Miami, Florida.
Female bagworm. Strangest moth ever. The adult males get to fly about free, but the ladies are just trapped in a home of their own making
Never let your dog out when you have to go to work. Only slightly less well known is to never get involved in a land war in Asia.
The second photo is provided for a point of reference
after 10 years my Barbados Cherry seems to be a hot spot for Zebra Lonwing Butterflies. There is a constant presence of at lea3t 3-4 butterflies at all hours of the day. Foe some reason they are suddenly congregating around this large shrub.
I do have a firebush in my yard but it is 75 feet away and they don't hang out there. I do have some passion vine for the first time but they don't congregate there either. I also have 2 small Blue porterweed.
I did catch several of the males ganging up on a female who was hunkered up inside the shrub.
Anyone have any idea why they are choosing this shrub? It is currently in bloom but this is generally pollinated by Carpenter Bees who float around it like little helicopters.
EDIT 05-18-26:
It appears they are just having a prolonged orgy! I woke up this morning to find over a dozen Zebra Longwings doing all kinds of sex stuff in my shrub.
First time photographing one of these little guys: Florida scrub lizard (Sceloporus woodi). Note the blue on his belly.
Jupiter Fl.
I found a peanut that had germinated in one of my pots this morning.
Had to do some work this morning on Jupiter Island. I arrive a bit early so I got my toes wet.
Pricklypear cactus - Opuntia mesacantha - Metalic Sweet Bee (Halictidae Augochlora)
I have been growing my Lignum Vitae for 8 long years. it survived a freeze when it was 2 years old and grew back from a stump. It's currently less than 4 feet tall and threw up it's first flower this weekend!
Is it time to scarp my key lime and just start over? I have treated this with both Neem Oil and Malithion.
I never get these cropping up in my yard. Yes I know they're not native, but they are considered naturalized in Florida. I always find them in other people's yards.
I know a lot of you north of Palm Beach are struggling right now with their mango trees due to the freeze. I posted last week about my tree fruiting early and the second blooms all died. In spite of the tree looking as healthy as a horse, it does seem to be struggling with making full size fruit. I will take what I can get, and wish everyone's trees a speedy recovery.
Her garden really pop this spring. There's a lot of natives in here as well as the oddball rose bush, and a pineapple or two. It's organized chaos and it's best.
The Porter House is an excellent example of Adaptive Reuse. The house is beautifully restored and is currently used as professional offices. The day I visited I happened to catch the property manager on site, and he allowed me inside. The space was currently vacant as it was in between tenants.
The curved second floor porch is insane as is the goose neck on the upper floor stair hall.
I posted the other week about the Cork Stem Passion Vine that cropped up in my garden. This week golf Fritillary caterpillars have shown up to dine on it. A true native Florida garden win.
Central East Florida here. I believe this is a Florida Tickseed [sic] and I'm not sure of the exact species. There are several species of this family in Florida. Unfortunately this is in the Greenway between the sidewalk and the street and I have no doubt the owner is either going to run it over with a lawn mower this weekend or just yoink it out of the ground. I'm kind of tempted to come by late tonight and carefully extract this to plant to my own garden.
EDIT: this is a Sulfur cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus)
Pink House, Lavender door, Pig on the porch. Yep, that's Florida
I just got savagely attacked by a swarm of roaming mosquitoes in the Juno Beach Dunes. I swear these guys are organized. It's hard to tell in this photo but they have gang tattoos.
She got a brand new toy from Costco yesterday and decided it was something she had to show the whole neighborhood on her walk last night.
We picked up this big red dog from an animal rescue group about 3 years ago when she was 6 years old and had at least one LITTER of puppies. Whenever she gets a new stuffed toy, she has to go around the block and show everybody her new baby. The mama instinct is strong with this one.