I have a Virginia creeper that I planted beside my deck despite many people, even those who support native plantings, warn me that it's pretty aggressive. It has grown up the side of the deck trellis onto the railing and I really like having it there next to our outdoor seating area. It has attracted an incredible variety of creatures for feeding, pollinating and housing - dragonflies, spiders, ants, wasps, hornets, flies, bees, birds.
As you can see, something has woven a web net around these leaves to form a capsule for their offspring:
And something else has made this cocoon funnel
The flowers are teeny tiny, and are almost lost within the bold foliage. But they bring loads of pollinators:
Unfortunately, Japanese beetles love this plant too. I keep a pair of heavy rubbery flip flops on my deck railing nearby to combat their insurrection as much as possible. I had just read on a news feed that these pesky beetles had arrived, and I saw my first one that afternoon!
No comments:
Post a Comment