Susan, The foliage on my tithonia gets droopy looking, but the plants survive and bloom nicely, so I don't really worry about it. The butterflies like the plants, especially the Monarchs. I think the flowers are absolutely beautiful! It was very dry this year and I made sure to keep watering the plants when they were small because I wanted to have them this year. Last year I missed out on planting tithonia and I really missed having them here. If your Aster oblongifolius is as homely as my Aster laevis, I wouldn't blame you for getting rid of them. They always get so big and gangly if a person doesn't hack them back, and I never get around to doing that. That's just like I didn't get around to dead heading them last year (I think it's a real pain to dead head those things), and now I have asters coming up all over the place up there in that garden. Ugh. I planted them and N.E. asters for the Pearl Crescents and I'm not sure if they use them or not. I saw a ton of PCs this year, so I'm hoping that they lay their eggs on them. After I'm done going through the milkweed for Monarch eggs/cats, going through the rue and all the other BST host plants for eggs, and going through the wild indigo for WID and CS eggs, I'm so tired and have an aching back that the thought of going through that aster jungle isn't high on my priority list. Ha. So they never get hunted. I think it would really be hard to find them in all that foliage if ya know what I mean. Every year I raise at least half a dozen species of cats, but I've never raised Pearl Crescents. Anyway, I know what you mean about the aster foliage if your kind of asters is as unruly as mine. Oh, don't we have our trials and tribulations. ;-) Another plant that kind bothers me because of its foliage is zinnias. I don't like that they get mildew on them. It looks absolutely horrible, and if I walk there and brush against them, I get itchy. I'm becoming to pretty many things here, it seems. I can't even pick the tomatoes because I get a rash so bad that itches like poison ivy. The rue bothers my skin and I even have a little trouble breathing when I'm in that area too much. After handling tropical milkweed, I can feel a film of something on my skin and that makes me itch. I wash as soon as I'm done in the milkweed patch, but I can feel that stuff on me pretty quickly while I'm still going through the milkweed looking for eggs and/or gathering food for the Monarchs. About the tithonia, I love that it picks up where some of my other plants leave off. It's blooming until frost (as is the butterfly bush and tropical milkweed), but my coneflowers and other kinds of flowers are done for the year. Oh, and I don't know why but my Verbena hastata has such a problem with white mold or mildew this year. I don't even know if the buckeyes would lay their eggs on it like that and I've seen two here just this week, only not at the same time. There was just a real pretty fresh one here today. I love having a variety of plants and watching to see if something new will show up. I have lots of different skippers come to the flowers, especially the Verbena bonariensis, but I don't bother to try to ID them. Maybe some are county records, but I just won't know, I guess. My daughter's camera isn't so great at getting closeups and I don't know if it would be hard for someone (even much more familiar with them than I am) to ID them if I would get any pics of them. I have had tons of Silver-spotted Skippers this year, and they were usually nectaring on the Verbena bonariensis, so I sat three pots of Amorpha fruticosa up by the verbena, but for some reason they were too snooty to lay eggs on them. I just got some Lespedeza capitata in the ground about a month ago and with the dry weather it's struggling to survive even with my watering the plants. I'm hoping that between those and the A. fruticosa that they'll lay eggs here someday. We don't have any locust trees. If I plant any more trees here, it's going to look like a jungle. :-D From reading your posts, I've come to the conclusion that you're having just as good (or even better) of a butterfly year than I'm having, and I think this year has been fantastic! I guess we all have to take our turns...the two previous years weren't very good butterfly years here, so this year has given me lots of hope for them. Cathy

Okay, I hate to rain on everybody's parade. I have been doing a lot of reading on bees this summer/fall. First of all honeybees are not native. However, they were spread far and wide by the colonists. They were probably not a problem until recently. That is to say when they started to be factory farmed. There are lots of studies documenting the different diseases that Apis mellifera have suffered with this type of treatment. One study documents the loss of around 35% of colonies in the 2007-2008 period. This was assumed to be an underestimate. Anyway, when honeybees started to decline, they looked to bumble bees for pollination. They transported bumbles to Europe and back. They believe that diseases were brought back. In a landmark study, bumble bee species were surveyed in Illinois. Four species were found to be locally extripated, Bombus borealis, Bombus ternarius, Bombus terricola and Bombus variabilis. Others were in decline. These include species that were commonly found before. Many theories abound with probably several causes. One theory is that the widespread use of pesticides has lowered bees natural defenses to disease and pests. With the factory farming