We planted an American Beautyberry last year, and this year it produced fruit!
The berries are edible, and are mildly sweet without much other flavor. I’ve heard they can be used to make jelly, but I imagine it is more for the color than the flavor.
This particular bush lives in a raised glower bed on a more shaded corner of the house. American Beautyberry is known for being shade loving.
The idea started when I noticed that the grape hyacinth bulbs were poking up out of the ground. Not in a growing way, but that the soil was washing away. We have leftover native stone from the back porch project, so I hauled some rock to the front yard to redefine the flower bed and make a soil stop to keep the dirt from washing away.
I’ve ordered some additional grape hyacinth and will replant the bulbs I removed and the new bulbs in the next stage, along with cleaning up the original bed area.
I thought the Hibiscus didn’t make it through the last winter, but it bravely grew up through the Gregg’s Mistflower and managed a bloom.
This front flower bed gets the most sunlight of anything in our yard, but it still isn’t enough for the Gregg’s Mistflower not to get leggy, or for the hibiscus to grown to its full might. We are, again, considering different options once the summer is done.
The Queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) is a common butterfly in North Texas, and is the most frequently spotted in our Gregg’s Mist flower patch.
In looking up the information on the Queen butterfly for this post, I found references for telling apart the males and females of the species. The males have dark patches on the hind wings, which are scent producing patches. So in my picture, it is a male Queen butterfly because the patches are evident.
Once again the Japanese honeysuckle has exploded. The metal arbor that holds it is completely engulfed and the scent can bowl you over on a warm morning.
I do plan (again) to harvest the vines in the fall, but now I have a secret weapon: a stem stripper. This small metal tool is marketed for stripping thorns from rose stems, but works awesome on removing leaves from honeysuckle as well. It makes prepping the vines much faster.
I did take stereoscopic images and put them together. There is depth, but it lacks diversity. It is a great huge mound of honeysuckle, after all.
Critters and Craft 