On the Home Front: July and August Flowers - Full Circle

The heat of summer has slowed down the flowering of all but the hardiest of our garden plants, but those few are doing quite well:

Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta)

Monkey Grass (Liriope spicata)

Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)

Lantana "Miss Huff" (Lantana camara)

Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii)

Butterfly Milkweed and Trumpet Vine are producing some pretty impressive pods:

Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans)

The bountiful blossoms of Butterfly Bush and Lantana attract numerous butterflies to our yard:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae)

Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes)

The Giant Swallowtail in the photo above is new to me.  These butterflies are attracted to the blossoms of Butterfly Bush and Lantana in our yard, and lay their eggs on plants in the family Rutaceae, which includes citrus trees.  While there are no citrus trees growing in this part of Georgia, apparently both Ptelea trifoliata (Common Hoptree or Water Ash) and Zanthoxylum americanum (Common Prickly Ash), with which I am not familiar, are in this family and grow in our area.

I have now come full circle in my photographic accounts of blooms (and butterflies) on our property since my first post last September.  I hope to expand my skills by finding more challenging subjects to photograph, just to see if I am up to the task, and should I manage to capture something interesting it will certainly show up as a post here!

Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea) growing wild on our pasture fence.