Butterfly House – September 2025

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I have a shift per week in the Roston Native Butterfly House…and try to take some pictures each time. I generally stop at the beds and rain garden near the Botanical Center before I go to the house.  There are always flowering plants there…and sometimes critters too. I always check the wild indigo in the rain garden….and am waiting for the black seed pods to burst open. There are asters and goldenrod blooming now to feed the late season pollinators.

I unlock the butterfly house, clean the caterpillar frass off the table and sweep the floor before openng at 10. Sometimes it is quiet at first but other days there are people waiting to get in.

During August, the last of the luna and cecropia caterpillars made their cocoons and the Monarch, spicebush and snowberry clearwing caterpillars became the stars of the caterpillar display.

The big moths (luna, cecropia, and polyphemus) were still on display but their eggs are collected/stored until next spring because there is not enough time for the caterpillars to develop and make cocoons before winter.

The shifts in the house seemed busier  this past month so I haven’t taken as many pictures of butterflies and flowers in the house…although I did get a few good macro pictures.

The next post about the butterfly house will be about the end of the season…in early October.

Butterfly House – August 2025

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So many things to see in the Botanical Garden and the Roston Native Butterfly House this month. There are plenty of native plants in bloom in the rain garden on the walk between the Botanical Center and the house….but I just take a quick look since I want a few minutes to get things cleaned up before turning the sign to ‘open.’

Sometimes we find butterflies that have died overnight. I took a picture of one before we put it in the small bin we keep for butterflies that have succumbed. Another morning I found the 4 parts of a cecropia moth’s wings scattered on the floor; maybe a mouse ate the body during the night?

I like to see butterflies getting nectar from flowers…but sometimes it is enough to see them ‘resting.’ There are often fresh zinnias for the butterflies – freshly cut from the Master Gardener area of the Botanical Gardens. And there is always something blooming in the house itself. I like the Zen of the place when there aren’t many people but there is always the magic of a child’s wonder seeing a butterfly in a way they haven’t before.

The caterpillar that was ‘new to me’ this month was a Zebra Swallowtail…large enough to make its chrysalis – picked up off the floor when it was trying to leave the plant!

The moths are easily photographed because they are not very active during the day. The Luna moth is my favorite….but the Polyphemus is beautiful too. They, along with the Cecropia, have large caterpillars that are always interesting to visitors.

Zooming - July 2025

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The places for this month zoomed images include: my neighborhood/yard, Fantastic Caverns, my dad’s assisted living home, Springfield Botanical Gardens, and Lake Springfield Boathouse. It was a good month to be out and about in the morning…before the heat of the day! The early summer flowers doing well: arugula, cone flowers, day lilies, sunflowers, prickly pear cactus, button bush, and Missouri Evening Primrose. Enjoy the July 2025 slideshow!

Roston Native Butterfly House – July 2025

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My shifts at the Roston Native Butterfly House were hotter in July – even though all of them were for the 10-12:30 shift. The high points of the month involved caterpillars.

Two that were new-to-me were the caterpillars for the red spotted purple butterfly (on willow) and the Atala butterfly (on cycad).

At the beginning of one of my shifts, I was cleaning the caterpillar frass from the very wet display table and got a big surprise when I flipped the lid on the trash to throw away a messy paper towel and discovered a very large cecropia moth caterpillar on some black cherry leaves that just happened to be in the trash. I quickly scooped the leaves and caterpillar up and put them back with the other cecropia caterpillars…..and the caterpillar began wondering around the table. My assumption is that sometime during the night it wandered off the table and fell into the trash. We eventually put it in the zippered cage so that its walkabout could be somewhat contained! It was probably large enough to be ready to make its cocoon.

I enjoy photographing things in the butterfly house whenever there are few or no visitors there! The cecropia caterpillars in the house toward the end of the month were ones that were raised with my luna caterpillars on sweet gum, and they rejected a shift to black cherry leaves when they got to the butterfly house….so now the sweet gum vase has a mix of luna and cecropia caterpillars.

Springfield Botanical Gardens – July 2025

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We visited the Springfield Botanical Gardens in mid-June….on a cloudy morning. There was a breeze to help make the warm, humid air more comfortable. My husband was keen to photograph insects in flight. It was probably warm enough, but the insects were not as active because of the thick clouds and everything being so wet.

The Botanical Center was our first stop. Then we walked by the rain garden (indigo with pods and golden rod) and down the sidewalk past the Butterfly House and surrounding garden.

The daylilies were blooming profusely and were the main draw for my visit. I started out doing some macro shots with my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max)

But changed to zoomed images with my small point and shoot (Canon Powershot SX730 HS). Both cameras captured the water droplets on the flowers.

As we started back toward the car I saw something off the paved walk landing in the grass. It stayed put as I carefully walked over….and got a picture. It was the only large butterfly I saw all morning (other than in the Butterfly House).