of bees many pests from abroad were spread within the US. In addition, the loss of habitat for many native bees is a real problem. Just like our lovely butterflies. It is only with the loss of honeybees that farmers are starting to look at native bees. Often these are better at pollinating than honey bees. Several orchard bees can pollinate an entire orchard (not sure of the size they were talking about), as opposed to needing several hundred or thousands of honey bees. A blue orchard bee will forage for longer in less favorable conditions than a honeybee. The problem is that large farms have eliminated the additional forage that bees need once the crops stop flowering. Hence the need for imported honeybees because they can be brought in and removed to another farm when one crop stops flowering. Well, I go on but I am really worried about bees. Sigh, Elisabeth Decline of bumble bees (Bombus) in the North American Midwest Jennifer C. Grixtia,*, Lisa T. Wonga, Sydney A. Cameronb, Colin Favreta aCenter for Biodiversity, Illinois Natural History Survey, 1816 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA bDepartment of Entomology, 320 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Avenue, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA A B S T R A C T Declines in many bumble bee species have been documented in Europe raising several ecological and economic concerns. The nature and extent of bumble bee decline in North America is poorly understood due mainly to a lack of baseline and long-term data. Museum collections provide excellent sources of information on past and current species distributions, which can be used to infer changes in the composition of insect communities. Using the Illinois Natural History Survey�s electronic database of Hymenoptera and a recent biodiversity survey of historically sampled localities, we were able to examine changes in the richness and distribution of the bumble bee fauna of Illinois over the last century.We found that bumble bee species richness declined substantially during the middle of the century (1940�1960). Four species were locally extirpated: Bombus borealis, Bombus ternarius, Bombus terricola and Bombus variabilis. The ranges of Bombus affinis, Bombus fraternus, Bombus pensylvanicus and Bombus vagans have also decreased in Illinois. Our analyses also indicated that current bumble bee diversity is highest in northern Illinois, where conservation efforts would be most productive. Our study demonstrates that half of the bumble bee species found historically in Illinois have been locally extirpated or have suffered declines, supporting observations of broader declines in North America. Major declines in the bumble bee fauna coincided with large-scale agricultural intensification in Illinois between 1940 and 1960. Attempts to conserve bumble bees in Illinois should involve wildlife-friendly approaches to agriculture, such as increasing agricultural land set-asides and hedgerows, and employing integrated pest management

Hummers here are bulking up. Lots of long drinks and lots of chasing quite often. I think there are a steady 5 at the feeder. 2 males, 3 females. All started with Buddy. Speaking of perpetuating the species, this guy must be in pain. Heavy, painful molting all over and the kid still wants to be fed. May want to rethink that 'go forth and multiply' thing a bit more in the future, lol. I think this monarch's wings look like they are aged and thinning. The topside could look like pollen or dust, but then I cropped another shot and you can see there are 'cracks' or wear in her wings visible from the underside. The next group born is the one that goes to Mexico - so I think. same shot closely cropped below https://www.monarch-butterfly.com/life-span.html Jane

Jennifer and Nancy, Well, I started the new week's thread right after I said that I would, submitted it, and it disappeared. The last time this happened, it showed up after about 24 hours (why? I wonder?) and only after I typed a whole new replacement thread. So, then we had two for that week, though everyone mostly kept posting on the second one. This time, I thought I'd wait and see if it shows up today before I type a replacement one. Let's just keep chatting here for the rest of today to see if it pops up. These weird glitches are driving me crazy. I hate spending all the time to type something only to have it disappear for a half-day up to two days before it reappears. Jennifer, I hope your foot is healing and that Peggy is doing better. Nancy, Wait a minute, woman! I think you're better off just staying in Oklahoma and learning to live without Heavenly Blue MGs than to move back to Minneapolis for the summers which would separate you from GDW. Who would get custody of Tiny Dude? Would he live in OK most of the year and then travel to Minneapolis with you for the summers? Would he be able to sleep at night if he was missing Garry? Would he need counseling to help him adjust to the changes in his young life? Poor kitty. His world would be torn apart, all because of Heavenly Blue MGs. lol. While I think Heavenly Blue MGs are delightful flowers while in bloom, I could live without them. Kitty lived such a long and wonderful life. I think we are fortunate indeed when we have an animal companion who is able to be a part of our lives for so very long. Tuxedo cats are the best---our beloved Emmitt Smith was a tuxedo cat, and he really was Emmitt Smith II, replacing a previous Emmitt Smith we had when we lived in Ft