I had a gigantic load of oak mulch delivered this week. After spending a couple of days ferrying mulch around in the wheelbarrow my back is complaining this morning so I am taking Saturday off from gardening.
There is still a lot to do in the garden. These Heirloom Celosia seedlings are nearly ready for planting. They are called Texas Plume Vintage Rose Mix and reportedly make excellent cut flowers.
A new Bromeliad flower appeared this is a Portea ‘Candy’.
This is one of our native Air Plants, a Tillandsia that is going to seed. It fell out of a nearby Oak – I am going to add it to my Air Plant collection that lives in the Sabal Palm.
A new butterfly caterpillar on a larval host plant I installed last year. The plant is Corkystem Passionflower, the tiny flower is hidden behind a leaf. The caterpillar will soon form a Chrysalis and become a Zebra Longwing butterfly. I hope.
The Zebra Longwing Butterfly:
This is the state butterfly of Florida, I have a large population in my garden and see these on a daily basis.
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Happy Gardening.
The Shrub Queen 
I know how you feel. I have a huge pile of wood chippings in my drive and however much of it I wheelbarrow away the pile never seems to get any smaller. I love seeing the exotic plants you grow. And that fabulous butterfly- stunning.
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Thanks, Liz. I have a love for mulch but I hate to carry it around.The plants I grow continue to amaze me, I started Tropical Lilac seeds this week.
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I LOVED this QUEEN
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Thanks Flower, did you have a Butternut squash soup recipe post recently? I have a Butternut.🌸
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No but here is my new one: Roast butternut halves face down in oven after brushing with olive oil. Then put peeled pieces in a blender with an equal amount vegetable broth. Add a teaspoon of roasted red chili paste. Blend, heat and heat. Best soup yet!
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Hmm, where do you get the chili paste? That sounds good. I had Butternut Squash and Chickpeas in Coconut Curry at the Vero Botanical Garden, good stuff!
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Publix. I have done coconut also. You can go, sweet, salty or spicy with Butternut. that’s why I love
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I feel your pain. I switched to pine straw for most of my beds. I’ll have to look for that celosia as it has Texas in its name.
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The mulch is not heavy as it is a lot of leaves and branches in it – it’s the volume, my front beds are in pinestraw. The Celosia came from Floret, there are a couple of color mixes I think – I may get a zillion seeds, hold off buying!
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The Bromeliad is a really pretty colour, but the caterpillar is spectacular! And now I now what the state butterfly of Florida is, if ever I appear on Jeopardy!
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I enjoy the caterpillars, too…Jeopardy beckons.
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I love mulch, too, just not carting it! Good for you taking a day off.
So nice that your host plants are doing a good job. I can just imagine you encircled by butterflies. 🙂
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I do enjoy the butterflies.
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I too love the caterpillar and the thought of butterflies all over your garden!
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It takes a while to learn the caterpillars, my Passionflower vines are tattered from them but I enjoy the butterflies.
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What a beautiful butterfly and I love the hot colours of your Bromeliad flower.
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Thank you.
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I’d begun to wonder where you lived, based on your plant choices & the caterpillar told all. What a beauty that is, as well as the butterfly. I not only have never heard of the zebra longwing (what a great name), but didn’t know there were state butterflies.
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I am on the east coast of Florida, a bit north of West Palm. The butterflies here are amazing.
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I did an image search for FL butterflies & you’re not wrong. I also looked this up for my state of origin & found that it adopted a state butterfly after I immigrated to the UK. There doesn’t seem to be any similar county animal/flower/insect here, unfortunately, as we do have some beauties here.
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Another American peculiarity, I suppose. I think there is a state fish as well.
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Besides an official state bird, California also has an official state animal (which is extinct), dinosaur (which is also extinct), amphibian, marine fish, fresh water fish, marine mammal, marine reptile (!), reptile, insect, and a long list of official state symbols. It gets a bit silly.
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I have to see if Florida has a state dinosaur. That is funny.
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Those pinks and purples seem to be a common theme among several bromeliads, as if trying to attract similar pollinators.
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Probably, for some reason, I think it may be moths.
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That would make sense, since nocturnal moths like ultraviolet light, and many flower of that color are also purple, which is an adjacent color.
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