Tag: Maximilian sunflower

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10/08/2022 Ruby Grant park

Caterpillar on broom weed
A grasshopper with very worn wings on Grindelia.
A tree cricket on Grindelia!
A megachilid bee on Grindelia.
Fall is starting! Sumacs in particular are turning red.
A noctuid moth on Maximilian sunflowers.
A bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) nearby on the same sunflower plant.
So many Maximilian sunflowers!
Briar poses in front of the prairie filled with more sunflowers.
A purple aster!
On the first Liatris we saw, Paula found these purple caterpillars.
Mom mentioned Schinia sanguinea at home recently and we think that’s what these are. She saw the adult first then later the caterpillars. Two other Schinia sp can apparently also eat Liatris according to this website (and of course they don’t provide a citation). However the owlet moth caterpillar book, which Mom has, doesn’t mention this.
A sleepy Dainty Sulphur. It was a cloudy and cool day afternoon before sunset.
A parasitic wasp resting on snow-on-the-mountain.
Another interesting moth on Maximilian sunflowers.
Green grasshoppers were distracted so I got a close up of their textured greens!
The prairie is full of messages. Briar sniffs sunflowers as we walk by.
A long-horned bee rests on a Grindelia. There were so many Grindelia at all stages.
A very fuzzy Croton species.
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09/29/2022 oh mine too!

A few of my sprouts of Maximilian sunflowers are starting to bloom too! I love how it is peaking through my second new bunch of little bluestem.
This one’s thinking about opening but hasn’t yet. The big clump we moved to by the brush pile seems to be less happy. Not enough sun? I’ll let it go another year.
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08/14/2022 Ruby Grant park morning

Our first Salvia azurea of the season blooming!
The first of many Helianthus annuus this morning.
A lone Maximilian sunflower starting to bloom. The rest don’t even have buds.
Snow on the mountain was magnificent today!
We went on a new part of the trail today and encountered some highly concerning Art.
“It has a lot of eyes Mom”
The little mosaic seats are also suspect.
“Why do you humans keep doing things to me”
“Ok I guess it’s ok”
We also came to terms with the big Art.
Possibly Amorpha, false-indigo.
Soapberry! Thanks Abby for the identification.
Another H. Annuus.
A beautiful Grindelia bud.
More sunflower (H annuus)
A differential grasshopper snacking on the sunflower.
We found a magnificent patch of silver leaf nightshade!
We had Briar pose among the silver leaf nightshades.
Possibly a Physalis?
Maybe non-blooming camphorweed?
Possibly Asclepias verticillata (thanks Mom!)
An aster starting to bloom!
Unknown flower that hasn’t bloomed yet.
Possibly Cardiospermum, balloon vine? From reading, it seems to be native but disliked for clogging farm equipment.
The balloon vine flower.
Ruby Grant park considerately has a dog level water fountain at the parking lot!
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05/30/2022 holiday Monday

A megachilid bee on Gaillardia pulchella (blanket flower or firewheel).
I repotted the lemon balm into a clay pot so I could use its plastic one. In the upper left I also put one winecup in the very long tall head shaped pot. The root system was starting to escape the sprouting cells so I should probably plant its friends soon too.
I needed a lot of medium to large plastic pots to put showy evening primrose (here in middle) and Maximilian sunflower (next pic) in actual soil.
These are the Maximilian sunflowers I’ve been pulling from the prairie area, where the main plant we moved was last winter. I was storing them to give away in a tub of water and soil, but they were looking sad, so I figured it was time for potting. There’s so many they are crowded, but whoever takes them can separate them out. They seem very, very hardy.
While I had my hands dirty I repotted the ashy sunflower (Helianthus mollis). I figure it can get much bigger in this pot, and then we can plant it in late summer to overwinter in its final location (to be decided).
Someone (tail end pictured…) Kept wanting to bark at our fine feline friends in the plant window. So I made it less convenient.
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05/29/2022

Hard work entertaining and supervising the additional kitties!!
A very tiny buprestid beetle I haven’t seen before on Maximilian sunflower leaves.
Close up, a little blurry. It was windy.
No idea why she put her face in the dayflowers.
Very tiny bee on elderberry flowers.
Shackleton got a leash walk and likes my untidy and dusty staging ground for pots.
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05/13/2022 world’s most adorable banana spider and other friends

The featured adorable tiny baby banana spider (Argiope aurantica). They are also known as garden spiders. That’s more common, but I prefer banana spider.
A tiny spider has caught a stilt bug. Mom, do you remember what these ones with the messy webs were called? The plant is a native Euphorbia.
Here’s an ant and a living stilt bug. I think it’s a Maximilian sunflower leaf they’re on, but I don’t know why I would have put one in this little pot. We’ll see.
A bombyliid bee fly on the coreopsis out front.
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05/12/2022 all the not dramatic regular stuff

Walking onions from garden, assorted farm share veggies, with glass noodles and chicken.
Pulled a lot more Maximilian sunflower this evening. I put it in a tub with some potting soil to keep until they can go to new homes.
I found a baby spittlebug on one sunflower stem! I took it over to the sunflowers we’re keeping so it can keep eating.
In the front yard, a few winecup seedlings are coming up in the ground cover orchard area.
More baby winecup!
I pulled up two more native black walnut seedlings and potted them.
Hopefully this one can make it with only half its remaining food. Anyways, this makes a total of four. I have found good homes for most or all of them now. Our lot is too small for another big tree.
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Strong plants and strong ants

Horsetail just shoves the hard soil out of the way!!
More Stark Surecrop Pie Cherries.
Soaker hose hard at work for the winecups and chamomile.
The hose has a leak so I put the leak over a pot of Maximilian sunflowers.
The Chef spotted ants carrying away this insect. Maybe a soldier fly??
He also spotted this milkweed bug. Hi milkweed bug! All three butterfly milkweeds in the front yard rainbow garden are up, plus the wild milkvines are pushing up everywhere too.
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04/23 checking on the backyard

Blackberry has started blooming.
Native currant continues blooming.
Probably non native oxalis that was here already.
Maybe baby Salvia coccinea by the oak.
No idea.
Lyre leaf sage has just started blooming.
Giant ragweed baby (self seeded from last year’s volunteer).
Not sure who this friend is on the other side of dividing fence.
Frostweed is coming back.
The extra Maximilian sunflower we planted seems to be thriving.
A type of Solanaceae, I forget which one, but native. A volunteer.
A pokeweed coming up! Always good for the birds.
The right half of the clump is goldenrod that was already here.  The left half is something non native but I forget what.
The fancy something is going to bloom though I guess. I remember it’s not native anyways. So eventually it will probably go.
New Clematis is surviving.
New from yesterday Cleome (Rocky mountain bee plant) is still alive.
Rattlebox from yesterday settling in fine. Wild onions from home in front.

I’m becoming convinced this is the New Jersey tea I put out last year. Ironweed leaves around it.
Showy evening primroses are starting!
Frog fruit I transferred from prairie area to east of the patio appears to have taken root.
A seedling that probably got transplanted from home. 🤷🤞🤞
I seeded a native lawn mix in this area and I believe this is the buffalo grass.
The other item in the mix was blue grama grass; hopefully this is it.
The fragrant sumac was starting to wilt again so I gave it some water in a pot to leak out slightly slower.