Before we left for home, I got a small branch of sweet gum leaves for my luna and cecropia moths.

Zooming – June 2025

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The images I selected for this month’s Zooming post reflect the places I have been recently: the Butterfly House as the Springfield Botanical Gardens, my neighborhood and my home, the Ed Clark Museum of Missouri Geology in Rolla, the Dickerson Park Zoo, the Schuette Prairie, and the River Bend Nature Center in Wichita Falls TX. That’s quite a lot of variety during a single month! Enjoy the June 2025 slideshow!

Butterfly Festival

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The annual Butterfly Festival was held at the Springfield Botanical Gardens on the second Saturday in June. I volunteered for 2 hours in the Missouri Master Naturalist booth.

There were a lot of people and the children were all working on a passport where they collected a butterfly sticker from the booths they visited. The sticker we had was the pipevine swallowtail. We were completely out of stickers at the end of my shift and there was still 2 hours to go for the festival!

To the side of our booth, we had a small tarp with rotten logs and tools to dig into the logs. The children found snails, grubs, worms, ants, millipedes, spider…and roly-polies! We accumulated quite a collection in the magnifying containers on the table.

We talked the adults about Missouri Master Naturalists and hopefully some people will be interested enough to contact us and participate in our next core training in fall of 2026.

Springfield Botanical Garden – June 2025

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I had a few minutes before I needed to head into a class at the Springfield Botanical Gardens last week; it had just rained, and the clouds were still thick. There was plenty of time to take a few pictures of plants on the way down to the Butterfly House…looping back to the Botanical Center where my class would be. I notice more when I am in ‘photo mode’ and am glad my iPhone 15 Pro Max does a reasonable job for this type of garden photography! The only challenge was the breeze moving the vegetation around.

There were water droplets on the new leaves of a redbud,

Clumps of spiderworts,

Seed pods on wild indigo,

Clusters of milkweed buds, and

Spirals of unfurling leaves.

There is always something new to notice in the garden!

Butterfly House after Rain

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One of my shifts at the Roston Native Butterfly House occurred after it rained most of the night and the hours before my shift. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t rain for a bit over 2 hours that fit nicely with my scheduled time…only starting again just as the next shift arrived! Not many people ventured out to the Springfield Botanical Gardens during that time and there were only 14 visitors to the butterfly house…so I had plenty of time to sweep the floor and stand up the chairs! There was a cecropia moth on the floor that I moved to a flower bed so it would not get stepped on; it moved a bit when I picked it up.

The high point of the visitors were grandparents their two young granddaughters; they were having a ‘butterfly day camp week’ and the house was on their activity list! They were thrilled that the rain had stopped long enough for them to visit.

The butterflies that were not roosting were feeding on zinnias and musk thistle – probably hungry because they tend to roost when it is raining or dark (and it was cool as well). The oranges that are usually popular were probably waterlogged from all the rain; I didn’t see any butterflies on them. Two pipevine swallowtail caterpillars were actively feeding but most of the others were not very active. I had plenty of time to take pictures of butterflies, caterpillars, and plants.

There were at least 4 cecropia moths (other than the one I moved off the floor) that were in house…a little challenging to see in the foliage. Two butterflies emerged from their chrysalis but neither one dried off enough to fly away from the chrysalis house; the humidity was very high which probably prolonged the process. Some butterflies were on the low brick walls and floor; they might have been puddling although it appears they were on relatively dry places.

Zooming – May 2025

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May was full of blooms both in my yard and places I visited close to home: Springfield Botanical Garden, Springfield Nature Conservation Center, road cuts along US 65, Harold Prairie, Noah Brown’s Prairie, and Linden’s Prairie. I am realizing that the work I did to create a new shade garden (with American Spikenard and hostas growing in pine needle mulch) is a magnate for fledgling/juvenile robins….such a joy to see them from my office window. The month was a great one for being outdoors – even if it meant dodging thunderstorms!

Roston Butterfly House

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The seasonal Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield MO Botanical Gardens opened in mid-May and I have enjoyed my initial shifts. It will be my primary volunteer activity until September! The mornings are still cool enough that sometimes the butterflies are not as active when my shift starts at 10…. they warm up and are more active before the shift ends at 12:30 PM. I signed up for mornings-only from the beginning but have already learned that in May, the temperature for any of the shifts would not be problematic!

It is easy to get pictures with my phone!

I find myself enjoying being in the butterfly house just as I did in Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy in Maryland (pre-Covid). There is something magical about so many butterflies in a confined space. The Roston Butterfly House is only native species so there no biological containment requirement…which makes it less stressful for volunteers!

