h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

did you have to change its diaper?

I've been shopping for colored milkweeds to support monarch butterflies (the type most commonly seen here), results so far disappointing, though I've found two vines in the family, one of them native, neither brightly colored. Long term object, a seasonal succession of flowers so there's always something for the hummingbirds and butterflies.

I finally found someone who's succeeded in getting the trumpet flower vine to grow in this desert (the Coachella Valley)... planted on the bank of a drainage canal that carries primarily rain water... though its leaves are rather skimpy in this season, its currently in flower. At least it can stand the heat. (119 F @ 4:00 pm, 90 F @ 4:00 am, June through August.)

http://0.tqn.com/d/dallas/1/0/P/1/-/-/TrumpetFlower.JPG

This particular vine is such a rich nectar producer (about 1/8 tsp per flower) I used sip the nectar myself when I was a kid... always a hazard of finding a bee or other insect in it, though. Has a tremendous advantage in that it blooms continuously except in freezing weather and is a hardy perennial. I've seed for the petaless wild variety from the American south east (tube of trumpet only, but just as rich in nectar) and I've found a violet variety in cultivation and attempted to propagate cuttings. No luck as yet on either, none have survived a season.

*footnote on post 30

*I thought it was on account of the color and texture of the spat they make colliding with the windshield at 55 mph.

Sad.

To encourage bumblebees, grow red clover. It is a low, ground hugging plant that has attractive 1" diameter clusters of florets, protects the ground from dehydration, fixes nitrogen, acts as a living mulch, suppressing weeds between other garden plants and has an irresistable appeal for most pollinator insects, especially bumblebees.

The flowers are slightly sweet to the taste and often can be found in health food stores in the herbal teas selection, or the seeds in the sprouting seeds selection. ...or you you can visit an agricultural supply store depending on how much seed you want.

This monstrous insect and its close relatives are the worst of all the butterflies found in in north America.

An introduced pest of European derivation, it is extremely destructive of cabbage family* crops, so much so that nearly every cabbage grower who has had a bad experience of it wishes it extinction, except perhaps in scientific herpetarium collections, if they're feeling generous.

One season I had an excellent growth of Chinese cabbages of marketable quality in my garden until they were discovered by this insect. Within days little remained above the rootstock except green caterpillars and caterpillar droppings.

The paper wasps in my attic had a field day, their nest, which usually grows to no more than five or six inches at most, expanding to a cubic meter, fed on the sulfur-white butterfly's caterpillars.

Unfortunately, the paper wasps had a size limitation, able only to use caterpillars they could fit into the cells of their comb to feed their young and though they were a help, they were not, by themselves, an adequate control on the proliferation of the cabbage worm.

So far as I know, this is the only genus in the lepidoptera which becomes a serious pest. Most members of the order are useful pollinators.

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/cabbage_white.htm

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/butterflies/sulphur/sulphur.htm

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/butterflies/sulphur/sulphur.htm#sulphcat

If you grow cabbages, or you have neighbors that do, you do not want this bandit hanging about. ...time to break out the insect net and expand the collection.

*...or brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower, collards, savoy salad, turnips, japanese radish, horse radish, rutabagas... ... if the flowers have four petals, it's in danger...

Footnote on the garden insect pest collection: This not only has scientific value, but multiple specimens enhance the value of the collection.

I don't have any of those vegetables growing, but my petunias are getting eaten up now. I have found little green caterpillars on some of the other flowers.

I haven't seen any of those white cabbage moths this summer, but they've been around occasionally in years past.

http://www.gardening-tips-perennials.com/butterfly-attracting-plants.html

Something is chewing its way through my white Coneflowers as well--just he flowers, not the leaves.

a gourmet caterpillar

It's hard enough to keep the darn plants alive in their first season, without this!

you can only control mother nature up to a point

There are surprisingly few butterflies here this year, but last night I went to have a drink in the pub, (in our nature reserve, which is just across the fields at the back of the house) It was swarming with moths, of all sizes. And not only that, but the pub lights illuminated hunting bats swooping over the weir - where the river and canal join. Such a fantastic sight, watching the bats hunting these moths.

Bats were once dreaded, but now they are considered beneficial. In new York State, there's a white fungus disease that seems to be killing large numbers of them. You are lucky to have healthy bat populations, Lanzababy.

* to warn mother of white fungus*

Oh III what a wonderful entry on the trumpet flower; I am sure that we had them in Zim but cannot remember what we called them. Lovely to read your contribution, particularly as I have had rather bad news about the state of my health. I hope to have the courage to write about it.
Troubles shared are - well I am sure that you know the old adage.
Kind regards
Christiane
Alsoran80

Friday 30th July 2010 19.36 BST

I am sorry to hear about your health problems, AR80

I hope you will be better

Arthritis is a nasty business! If you never get much exercise, you may succumb to it. If you exercise too much (particularly in the wrong ways), you may succumb too. Or maybe you're genetically prone to arthritis, so it doesn't matter *what* you do.

Dear Paulh and Pierce the

How good to wake up and find your comforting emails.

Apparently it does not matter what I do, the pupae i.e. psiorituc arthritis, has taken hold and demolished both my hip joints
and invaded my lumbar spine.!!

That is why I made that comparison to an octopus - it would seem that it(the P.A.) is just going to slowly gobble me up. !

At least I know that I took the right decision when I refused to have a double hip reolacement in 1999. The earnest registrar who was examining me preoperatively informed me that with my tremendously high BP, I would probably have a stroke. I refused the offer -of the double hip replacement)saying I would rather be in a wheelchair and not have a stroke.

Well at the time the cardiac surgeon gave me ten years and that was in 1994 when I underwent emergency cardiac surgery because I had an aneurysm in my left coronary artery.

Well I am living on "borrowed time" now so I really think that I have been extremely fortunate.

I now know that my darling Dick's saying is absolutely true and

"if you cannot beat them, join them"

is totally true.

I shall keep on going even if (the P.A.) decides to devour the whole of my skeletal frame!!.

Which is apparently quite unusual!!

I have got over the initial shock and will try not to refer to it again, but I have grown six inches smaller in the last year, so that was why I likened myself to an "octopus"

I am just so pleased that Keith is in an environment in which he feels happy and secure. I shall go and see him tomorrow.

Thank you both for understanding my angst.

With affection
Christiane

Saturday 31st July 2010 4.20 BST

I hope you have nice weather for your visit, Christiane.

Thank you so much dear Paul

I know that last week he found a super pub and so I think that I shall change my visit to lunch and take him out. That should be super.

With affection
Christiane

Sat.31sr July 5.a.m. BST