Tag: mealy blue sage

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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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07/18/2022

The Missouri fluttermill primroses just keep going! I’m wondering if it’s that I’m giving the new Justicia pilosella behind them water? It’s usually just a cup or two.
A mystery squash has emerged.
The green basils are getting sunscald on their leaves, I think. The amethyst basil are shaded a bit by the mealy blue sage and look better, but also wilt more often between watering.
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06/27/2022

A paper wasp flies to mealy blue sage.
Using the two new wasp books, we narrowed it down to three species of Polistes: dorsalis, bellicosus, or fuscatus.
I’ll look this wasp up tomorrow in the pollinator wasps book.
It was going in and out of the hollow dead branch.
The native black currant is ripening!
Pizza with garden basil, garden onions, garden garlic.
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06/26/2022 sleepy yard day

Partridge pea blooming.
A big skipper caught my attention this morning.
I think it may be a Confused Cloudywing or an Outis Skipper. The pale ish area below the antennal club is why I think maybe Outis Skipper, but I also get the impression that one is rarer, so I wonder if I’m missing something obvious that makes it a cloudywing. Both have been recorded in Cleveland county, Oklahoma though.
Saw a two spotted bumblebee on mealy blue sage again!
The juniperleaf cuttings have started to perk up and poke at the plastic wrap, so I am unsealing them a bit to see if they can handle less humidity yet.
Silly sleep
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06/23/2022

The second Coryphantha sulcata seedling seems to have died, but the original is getting longer.
Another two spotted bumblebee (Bombus bimaculatus) visited the mealy blue sage today!
There was only one but I took a lot of angles. You can see the two spots if you zoom in.
In flight you get the best view of spots.
I liked the pollinating wasp zooming through in this picture.
Baby mantis!
I believe this is a baby red yucca, as that’s what I planted here, and it seems too sturdy to be grass.
A big ol mydas fly in the backyard!!
The native clematis likes its new sunnier spot about 20 ft to the west. It already has two or three new leaves!
I weeded the strawberry/honey berry bed but got called in for dinner when there was still a patch left. Maybe tomorrow.
I found a second pale zig zaggy spider in the backyard. Looking at it closer, I think it’s the wrong pattern and shape for Argiope aurantica, the usual banana spider.
Filling up the bird bath intrigued the dog.
African blue basil has flowers!
One of the many marigolds in the raised beds (we mixed the old seedheads and plants in over the winter) is beginning to flower!
The corn is going to town! A vaquero bean is flowering!
A fine little bell pepper!!
Cooling off after gardening with the mysterious Paper Protozoan. Note the hairy flagellum sticking out.
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06/07/2022 catching up

A Fiery Skipper on lantana on campus.
A native fleabane in the front yard.
Another Fiery Skipper on the verbena at home. I need to replace this non native moss verbena with prairie verbena but I can’t get it to germinate. 😡
A paper wasp on mealy blue sage. It looks weirdly purple here.
Using my new copy of the social wasps book, I narrowed this down to Polistes fuscatus or Polistes bellicosus, based on not much black on legs, black tipped antennae, and the yellow ring around the abdomen.
The Hedeoma is flowering!
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04/23 front yard

Viola bicolor going to seed!
There’s a lot of it growing this year. I have taken some of the seeds and sprinkled over on the new filled in soil as I don’t want to bury their next generation.
Native Bluets going to seed!
Mystery plant in raised bed. Tree of heaven (invasive non native) has been suggested.
Mostly got this leak taken care of with new rubber seals and Teflon tape. There’s still a tiny drip, but I’ll just call it watering the strawberries. Before, it was a consistent trickle.
Extremely bored helper.
Four varieties of strawberry. First harvest of the season.
Culinary sage in rainbow garden is about to bloom!
Potato straw bales are growing!!
Blue flax babies where I’m pointing, as well as larger ones near front of picture. The broad leafed plant to the right is mealy blue sage.

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Sort of a rainbow

‘Diane’ purple Salvia greggii and purple moss verbena (non native, bought it by mistake), mealy blue sage, ‘Fordham giant’ Swiss Chard and lacinato kale for green, marigolds for yellow (but they turned out more orange…), Linnaeus burning embers marigolds for orange, and ‘Will Rogers’ zinnias for red. Needs some work on colors, but not bad for a start!