long drive to Texarkana, thought "not wildflower stops today"!
But we'd barely left Amarillo when we saw some showy yellow flowers that stood tall for a few miles along Hwy  287.  Soooo, we found a little country road to pull onto and take some pix. 2 or 3 of these flowers might've made it into our backseat, though we have a totally different soil and they prob won't flourish like they were here.  The general rules of thumb that I see on some of the sites I follow, is no picking off private land, don't stop on side of road where it isn't safe, & don't take more than 20% of each kind you see --- you could be depleting a habitat for certain wildlife and pollinators.

iNaturalist identified them at Four Point Evening Primrose

love the brilliant yellow

While we were at it, we snapped some Common Sunflowers.  That's the one that is the state flower of Kansas.  It isn't the largest sunflower, but it has a larger center than most and leaves are large.  And it's native.

I don't know what I'm looking for yet, but since there a so many different varieties of sunflowers, one of the ways to distinguish is by looking at the back of them.

Love this scene of past, present, and future sunflowers

Sleepy Daisy was a first for me

closer shot of the Sleepy Daisy

We also saw a pretty good batch of  Spotted Horsemint Bee Balm.  Through most of the rest of the morning we pass this and the purple shades.  We didn't stop to get shots of the purple.

 But we did stop to stretch our legs and look at some metal flowers in Quanah, TX.

saw a couple of fat Common Spotted Whiptails chasing each other around

one had a mouth full of food and the other wanted it

picked up some Hot Air Balloon yard art for Lacey and me in Canon City, and some yard art
dinosaurs for James and Joseph in Quanah

We could rest assured that OBY plants were being looked after these past 2 weeks. Great nephew, James Goff, came over between rains and watered everything for us!

Ghost from nextdoor came over to say "hi"

James wanted to be sure the yard was clean for us, so he picked up sticks that the last storm had thrown around

Orange Day-Lily

We came home to several new blooms, thanks to James and a little rain!

Sharpsepal Beardstongue

Purple Coneflower

Catnip

And then the sweetest flower of all -- our great niece was born today!!  Abigail Julie Nash.  Parents, Will and Christena gave her Will's mom's name for her middle name.  Julie is my late sis.  Can't wait to meet beautiful Abigail Julie!



Until next time,

Uncle David and Aunt B