Friday 5 July 2013

Gaillardia - "Arizona Sun"

The first flower on my new Gaillardia plant is open now, and I went to take a photo of it. Apart from the flower itself, something else caught my eye:


Can you see it? That little brown blob right in the middle of the photo?

What brought it to my attention was the fact that it was moving.


It doubled itself backwards like this:


And catapulted itself energetically towards the flower...


 Guess what happened next?


Yes, that's right, it "disappeared". I wasn't about to let some pesky caterpillar devour my precious Gaillardia!

Anyway, this is what I had been after in the first place - almost like a miniature Sunflower:


Hopefully there will be a lot more flowers like that in due course!


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P.S. I have been a bit low-profile recently, having been away from home (and garden, and camera) on business, and now Jane and I are going over to Maastricht for the weekend (to see a concert by Andre Rieu), so my blogposts and comments on other blogs may be a bit thin on the ground for a while...

7 comments:

  1. I like gaillardias, they're like sunshine in a pot. Enjoy the concert.

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  2. Possibly a looper caterpillar? At my place caterpillars are carried to the edge of the pond and tossed to the waiting sunfish. I probably take a little too much pleasure in that. The venison in the previous post looks absolutely delicious.

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  3. Pretty flower, ugly caterpillar!

    Have a great time at the concert.

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  4. Taking more interest in flowers, I see!! Good for you..a nice meal from the garden does need a beautiful floral centerpiece!

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  5. Lovely photographs Mark and a very pretty flower. Good to attract the good bugs and bees.

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  6. I have Gillaridas self seeding and floweing all over the vegetable garden at the moment. We are experiencing regular frosts and I am forgetting to water cause it isn't hot but the gillardias keep coming up. I love their bright happy flowers.

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