Tag: blue flax

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05/27/2023 front yard

The rainbow garden is almost there.
The winecups have gotten MASSIVE. I have never seen such mammoth winecup leaves in the wild.
A typical winecup with regular sized leaves. We saw this one today on our afternoon walk, at Saxon Park.
A view panning over to see the Salvia greggii and coreopsis too. All the white flowers in the raised beds are cilantro. If you’ve been looking at our iNaturalist feed, the cilantro flowers are hopping with insect activity.
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04/16/2023 blue life

Perennial blue flax (Linum lewisii) is doing beautifully in its second year!
We thought the mealy blue sage was dead in the rainbow garden as the one by the porch has been up for a while now, but this morning I noticed leaves! It lives! Maybe just less warm and sheltered out here in the side yard?
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04/09/2023 spring at home

All photos by Paula as she is the one at home! Thank you Paula!

Perennial blue flax blooming!
A few peach flowers are turning into peaches in spite of the hard frost!
Camassia angusta isn’t ready to bloom.
But it looks like Camassia scilloides is thinking about blooming!! Mom says this is the species she sees at home in north central Texas.
Last but not least the front yard lyre leaf sage is spreading nicely and has a bloom!
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06/15/2022 to bee or not to bee, plus “freeloader flies”

Before I left for work, I saw two bumblebees on the culinary sage flowers. Local bee expert José Montalva helped confirm the identification as Bombus bimaculatus (two spotted bumblebee) and sent me a very helpful article on the status of this and other bumblebee species in Oklahoma. It’s more of an eastern species so it is very cool to have them here on the edge of their range. This is also the third bumblebee species for our yard.
This was the best picture though not the best identification angle. Big pollen bags on her legs!
A little wasp on the purple coneflower.
On campus, I saw several Fiery Skippers on lantana.
Here’s another Fiery Skipper on campus lantana.
Back at home, the blue flax is thinking about blooming!
The Chef made egg drop soup with garden walking onions as a garnish.
Car ride!!
Saw a friend. Wow!
Little lumpy beetles are on a lot of flowers right now. They’re cute.
In the evening I saw one or two more two-spotted bumblebees, this time over on the perennial coreopsis.
I didn’t manage to get a good picture of the spots in the evening.
But I got some decent side views.
Lightning bug!
A paper wasp.
An immature assassin bug eating some sort of probable pentatomid bug.  Zoom in though and you’ll see several kinds of flies!!  I’m not sure, but I think they might be some kind of kleptoparasitic fly that steals nibbles from bigger predators.
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04/30/2022 assorted

Yarrow from home about to bloom.
Linum rigidum (yellow flax) from home is blooming! It’s an annual, but I’m hoping it will go to seed.
The mailbox irises are varied this year!
Closeup of purple.
Closeup of pink.
This englemann daisy has lost a few petals!
The two leaf senna is growing a second pair of leaves!!
Two baby flax are just starting their adult leaves.
The false gaura is doing fine but there was also this very nice fly on its label.
Gulf coast penstemon from the NPSOT plant sale is blooming!