August has turned into a very nice month, rain and pleasant temperatures, not the way we often think of the height of summer. My freezer is full of frozen salsa, so much so that the remaining tomatoes had to be canned for lack of space. Sweet potatoes and melons are coming on strong, thank-goodness for changes in the vegetable garden.
The flower beds are also morphing, busting out on all sides. Sunflowers were sown 3 times with the second sowing in flower now. Finch, Cedar waxwings, wrens, and cardinals are frequent visitors/feeders, to the point of scolding me when I visit. In the background the hummingbirds get a bit more brazen, and monarchs are nowhere to be found.
One of the most frequently visited flowers for hummingbirds and the hummingbird clearwing moth is Salvia 'Summer Jewel'. A reseeding annual, once it's been placed in the garden, it will forever return there (and over there).
I have it planted with Coleus 'Campfire'.
A few tuberose are flowering, dug from last year and stored in the garage. The first night I caught the fragrance, it was a flood of familiarity, so powerful I had to step back. Nothing has such a wonderful scent and after scent.
The brugmansias or angel trumpets are also going strong, only 2 years old, they are gigantic (6' tall, by 5')! The fragrance is light and different from other night fragrant flowers.
I purchased a new phlox, Phlox paniculata 'David's Lavender', a sport of P. 'David' (which is white). The flower heads are large and full, but the color reminds me of the species. It makes me think it's trying to revert.
Here is the comparison from the wild species growing along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Maryland senna or Senna marilandica is in full flower. Small nectaries arrive prior to the flowers to lure ants, which arrive in great numbers to protect and serve.
And as luck would have it I stumbled onto this Viceroy caterpillar. Munching away on poplar, which is very common in this area of the Piedmont.
The adult is often mistaken for a monarch, they share the orange coloring to dissuade predation, a color that signifies poison or bad taste. The larvae also mimic bird poop (to avoid being eaten), which a few caterpillars share and are very good imitators. The viceroy butterfly has a much more erratic flight (the first giveaway) and an extra bar of black lines on the lower wings. With so many poplars here, I find them occasionally, whereas I never saw them further north.
A very full and beautiful moon is expected tomorrow night, the Super Blue Moon or Sturgeon Moon. It will be time to sow root crops once it has passed, think beets, carrots, and turnips. The gravitational pull will reverse and encourage root growth. And September is just around the corner.