Ox-eyed Daisy, Chrysanthemum leucanthemum some think of it as a weed, we just love it. I have been in meadows full of it covered with butterflies. Like this Juniper Hairstreak the only green butterfly in the eastern US. This hairstreaks host plant is Eastern Red Cedar and you might get lucky to find one in your garden.
Daisy Fleabane, Erigeron annuus seems to pop up along roadsides quite often. The native Daisy Fleabane grows in our gravel driveway to about 30 inches tall. It attracts small butterflies when it has had a lot of moisture, during a drought the nectar in it seems to be slight. That is a Pearl Crescent butterfly on it a common visitor to garden is the eastern US.Both of the plants above are considered invasive plants and can take over fields and invade crops. We have never had any problem controlling them in our yards. Sometimes I do mow around them.
8 comments:
What wonderfully detailed close-ups! I love butterflies. :-) I'd never thought of having daisy fleabane in a garden... It would be fine!
I am seriously looking for that hairstreak. One year I found a bunch of large caterpillars on my Eastern red cedar. I left them alone but did not id them. I am going to check out your website to see if that is what they were. I have never seen the butterfly though. I have a love hate relationship with the fleabane. It is so pretty in limited quantities and easy to grow-until this time of year when you have to cut it back and keep new seedling from taking over. I can see some garden time today-to remove it.
Have you ever grown Chamomile? I was planning on trying it this year. Very pretty pictures. I think the butterflies is one of the reasons we bought this place, when we looked at it, there was butterflies everywhere. They would land on our arms and shoulders. It was so neat. There is not as many as there was 11 years ago, but we still some. Maybe I need to plant some more butterfly attracting flowers.
There is a movie,Driftwood, with a young Natalie Wood, one of my favorite lines from movies is in it, "daisy's ... they're my favourite flower" she says in a dreamy little girl's voice.
I think it would be fun to have a "daisy" garden with every daisy-like flower in it.
That's funny, my husband feels the same way. I am actually one of the few parents that does anything at the school and mine is probably the only one that truly doesn't "need" the fundraising money or what ever the need happens to be at the moment. I have been asking myself the same thing for weeks now (as I hand quilt a king sized raffle quilt for a fundraiser) Where are the parents of the kids who actually need this stuff? After all these years my husband has figured out that if he wants to fish with a wife's blessing he has to do a disproportionate amount of my list items. Then he can do what ever he wants for a minute. Happy wives make happy husbands. That's what I keep telling Doyle. :D
-Heather
Oh yeah, I forgot to say that the green picture was from the first of May last year and the brown grass one on top was taken just today. I just know that shortly the brown will be gone and the green will be back. I don't love to mow, but it looks so nice it's worth it.
-Heather
Oh the little green butterfly is so pretty. =)
Both of the butterflies are so pretty. I have fleabane in my garden here, but it's a different variety. It's flowers are a little smaller and lavender. I wish it attracted butterflies like that variety does.
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