Butterflies Love the Asters (and other lovely things..)!!

28 Sep '06 6:26 am

I think any comment is redudant...

It is SO simple : Butterflies LOVE the Asters! I only discovered it this very afternoon of September, 3-4 hours ago!!

29 Sep '06 8:12 am

Because , this afternoon, 5.30pm, exhausted of hard gardening non-stop since 10am and starving, I saw them again!! The butterflies! And they were many more, and some newcomers, different than yesterday, but not any yellows (why??).

I cross my heart,I have never seen something like this before(in my life)! This has never happened before in this garden :4-6 butterflies on each Aster plant of the back garden! They prefer the Asters under full sun, not the shadowy ones. And sometimes a Chrysanthem 2-3 of them, just for a change... No other bloom (why??)

What is going on here? WHY is this happenning this very year, this very Autumn? WHY they are so many? What it might have provoked this presence?? WHY they prefer Asters and almost no other bloom??

Does any body can give certain scientific answers??

29 Sep '06 11:04 pm

Well. No reply from you!

So! It would be impossible not to reply, if you knew something, no? Of course!

But for those of you, who --like me now --are really interested in why their gardens are suddenly invaded by lovely butterflies, I just discovered this adorable website , who answers all my questions of my previous post :

http://www.butterflywebsite.com/butterflygardening.cfm

Just in case you cannot reach it through our Forum, try , independently , through Google.

2 Oct '06 4:40 am

Butterflies love the asters...and I love the butterflies! Wink

Seriously, my dear friend...I'm delightfully stunned by the awesome shots of the beautiful butterflies - such clarity, great details and perfect textures of their bodies! It's amazing, well-done! I've been trying so hard to capture the few that visit our garden, but without success as they seem to be always on flight Sad

. Hmm...my only successful shot seems to end with the garden lizard as seen on image attached.

And your lovely asters...wow! such abundance! Love them all. I have a few plants in my garden with scanty flowers like your shade, and not as tall as yours! Liza, what special fertilizers do you apply to promote profuse blooms besides your tender, loving care? I notice that most of your flowering plants burst in abundance. THANKS! Very Happy

3 Oct '06 12:46 am

Dear Liza – you have done it again. Your collection of photographs is superb! And as I come to grips with spring – strangely enough my most awkward season – I sense the beauty and richness of early autumn in your garden; the abundance of the summer about to come to an end. You make the simple beauty of the asters the most glorious setting for some of nature’s most extravagant designs: butterflies! There are some real prize-winners amongst your shots, but the one that to me most tellingly captures the poignancy of the climax of the season is not the butterflies, but the white rose petals lying on the asters; my heart skipped a beat when I first saw it. It is one of the most beautiful symbols of the ephemeral nature of gardening I have ever seen… I think you must enter it for the RHS photo competition!

It reminds me of one of the highlights of my life: I was at Great Dixter on a July day in ’95, the garden at its glorious peak. A sudden shower had driven us under cover in the barn overlooking the sunken garden. When we ventured out again it was to nature at her most luxurious – like in the glorious pictures you posted for my birthday – thank you so much for them!!

In the cutting garden I suddenly came across a perfect picture. A rich golden yellow rose with a touch of papaya in it was overhanging a hemerocallis of exactly the same hue and shade: three full-petaled roses, heavy from the recent shower, bending their heads over two perfect daylilies. I stopped, gasped, stared. The air was perfectly still and golden in the sunlight after the shower. Then one of the roses sighed audibly and dropped all its petals. And then there were two roses, bent over two daylilies, and a scattering of petals amongst the green.

3 Oct '06 2:07 am

During these two days of this colourful "invasion" in the garden, I was SO much longing for some other human beings LIKE YOU being there with me, to share this experience of mine, dear friends, Jack and Jacqueline! I was feeling strangely lonely during this enchanting, unexpected experience.. I was unbelievably thankful and also very embarrassed... Only through the photos you could have a little taste...

Dear Jacqueline: Thank you so much for your kind, very kind, words! Well. I feed the Asters only with good mature compost every Autumn. But , although they grow quite well in shadowy spots, they perform in their best under full sun. They like very good draining conditions as well, and they are multiplied by self seeding and , especially, by their roots' division --they can be really invassive... The rain can destroy easily their beautiful blooms!!

The lizard tiny being is lovely! And , please, tell me more of this beautiful plant Dwarf Mussanda!! THANK YOU for your photo!!

The butterflies had exactly the conditions they desired this Autumn: lots of Asters , lots of warm sun, no rain , no wind!! Now I know some of their secrets...

Jack!I was so very touched by your tender , beautiful narrative! I had not my Birthday like you, but your text worked like the best present in my heart! Why?? Because this gap of loneliness during the butterfly phenomenon, is lessened! Because I was not alone over there! And THANK YOU for sharing this special Great Dixter Experience!! I LOVED it!!