Worth, who also was a tuxedo cat. I just love how tuxedo cats always look like they are dressed up in their formal best with someplace to go---even if they are only going out to the garden to sleep in their favorite sunny or shady place, or maybe to chase butterflies. Daff sounds like she was so special and so happy to be rescued and loved. I know that you must miss her. Perhaps she is Tiny Dude's guardian angel. We have had cats like Tom before who do experience great anxiety over many things---I think it is just their nature and we do have to work with them so they can relax a bit and become a bit more comfortable. Mostly I just leave them alone and let them be, though it can be a trial to get such a cat to the vet, or to get them to allow someone else to feed the if we are out of town or whatever. I agree that each cat is unique and special like snowflakes. Well, snowflakes with claws. Tim went outside and mowed the yard late yesterday. Nobody (meaning me, I guess) went outside and helped him by using the string trimmer to cut down the tall grass and weeds that the mower couldn't reach. I really should have done that, but I was tired and took a nap instead. A couple of days ago a friend of ours posted a photo of a timber rattler that she and her 4 year old son almost stepped on when leaving a friend's house. It was scary how close that snake was to them, and reminded me that this is the time of the year that we really need to be careful here. Having that snake photo in my mind might have played a role in my choosing a nap instead of helping with the yard work. I did go out later and fill up the Mr. Turtle sandbox that we use to provide water for the deer. Then I made a big puddle that Augustus would have been proud to wade in, so that the birds and bunnies would have a source of drinking water and bathing water. It is so dry again, although at least it still looks nice and green. It is just that the ponds and creeks remain low, since that 1.5" of rainfall we got a couple of weeks ago is long gone, the mud is gone, the soil is dry again......(sigh). I'd love to have more rain again sometime soon but that doesn't seem real likely as our year-long dry pattern seems to be continuing. We're getting mixed signals from the El Nino that is supposed to be developing for Winter 2018 and that is starting to concern me. I was counting on a rainy winter to leave the garden soil in better shape for next Spring and now I'm not so sure we'll get the El Nino or the plentiful rain it normally brings us here. On the other hand, as much as we need rain, I sure don't want to get half a year's worth in 2-4 days like some parts of North Carolina have received over the weekend from Hurricane Florence. The flooding there is so horrendous, and I cannot even imagine what it must be like to be there surrounded by rapidly rising water. I think I'd rather have a hot, dry, half-dead garden than a flooded one. We're supposed to be back in the 90s beginning today, though we already did hit the 90s on Friday or Saturday, or maybe both, so it isn't like the 90s have been totally gone. I think we're losing more of our cloud cover now, if yesterday is an indication of what this week will be like, and we'll be back to our usual warm and sunny September conditions. I'll be glad when we make it to October, which usually is when our real cool-down occurs here. Actually, last year the long run of temps in the 90s finally broke about 5 or 6 days before the end of September so we began to cool down a bit earlier. I also feel like I'm not adjusting to the shortening daylength very well. It keeps catching me by surprise that sunrise is occurring later and later while sunset is occurring earlier. I don't know why---it happens every year. I suppose that I'm not quite as ready to let go of the sunshine as the heat. Some people are even more ready for autumn weather than I am. When we were out shopping and running errands on Saturday (high temp maxed out at 90 and heat index at 99 so it isn't like it was a cool, mild day), I saw a young lady in probably her 20s who was wearing black leggings, black boots and a black-and-red buffalo plaid checked shirt that had long sleeves and looked like it was made of flannel. She must have been in the mood for autumn weather (I can relate) and chose to dress for the weather she wanted instead of the actual weather we had. We were down in Denton and I was thinking that maybe she was a college student who was new to the area and was used to having autumn actually feel like autumn. I bet she was feeling pretty warm in that outfit. Sadly we cannot force the cooler weather to show up here until it is good and ready. I love boot weather and flannel shirt weather but that sort of weather isn't here yet. I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival. The only thing new in our yard and garden appears to be a bunch of mushrooms or toadstools that popped up after the rain, and now they're already drying up in the heat. I'm starting to see a few hints of wild goldenrod blooming here and there, though I haven't seen any on our property. We have some---but it is apparently too drought-stunted to bloom. The ones I am seeing in bloom on property near us are not tall like they normally would be, but at least they are blooming. I noticed last night that the loud drone of locusts, crickets and grasshoppers is greatly reduced over what it was 2 or 3 weeks ago. The quieter evening was nice, but mosquitoes are out in force here now. Have a great day everyone. Dawn