Saturday, July 11, 2009
In the Garden After the Rain
Another rainy day. Needing a picture of the day, I ventured out into our backyard garden with the macro lens to see what there was to see and photograph.
Labels: garden, Picture of the Day, rain
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Ants on a Peony Bud
We have peonies in our backyard garden, on the verge of flowering. I saw that there were ants on every single bud. I had see this before, and didn't think it a cause for alarm as I have never seen any damage done to the plant or to the flower, but had never looked into it.
What little I could find on the Web suggests that the ants are definitely not harming the plant in any way, though nobody seems to be entirely sure what they are doing.
Watching the ants it definitely appeared as though they were interested in some substance on the buds -- the following picture shows a pair of ants with their pincers down on the split in the bud, seemingly touching the top surface but not doing any visible harm to the plant, or even gouging anything out of it. Whatever it is they are interested in must be on the top layer of the bud, perhaps a fine layer of liquid sugar or something similar. I also wonder if perhaps there is some benefit to the emerging flower, the ants likely driving away anything else that might do real harm to the plant.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Dandelions and Miniature Fauna
A trio of dandelions on the verge of flowering
Close-up of a closed-up dandelion
Found this little guy lurking on the side of a tulip in our back garden. He crawled inside the closed flower soon after, settling in for the night.
Small fly on the underside of a leaf
Labels: Dandelion, fly, garden, spider
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Bleeding Hearts and a Fiddlehead
Purple and white Bleeding Heart (Dicentra) flowers. Can't help but think of the logo for "Hairspray" when I see these.
Fern "fiddlehead" unfurling.
White Bleeding Heart flowers close-up.
Labels: Bleeding Heart, Fern, fiddlehead, garden
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