Over the last few weeks my Verbena has been a favourite food source for Large white butterflies Pieris brassicae. This year I netted all my brassicas so I don't throw a fit and start swearing every time one flies into the garden, I can relax and just enjoy their beauty. Agreed they don't have the same impact as a Painted lady or my favourite, the Comma, but they are easier to watch as they do their dancing, courtship flight over the flower beds then fly off to lay their eggs on someone else's cabbages!
The flower clusters of the Verbena (Verbena bonariensis) almost glow as the sway above the other plants in the flowerbed and must appear as beacons to foraging insects.
I finally cleared enough space in the veg patch over the weekend to plant my leeks, hopefully not to late. I have been bringing them on in trays and they all had a massive root structure when I transplanted them so hopefully they will take quickly.
Hi Gary, that is a wonderful capture of this sometimes hated butterfly. I won't grow the brassicas because I love having these pretty flutterbys in the garden, but a covering would please us all. There is some little beetle type guy who has stripped the ornamental kale down to bare stalks. Verbena is just fantastic, a most wonderful glorious unassuming plant. :-)
ReplyDeleteFrances
Wonderful, wonderful image! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteFrances, thank you for the compliments. Sorry about the kale, not sure what that will be. It reminds me of a time I went with my dad to his allotment only to find that sawfly lavae had stripped all the gooseberry plants. It didn't help with me killing myself laughing as he did a little war dance whilst swearing at them..
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely colour your Verbena is and a great picture too! Val
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