Gardener questions and photos

Updating files, needing to get caught up on email questions and photos.

Babs sent this picture to see if I know what the plant is. I do not. Anyone know what this is?



Krissy sent a picture of this Echinacea, Purple Coneflower, calling it a Siamese twin!!



From Krissy, beautiful photos of her plants. Asiatic Daylily




Moonbeam Echinacea



Cornflowers


From Krissy:

"My grandmother has this plant in her garden, Do you know what this plant is?"

My response "Looks like a Joe Pye weed, but different leaf and color flower. I'm just not sure. Can you get a close up photo of the leaf and photo of full plant?"




These are the pictures she sent. From the leaf shape and how they are spaced on the stem, I find the plant in my "Peterson Field Guide for Wildflowers".

The leaves of the Pye weed are not alternate as with this plant. The serrated edged leaves are also different.


On closer inspection of guidebook, I find that this is most likely New York Ironweed, Veronica noveboracensis.



Googled it to be sure. Yes it is New York Ironweed.



Krissy also sent this beautiful butterfly photo, loving her Echinacea. This is a Fritillary, Argynnis, Brush-footed Butterfly, of which there are over two dozen different Fritillaries, with very subtle color differences. It is hard to identify it from just the underwings.



From Krissy and Kim. This is a Spotted Wintergreen, Chimaphila maculata, native to our area.




Kim sent this photo of Sassafras, which I had never seen before.



She has discovered Fern on her property, which she had been wanting to plant around her fish pond.



And this red berry shrub is one she thought might be Spicebush. Was sorry to have to tell her it was Honeysuckle, so she would not be able to have a Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar after all.




Kim also sent a picture of this great Garter snake. For some reason this year I am seeing very few Garter snakes. I usually have them sunning right outside my front door all summer. The grandkids are very disappointed that we haven't found any to catch at all. Often in the spring we round up lots of babies for them to learn how to handle and catch them.




These photos came in from Babs.

Lupine seedlings



Monarch on Butterfly Bush




Unidentified insect on Echinacea




This is her porch garden at the beginning of the season.



This is the progress as it is developing



And this is it in full beautiful form!



Thanks for all the photos and questions.