Bee Balm Beetles

Here are some images of my bee balm beetles after a week. I am still picking them off in large quantities. As you can see in the second image, there are a few buds on the monarda, but it is well eaten, and full of bug droppings. Each time I go out I see tops which have turned dry because they have been eaten through. The beetles  continue to drown when I knock them in to my water and Basic H mixture.

On a brighter note, my brother had requested that I save some Bleeding Heart seeds from the plants at my mom's house. I was wondering how I would do that. Last Monday when I was at my mom's, I saw a bunch of seed pods hanging off of the plants. I obviously did not remember that they form pods. At any rate, I picked several which were still green as I was heading for my car. I threw the pods into my plastic car cup and drove home. I left the cup in my car for a few days 'til I was ready to bring it into the house. In the meantime, the pods dried and burst open. Seeds, ready to plant. I will mail them off  when I get a "round tuit".

We went to the parade and festival in St. Joe today. I was surprised at all of the people marching in the parade whom I recognized, from homeschoolers to politicians to businessmen. Ariana was afraid of all of the fire and police sirens and the loud trucks. On the other hand, she liked the horses and wanted to pet them. She also liked the water fountain on the Woods Farmer Seed and Nursery float. I wanted to call out to Woods, "Hey! Remember me? I'm the lady who bought the 16 bags of mulch yesterday!" I was dying for a Joe Burger, but the line was very long, and it started raining. The first time I went to the St. Joe festival was when I was working at St. Ben's the summer between freshman and sophomore years. I thought the Joe cones and Joe Burgers quite the riot. I was single then, so did not mind waiting in the blazing sun for a burger. The parish now has a new parish center which they use for the country store and fancy stands. I did purchase a dolly quilt and pillow for the dollies at Grandma's house. Otherwise there was little to do.

Another link on the  horsemint, or bee balm beetle: http://www.fnanaturesearch.org/index.php?option=com_naturesearch&task=view&id=1622

June First

I was digging through the trash to find a plant tag from the church flowers, and found the ornamental grass tag for my pot at home. It is Blue Mohawk, juncus inflexus. The name does do justice, since the spikes stick straight up.

I went nursery-hopping the other day looking for replacement plants for the Mary Garden at St. John Cantius. The original plan  was to find some poppies to go with the two small plants which are already there. I was not successful in finding reds, so I decided to go with the pink Veronica which I found in sufficient quantity at Woods Farmer Seed and Nursery.  I went to plant them and noticed that Benjamin bunny had topped off one of my new oriental lilies. Time to add some used cat litter to the beds to see if it will be an effective deterrent.  

In the process of looking for the poppies I found toadflax, linaria purpurea. Toadflax has a history for me. I originally saw this plant at the botanical garden in St. Louis, Missouri while we were visiting Fr. Scott Daniels at St. Louis University several years ago. I thought it interesting and pretty, so wrote the plant name in my book. I could not find any information when I looked it up later, and have never seen it in a nursery. ( I bet I had typed it into the computer as two separate words.)  I was pleasantly surprised, then, to see it at the Plant Place at Cash-Wise East.. I purchased a pot to bring home. It appeared again the next day when we toured the Como Park Conservatory, much to my delight. The conservatory plants were huge in their warm habitat compared to mine, but I am still excited to be able to watch it grow.The tag does say it is zone 3 hardy.

A bit more grass sprouting around the yard. It is about the time for the seed which I purchased from Woods to make its appearance. Next year I will skip the Scott's and purchase all of my lawn seed at Woods, since their seed is not supposed to have all of the annual grass seed in the mix.