Adrienne - ONCE UPON A CONEFLOWER

Fleeting Visitors Up Close

An excellent time to observe the more elusive visitors to a garden is early morning. It’s mid-July, and I’m up well before 7:00 this morning. A humid 75-degree haze fogs the windows and runs in rivulets down the panes. Our street is quiet. Only the regular runners and the occasional commuter are out and about.

I drain the last of my coffee and fit the Nikon D-800 with a macro lens. Stepping outside, the clear notes of our resident song sparrow pierce the air. I step into the front garden populated with dwarf conifers, barberry, roses, and lush fountains of maiden grass dripping with dew. I don’t have long to wait for the action to begin.

Pollinator Portraits

Eastern Black Swallowtail on Magnus Echinacea

One of my greatest garden joys on warm sunny days is watching and photographing the pollinators as they frolic, mate and scavenge in the garden. Many are battling steep population declines nationwide, yet the most familiar still manage to make a showing every July and August – for now.

Vervain, Staple of the Late-Season Garden

A lovely, under-utilized flower for midsummer through fall is purpletop vervain, or verbena bonariensis, often called simply verbena. This tender perennial is native to South America, sometimes erroneously called Brazilian vervain (a different plant entirely). ‘Bonariensis’ derives from Buenos Aires, but this plant is native to all warm areas of the southern continent from Columbia to Chile, Brazil, and Argentina.

Similar species

When we hear the word verbena, what comes to mind first are the bright annual or trailing verbenas (Glandula x hybrida) used extensively in hanging baskets and pots. There are also low-growing moss verbenas. Hoary or blue vervain (Verbena hastata) is a wildflower native to the central US, a nice choice for native meadows.