Nature Quote - October 9. 2009

"The green grass and the happy skies court the fluttering butterflies." -Astrid Alauda

The air here is fairly filled with the fluttering wings of butterflies. Some are taking in the nectar of our fall flowers (we've still got months before the first hard frost) and some are merely stopping over on their way to points further south.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad they're here - they make life seem enchanted.

http://www.worldofcolorgallery.com

Nature Quote - May 11, 2009 - Purple

The wonderful wild moss verbena (Verbena tenuisecta) are blooming with abandon here on the Gulf Coast. Perfect purple wildflowers that practically carpet the roadsides and trail sides, moving in wherever there's an inch of room and blooming from April till November. I love them almost as much as the butterflies do. So, in honor of the valiant, violet, vagrant verbena. . .

"I think it annoys God if you walk by the color purple in a field
and don't notice."
- Alice Walker
From The Color Purple

To learn more about verbena, visit the Verbena tenuisecta page at the USDA Plants Database.

There are many varieties of verbena that have been hybridized for use in home gardens (right now I've got both a royal purple variety and a red-with-white-center variety in my front garden), consider adding them to your garden for care-free beauty and lots of butterflies!

To see a photograph I took of a white garden verbena, check out Fresh.

http://www.worldofcolorgallery.com