Springfield Botanical Garden – May 2025

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My daughter and I got to the gardens well before the native plant sale started so that we could walk around beforehand. Once we bought plants, we would have to leave so they would not get overheated in the car. We were very glad we did.

The peonies were the standout flower. I took lots of pictures and noticed the different shape and texture of the flower centers. Many of the plants had wire frames under/around them to support the flowers that are sometimes too heavy for the plant!

Of course there were other plants in bloom: alliums, passionflower, tulip poplar, and wild indigo were the ones I photographed.

The water feature in the hosta garden is one of my favorite places; the benches and chairs were not wet this time…we sat for a few minutes to enjoy the sights and sounds of the garden.

The varieties of hens and chicks near the Botanical Center are also a favorite place in the garden.

A blue bird eyed us as we made the final part of our walk…to the plant sale. I bought an American Spikenard, 2 columbines, and a red buckeye. More about them later.

At my daughters, she called my attention to the tiny roses near her driveway; I like their colors; they seem to get pinker as they age!

She had another plant that was blooming; we’d decided that it was a legume in previous years; this year we used the plant look up feature on our iPhones and realized that it was a yellow wild indigo. She will be adding an American Spikenard to her yard under a crabapple tree.

It was a good spring morning to be out and about!

Zooming – April 2025

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Springtime photography….is April the best month? It seems like that might be true this year. The photographs were taken at the Springfield Botanical Gardens, my yard, the Missouri State University Campus, my daughter’s yard, Onondaga Cave, and 2 volunteer activities. There were so many images to choose from; I selected 23. I used three different cameras – iPhone 15 Pro Max, Canon Powershot SX730 HS, and Nikon Coolpix P950. Enjoy the slideshow!

Butterfly House Training

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My plan is to do a lot of volunteering to support the Roston Native Butterfly House during its May – September season. The training for new docents was this month – 1.5 hours on a Saturday morning. The training was held at the Springfield Botanical Center. I arrived a little early and took some pictures of plants near the entrance as I walked in. The spring bulbs are almost done…but there are a few that are still beautiful.

There will be an orientation in the butterfly house itself in the days before the opening to the public and new docents are paired with experienced ones as the season starts. There might be some additional volunteer roles helping with school tours to the butterfly house. I am confident that it will be a rewarding experience – maybe my volunteer gig for summers for the next several years at least.

The session was well organized with folders of information for everyone, a signup sheet to get t-shirts, and forms to fill out. Their goal was to have 60 volunteer docents to keep the butterfly house running smoothly. They had that many last year and hopefully the new volunteers, like me, will make up for any attrition.

There are similarities and differences between the volunteering I did in Maryland at Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy. I am relieved that the containment requirements at this butterfly house are much easier since the butterflies are all natives! As far as interacting with visitors, I am anticipating that it will be very similar and something I will enjoy.

Springfield Botanical Gardens – March 2025

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There were signs of spring at the Springfield Botanical Gardens last week when I made a short visit.

The daffodils were beginning to wane.

The grape hyacinths filled some niches in beds otherwise still bracing for winter.

The maple trees had new samaras – still colorful. There must be several different kinds of maples based on the different structure and color of the samara clumps.

The most dramatic were probably the deciduous magnolias. I always like photographing them. The most of trees that I found were very young.

I found some tulips as I headed back to my car. It was a little disappointing to not see more of them. They did not appear to be as densely planted as in previous years – or maybe a lot of them just didn’t produce for some reason.

The redbuds were blooming….making a haze of color in the gardens! This is a great time of year to visit botanical gardens frequently to see the transition from winter to spring to summer.

1 Month with my Nikon Coolpix P950

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I haven’t used the camera as much as I thought I would – weather caused the cancellation of one trip, and another was dominated by macro photography where I prefer my phone. My learning curve is just taking off! I am still not as proficient with the Nikon Coolpix P950 as I was with my old Canon Powershot SX70 HS….but I am determined to get there and beyond.  

There were plenty of opportunities for through-the-window bird photograph even with the multiple rounds of winter weather over the past month.

We did make a quick walk around some areas of the Springfield Botanical Garden on a cold afternoon. I’ve made a goal to try to be there at least once a month for the rest of this year. I liked the colors of the witch hazel and succulents and cedar…the textures of winter in all the images.  

Springfield Botanical Garden – February 2025

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It was not a great day to go to the Springfield Botanical Gardens – cloudy and chilly….but I wanted to try out my new Nikon Coolpix P950 camera. My husband did the driving to the garden and he brought along his camera too even though he didn’t use it.

It was not a day for landscapes but there was enough light to get some zoomed pictures of winter plants – dried flowers from last summers’ hydrangeas, some evergreens with enough color variation and texture to be interesting, berries that the birds are reluctant to eat, and dried grasses.

I saw one witch hazel and it was booming. This is its normal time to bloom so not exactly a sign of coming spring.

