Floral Friday: Garden Visitors and Showstopper Daylilies

There's lots happening in the garden this week. First off, the last of the black swallowtail caterpillars transformed into a butterfly on Sunday, July 19. The season total is two males and three females so far. Later in the week I spied a black swallowtail lazily flying about the flowers and the parsley, so I'm hoping it's one of the girls I raised who has come back to lay eggs to start the cycle over again.

The fourth butterfly I released from my recent caterpillar nursery.

The house wrens have been taking care of their growing family. Every day they arrive at the birdhouse with an insect of some kind and are met with a loud chorus of baby wrens clamoring for food. Soon they should be fledging. On one particular day in the garden, a feral cat decided to take a snooze under the pear tree, which is in close vicinity to their birdhouse. The parent wrens were very upset and constantly flew around chiding this "awful" cat. The cat, of course, was oblivious, which made it all the more humorous.

"Why must cats nap near my nest?"

"Go away, cat!"

The Shiro plums were harvested this week as well. The branches seemed to be so relieved when their fruit was freed. I've left some of the plums especially up high for the purple finches, who seem to also enjoy the fruit. I ended up harvesting 26 pounds of Shiro plums this year (not including those that split or fell victim to birds or squirrels). This is by far the best year for Shiro plums I've had since I've begun growing them in my garden. I will begin to make Shiro plum jam on Wednesday, and I'm being careful to make sure they ripen fully before I try to make the jam, a previous mistake made two years ago that I am hoping to avoid again!

As usual, the daylilies continue to show off their bright colors, despite the heat and lack of rain. I'm so happy that I've added so many to the garden in the last few years.

The dahlias and phlox are "packing a punch" as well. I think it's pretty obvious that I am drawn to pink and purple flowers!

And, to highlight what usually happens around here, whenever I have the wrong lens on the camera to capture a hummingbird, there she is! The hummingbirds in general seem to really like my new feeder this year. It's pretty easy to clean, too.

What's blooming in your garden now?

Somehow we are already 10 weeks into the #GrowNow2015 season. Check out the Growing Now Tour hosted by Beth over at More Than Oregano to see this week's featured garden by Laura Flanders! Be sure to follow the #GrowNow2015 hashtag on Twitter to see what other gardeners are sharing weekly!