Botanical Summer #1
While I gather my thoughts (and time) to write about the sharp learning curve of sheep herding and grass farming, I thought I would share with you some of the native treasures blooming on the farm this summer. I’m so excited to see all the wildflowers, both native and naturalized, gracing this land. Please enjoy!
Rudbeckia (probably) missouriensis: Black-eyed Susan
Ruellia humilis: Hairy Wild Petunia
Asclepias tuberosa: Butterfly Weed
Arisaema dracontium: The Green Dragon
Achillea millefolium: Yarrow
Dianthus armeria: Deptford Pink
And now, after all that flora, here is some bonus fauna!
A dragonfly that’s as big as my hand! I believe this odonata is known as a common sanddragon. I don’t think there is anything common about him.
She looks demure now. This is right before she jumped for my face.
Mantis is mantis, after all.
Grackle & Sun 
Such a wonderland of bloom you live in!
Does the Green Dragon fruit turn deep purple red when it ripens? I ask because I saw something similar in Japan and I had no reference for it.
Yes, it turns a deep red. Very pretty.
Lovely post, Ms Gracklebird
All good things!
Now that’s a dragonfly! And I’ve been trying to get some butterfly milkweed going in our yard for a couple of years now, but no go – but perhaps it’s a good thing because we’re getting increasingly hit by squash vine borers!