I use to call them "Snowballs" when I was a wee one,
I'm not sure when I learned their real name,
- Hydrangea's -
This plant is an Endless Summer,
It blooms at least 4 times during the summer,
I have had new blooms on it as late as October.
It is huge, a real show stopper.
It provides blooms in blue, purple and pink, all at the same time.
Here is my critter for today, a Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly
I wanted to photograph the butterfly on one of the blooms,
It was quite still...and easy to photograph.
I gently tapped the leave and it fluttered off,
but when it came back, it once again landed on a leaf, never on a bloom.
I have 22 pictures that all look like this...
I am now searching for a live caterpillar,
to bring indoors so it can morph into a butterfly - like I did last year.
If you have never done it, it can be fun and very rewarding.
Most caterpillars don't survive in nature,
bringing one indoors insures it will not be eaten and it will indeed become a butterfly.
Now that's something wonderful you can do for the butterflies!
If you are interested in raising a butterfly,
you can follow this link to read my blog post about Raising a Butterfly
And this link to Butterflies Are Free when we set it free.
Sharing today's images with
20 comments:
Such a gorgeous plant.
I've never saved a caterpillar. What a wonderful idea, Debbie.
Lovely!
But how do you get the butterfly out of your house?
Gorgeous Hydrangeas Debbie and great shots of the Butterfly too. Exceptionally great as it's hard getting shots as good as yours when in bright sunshine.
PS...what a lovely idea to bring a caterpillar indoors for a butterfly!
All you need is a caterpillar, some of its favorite food, and a suitable container. You can find caterpillars on most plants during the spring and early summer. Put the caterpillar and a few fresh leaves in a wide mouth jar or plastic shoebox. Cover the jar mouth with netting or a piece of nylon.
i found mine on my dill plant so i fed it dill.
Copied from the internet:
Place food in your enclosure. Caterpillars eat the leaves of the host plants you often find them on. ...
Provide your caterpillars with a water source. Caterpillars need water added to their enclosure on a daily basis. ...
Clean the enclosure every day. ...
Relocate the caterpillar pupae.
Hello Debbie, I just love your hydrangea blooms. The colors are beautiful. Great captures of the butterfly, they usually do not sit still long. Great idea to raise the caterpillar indoors. Thanks so much for linking up and sharing your post. Have a happy day and weekend!
Bootiful, bootiful.
In Florida, our summers seem endless.
I would love to plan more flutterby pleasers...but unfortunately most are pretty fragile, and my rambunctious pups demolish them. Sigh.
I've always known them by their real name
Never knew that you could "raise" a butterfly, inside. What a delightful piece of information!
Oh the hydrangeas! And no! LOL I will not show them to my husband, today. :-)))))))
Perhaps he should look for that bush, though. Try it again!!!! :-))))))
I've always wanted to grow hydrangeas just for the mere fact you can change the color of the flowers by adding stuff to the soil. I guess there is no end to me wanting to always do "crafts" lol...
What a fabulous idea to have a Caterpillar inside to see it transform into a butterfly.
The hydrangeas are doing well this way as well. They always make me smile when I see them bloom! xoxo Andrea @ This Knitted Life
I love hydrangeas - somehow they mean summer! I've never tried the caterpillar thing. I'll enjoy watching yours!
Gorgeous big flowers!
The flowers are gorgeous and the butterfly very pretty. Good luck in your plans to raise a butterfly.It is indeed very special to watch that whole process.
Such lovely hydrangeas Debbie and I like the butterfly photo's too.
All the best Jan
We have one hydrangea that we stuck in a bad place, and it didn't bloom for years. Now it blooms even though it's in the same place because we removed the weedier competitors. It's still not as glorious a plant as some, but it's a survivor, and I like that.
I love Hydrangea's. I still think there is a bush called a Snow Ball bush. Two neighbors have them and the flowers don't look like Hydrangea flowers.
Really neat Debbie. I love hydrangeas too...they are beautiful in all their stages. Thanks for sharing yours. Our oldest great-grandson thought the word 'hydrangea' was hilarious when his grandma and I taught it to him (he was less than 2 at the time). For some reason, the sound of it made him laugh.
My favourite flower, the beautiful Hydrangeas! Your photos are gorgeous. I love the idea of taking a caterpillar inside till it morphs into a beautiful butterfly. Love the photo of the Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly blending in perfectly on the Hydrangea leaf.
These Hydrangea's are stunning. I must plant some of these. The Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly is lovely and blends right in with the leaves. I like the idea of raising a butterfly. Maybe, I will try it sometime. You do have a green thumb. Love these photos for latter use. Blessings and hugs!
Post a Comment