I’ll use the excuse of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (generously hosted as always by Carol at May Dreams Gardens) to show off a few more of the attractive plants in and around our pollinator’s garden. It’s been really fun talking to visitors about all of the activity and noticing who goes in for a closer look and who takes a few apprehensive steps back. The bees and wasps don’t seem to mind either reaction, they’re so intent on taking it all (the nectar and pollen that is) in. Would you go in for a closer look at all the busyness or are you more comfortable with a little distance between you and any insect activity?

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There are lots of names for July’s full moon, which was full in the wee hours of this very morning, but Full Thunder Moon seems the most appropriate this year. (Full Buck Moon and Full Hay Moon are other choices…) We’ve been lucky enough to have had a couple of good storms within the last week and the gardens are loving the infusion of rain – almost 3″ last Friday and another 1/2″ish Wednesday night. This last storm broke the heat wave and I can’t ever remember more heavenly July days than these last two. It’s not too hot or too humid – it’s juuuuust right. I hope you’re getting to enjoy a Goldilocks-perfect mid-July too!

I’d say it’s easy to plant a garden full of attractive plants except that it isn’t so easy. There’s way too much to choose from and what qualifies as attractive changes, for me at least, by the day. Some days it’s green flowers; other minutes it’s spectacularly enormous leaves; sometimes it’s blue foliage or anything orange. But it’s very easy to find plants that are attractive… in other ways … to other garden visitors, such as insects and birds, bees, wasps and butterflies. And planting those plants turns the garden from a pretty picture into an experience.

Every year we change the Display Garden around a bit. Some years we focus on flower colors (green, blue, anything that amazing apricot shot through with magenta…), sometimes we play more with texture (giant leaves… you catch my drift) and I have never known these gardens to not hum – audibly and visually – with activity. The gardens look alive because we plant such a variety that there are always plenty of plants for the insects and birds. But this year we tried to plant, in the big display garden bed in particular, ONLY what would be attractive to pollinators.The garden is buzzing! And lucky for us and for all the garden’s human visitors, we didn’t have to leave aesthetics out of the design equation.

The hands-down busiest (and hands-off busiest if you have any healthy respect for bees and wasps on a mission) is the sea holly (Eryngium planum). There must be an easy dozen different species on it at any given mid-day moment. And it’s highly attractive to me too, fulfilling the blue foliage (and flower) category so handsomely along with having an excellent architectural prickliness. When the sea holly goes by, the more subtly lovely (green) flowers on the mountain mint (Pycnanathemum muticum) will likely draw the most visitors.

But the butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), which is a stunning shade of brilliant orange that incidentally looks amazing with sea holly, not only attracts all sorts of bees, wasps and butterflies to its flowers, the plant itself is the only larval food source (along with every other member of the Asclepias/milkweed family) for the beloved Monarch butterfly. It’s always great fun to attract butterflies to the garden, and it’s even better to give them a reason to stay. At least 4 generations will go from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly over the course of the summer in a garden with an Asclepias restaurant. When Gail and I started researching plants for this garden we were thrilled to note that a lot of the best nectar sources are also popular host plants for all sorts of butterfly and moth caterpillars – like goldenrod (Solidago), Aster, false indigo (Baptisia), Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium) and even Zinnia.

Do you plant anything specifically for bees and butterflies? What are the most attractive plants in your garden?

I’m very sorry to have to report that Ginkgo Jr., Blithewold’s fledgling red-tailed hawk died this week. Veterinarians at The Wildlife Rehabilitators Association of Rhode Island treated him for a traumatic head injury which left him permanently blind in one eye and unable to eat solid food. Because he would never have been able to fend for himself and because a lifetime of tube feeding is not a stress-free option for any animal in captivity, a difficult decision was made. I am certain that he received the very best care, that all of the options were thoughtfully weighed, and remain so grateful to everyone who was involved in his rescue.

I hope Ginkgo Jr. is cruising the heavenly thermals with all of the awesome grace and dignity of his species restored; and that his parents, Rose and Ginkgo Sr., will continue to call Blithewold home and go on to rear many more chicks here.