Now . About the..."prize winner photos" : thank you immensely for your comments, for you are yourself a great photographer! But I can send you full screen any photo you like , or as many of them as you wish! You just ask my e-mail from Eggy. I don't consider my photos "mine". I am not a professional, and my photos belong to all of you here!! My inspiration and my moments of absolute beauty belong to Someone else...You can have as many as you wish of any of "my" photos in full screen. I will be so delighted, only by your ...delight of having them!!

3 Oct '06 2:20 am

I am just sad I could not respond sooner! When I came in on Saturday the system was down and I could not access Internet. So I went home and discovered my Bluetooth device was missing Embarassed

Now I have to try to find it. Did it fall off my lanyard (unlikely Mad

- was it stolen?)But it meant no Internet, not even in an emergency!

I shall contact Eggy!

3 Oct '06 4:48 am

Why this year and not previous years? I think the word has finally gotten around in the butterfly community that there is a delicious garden located at the home of one generous human named Liza at this location: go above the trees for X (butterfly language here), sail until you see large water found here Y, float for QWNS more distance, then start floating lower, sense the fragrance with the cells on your feet, now drop even lower, clear the shrubbery, then zzzzzzzz right in and there it is a smorgasbord of delicacies just right for all of us!

I loved seeing "your butterfly visitors", you have some species we don't have here in this garden. The website you shared is one of my favorites. Another one I share with my young college age helpers is http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/MBUSA.htm It answers some of the many, many questions they ask of me, such as, how long this stage and how long that stage, etc. We find the babies here. That's another post I plan to do someday. Oh, so much to write and so little time to do it. No wonder, many of us work during the night.

Jacqueline, perhaps you do not have enough butterflies to your heart's content, but I am wishing I could have not only butterflies, but also lizards! I have never seen a lizard here. They are delightful little creatures, and hard-working little garden helpers. I just like having them around. But, no, there are none at Crocker Croft. It could be because of the same reason I lost all the little fellows living in a stone wall at a house where we lived years ago. I loved seeing the extensive family of little brown lizards running about and sunning on the wall outside my kitchen window. Then our four small children were given four kittens (how could a mother say No to those eight imploring eyes). As the kittens grew, they ate all the yummy lizards and wiped out the whole community, also all the pretty blue-tailed skinks (another lizard-type). So much for paradise! Now, I do adore cats and, animal lover that I am, I adore most of God's creatures. We do not have cats of our own here, but we enjoy the company of certain neighbor cats. I'm planning to "do" a post about them someday. I suspect these furry visitors ate any that might have been here in the past.

Jack, your recount of such a beautiful experience brought tears to my eyes. Oh, thank you for your beautifully written sharing. I have had similar experiences, but I haven't been able to share them for lack of the proper words! I'm feeling crippled, here, so ineffective. Maybe the day (or night) is yet to come when the "words will come", oh, how I hope. I can count on my fingers the times of special, heightened awareness that have occurred in my life. How can I share them without the words!? Liza, generous dear, at least you are able to put much of yours into a "picture" to accompany your sweet words of "longing to share".

3 Oct '06 9:51 pm

Dear sweet Liza, I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to reply to this amazing post before now; I read it a couple of days ago but firstly couldn’t find the words to express the delight and joy your photos gave me (I think your first line, “I think any comment is redundant...” pretty much sums it up!) and secondly, time is always an issue for me as all I have are stolen moments while no-one is looking at work, or my lunch hour, into which I have to cram lots of other things too – all the boring jobs one has to do like paying bills, etc! Rolling Eyes

Anyway, enough of my excuses; thank you so much for sharing these delights with us Liza, I am just staggered at the beauty and number of different butterflies that visit your garden. I have to admit to a little jealousy (well, ok, a lot of jealousy! Wink

) at the amazing display you have had, and also at the weather you’ve obviously been enjoying for the butterflies to be out and about (today is the first sunny day we’ve had in about a week Sad

). It is all down to your hard work and love for your garden though, and I only have myself to blame for not enjoying the same in my own garden! Wink

4 Oct '06 2:30 am

Because I caused you the attitude to be...."excused", dear young friend!!

Look. It is true, that I childishly long, that my...heart beating on everything I post and touches my very being, to be in the same length with all my friends' heart beating... That is impossible rationally...Cause each and everyone of us is a different human being, regardless of our common Love for Nature and all its beings! So , it is impossible that we all respond in the same way on different subjects, no?

But , IF some of you have exactly the same heart beating like me about Nature and its Miracles, then I feel...flying to the 7th sky! That's very true!

So, please, my love : FEEL, just feel, the Joy of things!! The Beauty of things!! The Essense of things!! Don't allow to sweet Bambi either to feel guilty, or jealous, or anything negative!! Cause here we are talking of Divine Creation!! Not our creation....Here we are sharing happiness and joys, by trying to feel, to experience, to touch Mother Nature!

Butterflies Love the Asters (and other lovely things..)!!

Butterflies Love the Asters (and other lovely things..)!!

This time I am serious!

Butterfly.com....

Butterflies and Aster Pics Galore!

For days your post has been an inspiration...

Why you weren't there with me!!

Thank you, Liza!

asters + butterflies = autumn blessings

I am SO embarrassed...