The blanket flower

Nature, amazing. Two different varieties of the blanket flower on the same plant. When I experimented with this flower in the past it became very leggy and unattractive. I must have found the perfect location this time because it has filled so much space and looks beautiful. It keeps spreading and filling in more space, which is my favorite part of native gardening. I plant them and let them take over spots, adding character to the space. I might just have to purchase some more and add it to my ever growing garden.

The 400th monarch emerged

On June 23, 2021 our first monarch butterfly emerged in our butterfly house, which my husband finished building on June 13, 2021. Since that house, it has shrunk in size and now occupies space on my porch.

Yesterday, our 400th monarch butterfly emerged. He was an absolute beauty, sticking around long enough for me to take some photographs on a blanket flower. Nature is amazing to watch. The journey from egg to butterfly is remarkable.

The blanket flower

This blanket flower had a great surprise, it bloomed with two different colored petals on the same plant. This flower can be found from Florida to Maine and west to South Dakota and Arizona.

This flower reseeds itself, sometimes quite far from where originally planted, adding to the wild feel of my gardens. The petals, usually two toned with yellow and red, can also be found in solid red, or yellow, and purplish red. This is an extremely easy flower to grow in Southwest Florida as it requires full sun all day and sandy soils.

Only smiles here

Here is a glimpse of the flowers that are in bloom from our front butterfly garden. A perk of native flowers, they are pretty much in bloom year round in Southwest Florida. All of these flowers do wonderful in our garden, growing in full sun, and full of nectar for the butterflies to sip.

A yellow blanket flower. This was a nice surprise, as I thought the one I bought was a redish color.
A red blanket flower.
Red penta
Maypop passion vine, a host plant for gulf fritillary and zebra longwing butterflies.
Spiderwort
Red sage. These are amazing plants, as they reseed themselves and grow pretty tall.

A rain kissed garden

The all day Friday rain sure kissed our garden and brought more blooms out creating the perfect space for our butterflies to visit. There is such an abundance of greens, purples, reds, yellows and whites filling the space.

Milkweed with plumbago growing in the background.
A dune sunflower waiting to open.
A dune sunflower soaking up the rays of the sun.
A blanket flower.