glad2garden, You are probably right! A few years ago Maman put some mulch in this area and never did anything with it. The soil underneath was great to begin with so I asked if I could start a butterfly garden in 2008. The Buddleia is the first thing I put in and then I put Echinaceas, Asclepias, Heliopsis, and Sedums. The Sedums were the only things not winter sown. In 2009 we realized how big this Buddleia was going to be. It is so full and so sturdy. Funny you should mention the Joe Pye - I have a spot with such soil in front of our house and a winter sown Joe grows to 9 feet every year if not taller. :O)

Wildcat, your first pics show two different sphinxes. The top pic is that of the tobacco worm, Manduca sexta. However, the bottom pic is that of a white-lined sphinx, Hyles lineata. Lineatas are known to get on tomatoes and grape vines. They are one of the nation's most common [and most beautiful] sphingids as their larval diet is so diversified. One thing to understand about the nightshade-eating sphingids, is that their relationship to Datura and Brugmansia is quite mutualistic, though to us, it looks rather one-sided. Those sphinx larvae or hornworms must have a solanaceous diet and your plants are one thing they can live on. In restropect, those huge, deep-throated flowers are not pollinated by butterflies. Occasionally small wasps can do it, but the sphinx moth [aka hawkmoth or hummingbird moth] are the best pollinators of such blooms. The moths need a lot ofnectar to feed on and the Datura/Brugmansia flower is just the perfect feeder. it's that copious amount of nectar which gives them their famous fragrance, too. The sphinx moth is nocturnal, too. Many Datura bloom best at night, when the moths are active. The benefit to the plants is pollination and ultimately, reproduction, which is worth the price of its foliage, which will grow back in due time. The clearwing sphinx caterpillars are never a pest. The small hornworms feed on honeysuckle among other plants. Their small moths are uniquely diurnal and for protection, mimic the like-sized bumblebees! The sphinxes are truly great insects and are desrving of their place in the yard and garden! I'm glad you did some research on sphingids, Vera. I seriously enjoy rearing these and the beautiful, but non-pollinating saturniids.

Glad the photos are being enjoyed :). I have the camera phone with me all the time so often take pictures and videos. The begonia is wonderful isn't it? So dramatic with its orange tendrils! It looks a bit weary right now - I don't think it likes the rains we have had. I don't know much about its needs - am hopeful it will perk up again. We have resigned ourselves to the squirrels eating a lot of seed and actually enjoy watching them as we do the birds. They make a few squirrel proof feeders but I am not sure how good they work. Thank you for the ID on the hawk! I will be looking up info on them and the woodpecker now that I know what they really are. The cowbirds were surreal that day! I did not capture it, but there were about five of them trying to share that little tree! It was so funny and so interesting since they were just inches away from the window! I, too, sort of like that old container with the fern. Isn't it lovely the way the backlighting make the fronds look like flames? I have it in my head to make a hanging container of some sort for the fern, but am in no hurry. It has a charm about it as is. I attached a photo I took yesterday at dusk. It was an evening of soft breezes and steady, gentle rains and the male hummingbird was making his final rounds before settling in for the night. Unfortunately I was too far away to get a great shot, but if you look closely you will see him perched on the feeder edge sipping happily!

I have wondered if not enough or not having the right kind of trees is my problem in getting cardinals to come. I only have evergreens in front yard and those are not the huge kind. I have NO large trees in back yard where I want cardinals....we have lost several due to the soil problem...at least I assume that is the problem. Now we have built my craft cottage (12 X 20 plus front porch) so with the small garden shed and DH's work shop as well as leaving space to park an almost 36 foot 5th wheel we don't have lots of room inside the back fence left for large trees......lol. What to do? The cardinals are around Dawn...at the lake they are abundant. But there are cedar trees everywhere. I always take bird seed when we go to the lake. The cardinals love the black sunflower sees and will eat them any way I serve them....on the ground, patio, grill, feeder, you name it...lol. One was particularly bold last time we were out and he would just come right up to me for me to drop seed on the patio for him. I think he might have gotten bold enough to eat from my hand. I have had them at other places I have lived but this area is not an old area and the trees are not huge yet and not lots of them either. I think the lack of evergreens or fruit bearing trees may be the problem with them but that is just a guess. I do have thick hedge of photinias which are large in my back yard but I need some kind of larger tree...I will have to find where I can plant one....I wish me luck...lol. I am so tired of sparrows....we are way over populated with them and the last few days they come by what seems to be hundreds and are all making racket in the tree next door. I don't recall them ever doing this before and have wondered what is up. Well I will just have to read up on it and find what I can manage do to try to attract them...I just love cardinals and really want to find a way to have them here. We got more rain last night. I am getting so discouraged with our boggy yard. We need to go pick up our new 5th wheel and take ours to trade it in but it HAS to dry up before we can get it out. As soon as we see it has dried we will have to get ours out of the yard while we can. What a problem this is for us right now. I worked all day yesterday packing up everything in the trailer and storing it in my craft cottage....you should see the trails I made in the yard going back and forth...and what a hassle taking off shoes and putting them on each time I went in and out of our trailer to keep from messing it up! I am SICK AND TIRED OF RAIN. I hope it doesn't rain any more for the rest of summer! Looking at the weather forecasts are just plain depressing. I shall stop watching them...they never get it right anyway. They should say "plan for it to rain every day" and be done with it. UGH! Ya'll have a great and DRY day. G.M.