Brookside Gardens – July 2019
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Even though the weather has been very hot this month, there are still plenty of flowers at Brookside Gardens that are weathering the heat.
The buttonbushes have all stages of flowers and seed formation now.
The green cones are forming on the bald cypress.
The butterfly weed seed pods are bursting open even as the Monarch caterpillars are munching on their leaves. The common milkweed pods are still green.
There are quite a few butterflies out in the gardens enjoying the flowers. The tiger swallowtails particularly enjoy the Joe Pye Weed. Last weekend I noticed more Monarch butterflies in the gardens. Maybe these are arriving from Mexico although it certainly is later than usual.
I walk around the gardens before my shifts at the Wings of Fancy exhibit. There were only two this month because of the travel I did during the first half of the month. There are plenty of things to see like chipmunks and milkweed bugs.
I even found a feather on a leaf that I could get close enough for a macro shot.
In the exhibit, the caterpillars are eating and growing. There was a Palamedes swallowtail caterpillar that had a ‘sun worshipper’ pose on a ‘excessive heat’ day.
There are plenty of Monarch caterpillars of all sizes on butterfly weed in the caterpillar house as well.
Inside the conservatory, I don’t have much time to take pictures of butterflies (lots of visitors) but I did manage a few. One day it was so hot that even the butterflies were desperate for water (on the floor) and not flying as much.
