They only appeared because you said you’ve never seen it 
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The aphids (oleander aphids) are an interesting read. They are hitting my milkweed and swamp milkweeds hard.
However its super interesting to watch the predators that they bring in.
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It’s so interesting how you already have ones that look about sized to start making chrysalises. We won’t even see them hatched in MD til the end of the month.
I also found it interesting last year to see that while all my swamp milkweed had some sort of fungus causing black spots (I think I see this on yours in one picture), the monarch caterpillars couldn’t care less and still ate it all up and became butterflies.
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Last year, I was the idiot who blasted them with water off of one of my patches instead of letting nature take its course. That patch only had 5 or so caterpillars hatch. I’m sure I blasted off eggs. The ones I left alone all disappeared in a few day as nature took care of them and countless caterpillars appeared.
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Milkweed is pretty interesting to watch. The pollinators and butterflies love it…then the aphids come in and take it over…then the milkweed bugs finally try to end them. This of course invites predators aplenty.
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This past week i found some false sunflower growing by the road in an area that never gets mowed… i want some to grow here… Lots of bees and butterflies and things were all over them.
I also want to get these going… common sunflower
Something to consider is that sunflowers have an allelopathic effect… so plant them or get them started somewhere that you dont have other plants that interest you as much.
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So, I have heliopsis helianthoides growing in my densely planted street garden and a family garden I planted - zero allelopathic effects here. Crazy easy to grow, readily self seeds and always swarmed with pollinators.
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a friend gave me a small start of elecampane. its a medicinal plant in the sunflower family. i planted it last september and that thing grew to 7ft.this summer before blooming and flopping everywhere. i wish i got a pic before it flopped. its got whorls of leaves and is a pretty impressive plant. its leaves are edible as well as medicinal. the blooms look similar to jerusalem artichoke. i dont know why it grew so big. i put it in a spot that killed a 2yr. old plum and that thing took over. bees are all over it. it s bordered by 2 catnip plants that also grew alot bigger than they really should.
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The bees are obsessed with the artichoke flowers! It was a good sacrifice to let the last batch go to flower.
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Found these by the roadside… not sure if its wood mint or one of the spearmints. It was loaded with strange and odd wasps that i dont see very often…as well as some bees and tiny bees. I dont have it going but i want it…whatever it is. Could just be Spearmint.
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looks alot like my chocolate mint that i allowed to take over a section of my steep ditch except mine has purple tinged leaves. pollinators love it. the state DOT has incorporated crown vetch into their conservation seed mix over the last 15 yrs. now its taken over all along the roads here. great for the soil and pollinators but it pushes out and covers less vigorous native plants. even my lupines in my other ditch have a hard time competing against it. i kill off a bunch of it and reseed with native flower mix to control it some.
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Monarch on Early Goldenrod
Monarch on Ironweed
They arrived today as far as i can tell. They are also on my jewelweed.
Milkweed is at the ready as well.
Its taken a few years to get my gazing areas and butterfly attractors going… so worth it!
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Tithonia feeding the butterflies at my property.
I purchased ‘Miss Huff’ lantana today to go with the 'Pink Huff ’ lantana that I was gifted. They will be going in there shortly as well. I’ve got much smaller tithonia that likely won’t flower this year but I do wonder what would come out of transplanting them up the hill to where they would get more sunlight.
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Well, apparently, we have monarch caterpillars now! I looked a few days ago and saw nothing. Person tending to my gardens while I’m away snapped this picture.
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Monarch caterpillar, Queen butterfly and a type of Sulfur caterpillar on Privet Senna. All within arms reach of each other.
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That butterfly is stunning. Never seen that before
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Is there any chance that it is Hoary Mountain Mint?
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/pycnanthemum-incanum/
It wasn’t until today that I discovered that this plant blooms and that the pollinators like it. Heck, it wasn’t until yesterday that I even had a positive identification on the plant, having discovered it nearly a year ago growing near the top of a nearby mountain.
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No… i have that (or Blunt Mountain Mint or one of them) growing here for the first year that ive seen it… migrating birds must have deposited it.
Which i am a year round bird feeder to get these freebies as they come and go.
I think its Mentha spicata Spear Mint
Every time i see a mint in the wild there are usually wasps of some sort or another on them… which i want to attract.
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4 bees in a pumpkin flower
Butterfly on blue lobelia (don’t know my butterflies, someone please let me know what it is)
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Looks like a spicebush swallowtail
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