WiseAcre Gardens

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Lysimachia clethroides

There’s only one thing that bugs me about this plant.

It’s too aggressive to put in a garden. It prefers moist almost wet soil but that won’t stop it from spreading in dry soils. It might be slowed down a bit but expect it to pratice monoculture if it gets established. Gooseneck Loosestrife will out compete even the toughest weeds.

A couple of transplants moved to the wild edge of the yard have formed a major invasion force in only a few years. The area is wet in spring but by midsummer the soil is very dry. These plants are a bit small because of the dryness but that didn’t stop them from claiming the area for it’s own. One of the few plants I’ve actually seen take on quack-grass and win.

Now there’s a load in your ‘pants’. I can’t begin to identify this bee-fly that’s been working so hard. At first glance it looked like a fly of some sort with that green body. A second then third look reveled what looks like a bee-hind. But I still can’t get over the ‘pantaloons’ with that huge load of pollen.

I’d be guessing what variety of Purple coneflower this is. I was hoping I had it marked in the catalog that I have yet to discard. But my record keeping doesn’t amount to even a scribble. It is an Echinacea, it survived the winter, it grew well and the flowers are great. Now I need to keep going back to the nursery until I can identify more to bring home.

And next time I’m going to make sure I remember it’s name.

Hopefully someone can identify this colorful worker. Each photo links to a 1024 x 768 image for a closer look.

If you like - Right Click the large photo and chose to make it your Desktop Wallpaper. If you would like one re-sized to your computer resolution - make a comment and say what size. I’ll post a link in my reply to the requested sized image.