There were some bulbs peeping from the mulch….which seems more aligned with the notion that spring is coming.

There were some succulents and prickly pear cactus that seemed in better shape than I expected after the very low temperatures a few weeks ago.

It was a good first field trip with the camera…a learning experience without much pain. I somehow managed to not charge the battery completely so it was depleted very quickly…and I initially couldn’t see through the viewfinder with my glasses on….but my husband helped fix that problem with a slight adjustment on a knob that had no equivalent in my previous camera.

I am ready to try some bird photography later this week!

Gardens Aglow 2024 (1)

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We walked through the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden’s Gardens Aglow the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was the member’s only night and we arrived just at it opened at 5. They were handing out mugs of hot chocolate! We were bundled up but feeling the chill of the first really cold days so the hot chocolate was appreciated.

There was still light in the sky but as we walked around the light displays it got fully dark. I missed last year’s show because I was in Dallas the whole time…so it was a treat to see it again. Every year it is a bit different.

I always enjoy the Japanese lanterns even though they are not draped in lights. My favorite this year was the one with newly fallen ginkgo leaves around its base.

Two big trees were probably my favorites: a rainbow tree and a bald cypress with spots shining upward into its branches.

It really is a great place to spend on hour of our evening. I will be volunteering on 2 nights in December…and we’ll probably go again to see it on another evening.

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2024

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It seemed liked the heat of summer lingered into September this year…but we are already savoring a few cooler days and looking forward to fall foliage. There was plenty to celebrate this month:

Places to visit

Butterflies at Botanical Garden of the Ozarks (in Fayetteville). Celebrated finally seeing some of the larger butterflies although it was in Arkansas rather than at home.

A few hours at the Lovett Pinetum. The place is not a park…requires some coordination to visit. I visited as part of my Identifying Woody Plants class (Missouri State University) and celebrated the evergreens…but also the native plants that are growing in the unmanaged areas. There is also a lovely spring feed pond and then stream.

Japanese festival at the Springfield Botanical Gardens. Celebrating big drums and the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden full of people enjoying the fall day. We got ice matcha tea just before the booth was scheduled to close!

La Petite Prairie field trip. Celebrating the experience of walking through a prairie with grass almost as tall as me for the first time….and not getting bitten by anything (maybe because of my permethrin treated gaiters and hat…long sleeves and jeans).

Family ties

Finding puzzles for Dad. Finally…found a used books/puzzles sale that had some 300 piece puzzles. Celebrated and took them down to Dallas for my dad a few days later.

Around our yard

A cooler day. September had some hot days…but there are cooler ones where the high stays in the 70s to celebrate too.

Getting the yard mowed and the brush burning in the chiminea. I celebrated that I got so much yard work done on one of the cooler days…mowed the whole yard and burned a pile of brush that had accumulated during the summer.

Collecting pin oak acorns to sprout. Celebrating finding a video about sprouting acrons in water and starting the process with some carefully selected acorns from my neighbor’s tree that fell in my yard.

Planting pawpaw seeds. So many seeds from 2 pawpaws I got from an earlier master naturalist class! This time I stratified them before planting. I am celebrating that I got them in the ground…and hopefully will celebrate some of them coming up next spring/summer.

American Spikenard seeds turning red. Celebrating that the American Spikenard I planted a year ago has survived and is producing red seeds this September.

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 1

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The training to become a Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) started last week. Some weeks there is only one session…sometimes there are more sessions or field trips or chapter meetings. September and October are going to be busy months this year! The first class was at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center starting at 6 PM. I went a little early do some late afternoon photography in the garden areas near the building. I always enjoy the rain garden area with the duck sculpture almost covered with vegetation this time of year. There were goldenrod soldier beetles on the asters and golden rods….skippers on the asters. A mallow was beginning to fade nearby.

On my way from the rain garden to the build I noted what looked like a large basket beside the sidewalk; I didn’t try to open it.

In the raised bed near the door there were several interesting plants…including some chard and an oak leaf hydrangea in bloom.

Inside I met the rest of the people that will be in the class with me. There were handouts that included a Missouri Master Naturalist tote bag. Since we all got one, I am thinking about making some Zentangle patterns on the back so that I can easily identify my bag!

The lecture topics were History of Conservation and Insects. I appreciated that we had a break to walk around between lectures since my back starts hurting if I sit for longer than an hour!

I am using a blank book my daughter picked up at a recent conference for note taking since the activity is part of my learning strategy (forces me to pay closer attention). The charts are evidently not going to be posted or sent to us so my notes will be what I will have from the class.

I find myself comparing this class with the one for Maryland Master Naturalist 9 years ago; but realizing that whatever they do here in Missouri for training is geared for the type of volunteer opportunities available here….and the volunteer work is why I am in the training!