WiseAcre Gardens

They say to ‘Stop and smell the flowers’. I say, you better check the flowers out before you go sticking your nose somewhere it may get bit. Sometimes what looks like a tiny bit of debris stuck to the flower turns out to be a real surprise.

Ambush Bugs usually are not spotted as easily as this one on a wild bergamot flower. For some reason this bug ugly predator wasn’t even trying to blend in with the flower. Still, if I wasn’t purposely looking for these bugs I probably would have never seen it.

Wild Bergamot – Monarda fistulosa

Wild Bergamot is one of those plants where I know I can find Ambush Bugs. I have to inspect plenty of these wildflowers but I’ve never failed to find Ambush Bugs when I’ve gone hunting for them.

Ambush Bug – Phymata (something or other)

Impulsive flower sniffers are likely to meet other creepy crawlers. Getting eye to eye to eye to eye to eye to eye to eye to eye with them can be a startling experience.

Not so itsy bitsy spider

Locally, peak bloom time has passed for the Wild Bergamot. I was surprised to find some good quality flowers, most are pretty ratty looking these days. From the looks of it I’m not the only one hanging on to their charm.

OK, back to the Ambush Bugs. The yellow blush of Goldenrod is now starting to fill the fields and the ambush bugs are taking up new positions. Goldenrod is a favored flower of these bug eyed creatures. Like bergamot, a close inspection of goldenrod will almost always turn up a couple of ambush bugs.*

* results may vary on location. At least here in the center of St. Lawrence County, NY, ambush bugs are plentiful during these two wildflower bloom times.

A different angle reveals the folded wings and the large ‘biceps’.

How nasty are they? A pic from a previous post – Spearmint Surprise – from last year will give you a hint. Anything that takes on a White Faced Wasp is no wimp.

I’m trying out this Bee Balm for the first time. The catalog stated:

‘Dwarf cultivar with large heads of red flowers. 16 inch tall’

Bee balm – Fireball — Phlox – Purple Flame
Coreopsis – Zagreb — Sedum – k. Ellcombinianum

Calling this bee balm a dwarf is a stretch. The ones I planted this spring were topping out at 3 feet. Even the short Phlox – ‘Purple Flame’ grew a good foot over the stated 16 inch height. The Coreopsis – ‘Zagreb’ gained a good 6 inches over what the catalog stated but that was no surprise. I usually expect it to grow 1 and a half to 2 feet high.

Sometimes a mistake turns out to be a well planed design. Next year the Zagreb will probably gain another 6 inches in height. Good thing the bee balm and phlox growing behind it ate their Wheaties.

The Fireball flowers were right on, the big red blooms turned out nicer than expected.

Monarda – ‘Fireball’

I figure if the Fireball over-winters in this spot it’s going to be winter hardy just about anywhere I might use it. A deep freeze is going to settle in behind that stone wall.

…and now for something completely different.

I’ve heard about the ‘Birds and the Bees’ and always thought they were a bit more discrete than this. The way this Coreopsis ‘Zagreb’ flower is being mounted makes me think this might be some sort of ill mannered fly wearing a bee overcoat.

I was beginning to go bug eyed looney but I finally found what I was looking for on the beetle image page #1960 at bugguide.net Go ahead and laugh, I had gotten up to page 1950 when I suddenly got a bug up my behind and then went to the last page (2575) and worked backward)

Good thing I was using a photo or my specimen might have been squished long before I made an identification. I admit that after looking at 1000s of thumbnail images I was getting frustrated. Sometimes a stubborn streak is a positive attribute

Flower Longhorn Beetle – Strangalepta abbreviata

The following love bugs were easy. I had already identified one a couple of weeks ago.

6 Spotted Tiger Beetle – Cicindela sexguttata

I’m done for the day. I just don’t have it in me to start the fungus frustration routine of trying to identify the multiple specimens I found today.