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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 12h

I definitely have plenty of grasshoppers for them to hunt.

Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 14h

A Great Golden Digger Wasp on Frost Aster. Female Sphex wasps paralyze insects like katydids, grasshoppers and grubs, then drag their living prey into underground nests for their larvae. Males don't hunt or sting. Sphex ichneumoneus. #wasps #insectthursday #invertebrates 🌱

The wasp sits facing the camera from atop an aster flower, we see only the face and legs, wrapped around the flower. The face is gray, framed by half-circle black eyes, with drooping antennae coming from a rounded depression on the forehead that is also full of hair. One aster flower is directly above its head. I think its pretty cute for a wasp picture.

The wasp and a honeybee feed on a flower cluster while a blurry black jumping spider looks on from a dead leaf in the background. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 4d

Good morning! Here are some streetside sunflowers for Sunday Yellow. Helianthus maximiliani is a perennial sunflower of the central plains states. #Sundayyellow #gardening #nativeplants 🌱

A long dense stand of Maximilian Sunflowers growing along a street by some empty lots. In the background are a few rangy trees, power lines and a deep cloudless blue sky. This plant form dense expanding stands that can crowd out other plant species and it can be invasive when introduced outside of its normal range.

A closer picture (taken from the window of my car) of the Maximilian Sunflowers. The flowers look like yellow daisies with darker yellow centers arranged densely up and down the stems with slender pointed foliage. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 5d

Six pollinators on Frost Aster for Six on Saturday. Also called Hairy Oldfield Aster (I know!), Symphyotrichum pilosum is native to the eastern US. These are just a few pollinators from yesterday. It also attracts lots of skippers and small butterflies. #nativeplants #bees #wasps #sixonsaturday 🌱

Six pollinators on the small white daisy flowers of Frost Aster. Clockwise from top left: Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus), Cellophane Bee (Colletes), Great Black Digger Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus), Longhorn Bee (Melissodes), Leafcutter Bee (Megachile), Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). Pictures taken October 3, 2025, Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 6d

Native plant sale at Mohawk Park in Tulsa, Saturday Oct. 4: #nativeplants #tulsa #gardening 🌱 www.onpn.org/events-1/onp...

ONPN Plant Sale at Oxley Nature Center — Oklahoma Native Plant Network

Tulsa, are you ready for the first official ONPN native plant sale? Come out to the beautiful Mary K. Oxley Nature Center on October 4th from 10am-2pm for a day of plants and community under the sha...

www.onpn.org

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 7d

Thank you.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 7d

I've been seeing more Monarchs in the garden than usual this year, have you? They are definitely on the move through Oklahoma now. #butterflies #monarch #gardening #insectthursday #lepidoptera 🌱 🦋

Two monarchs on a pair of cosmos flowers seen against blue sky.

Another view of the cosmos with four monarchs in it, taken in the evening yesterday, so the lighting isn't great. (I have another picture with five butterflies but it's even worse than this one.)

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 11d

A lovely Yellow Garden Spider and her web. Argiope aurantia. #spiders #arachnid #gardening #invertebrates 🌱🕷

A large Yellow Garden Spider on her web. She is a smooth spider with a black abdomen decorated with a dramatic pattern of swoops and teardrops in yellow and white and two pointed white bumps at the top of the abdomen, a white furry head, and long pointed legs that are gold close to the body and tipped in black. She sits on a stabilimentum, a sort of cobwebbed seat with distinctive zigzag webs coming out of its top and bottom.

Another picture showing a larger view of the spider's web. Only the stabilimentum she sits on is easy to spot. Argiope aurantia. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 12d

A Pipevine Swallowtail enjoying some fast food. Take it easy this weekend, everyone. #butterflies #gardening 🦋 🌱

A black Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly perches on a faded red plastic hummingbird feeder, drinking from the yellow plastic flower. I think this is the only time I have seen this butterfly sit still while eating--usually they are constantly fluttering their wings. Battus philenor.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 13d

My thistle/passionflower tower finally collapsed from the weight of all the vines, so now I have a flower mound. I don't recommend planting red cypress vines because they can be invasive (I can never seem to get rid of them all), but the Sulphur butterflies love them. #butterflies #gardening 🦋

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 14d

Woolly Bears! These are all just different colors of Yellow Woolly Bears, the caterpillars of the Virginian Tiger Moth. Spilosoma virginica. #insectthursday #caterpillars #moths #lepodoptera #gardening 🌱

An ivory white caterpillar covered in long silky hairs sitting on a passion vine leaf. Spilosoma virginica.

A woolly caterpillar with golden tan hairs eating lamb's quarters.

Another woolly bear caterpillar with rusty orange hairs tipped in black eating an aster plant. These caterpillars are not picky about what they eat.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 15d

My first asters to bloom this year are the new ones, from seeds I collected in my neighborhood. The thing I hate about collecting wild asters is that I then have to figure out what species they are, but I am pretty sure this is Drummond's Aster. More in alt text. #nativeplants #gardening 🌱

A closeup of a raceme of aster flowers and yellow buds. They are small daisy-like flowers with ray petals that open a pale white-lavender with yellow central disc flowers. As they age, the petals turn more white and the centers turn a soft raspberry pink. Drummond's aster, Symphyotrichum drummondii, or possibly S. urophyllum (Arrow Leaf Aster), which is very similar.

Picture of the whole plant seen from the front. The stems are about 3 feet long. The flowers are arranged around the tops of the stems like sparklers, and the stems tend to flop over when they are heavy with flowers, forming a bushy shape. This is planted in front of an east-facing wall that gets a half day of sun.

The aster plant showing the basal foliage rosette and all the stems leaning out to one side. The basal foliage starts out heart-shaped with winged petioles, then becomes smaller and more pointed as you move up the stems. The foliage around the flowers is very small and inconspicuous.

A closeup of the back of the flower, showing the phyllaries, which I believe look like Drummond's aster, but I'm not very good at this ID stuff. Also, there are several tiny reddish no-ID bugs on the back of the flower. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 17d

The first day of autumn still felt like summer in the garden today. #butterflies #gardening 🦋 🌱

A black and yellow bumblebee dangles from a yellow Partridge Pea flower, her pollen baskets bulging.

A Cloudless Sulphur butterfly drinks from a slender red cypress vine flower. It is a bright lemon yellow butterfly with two tiny pink-rimmed spots in the center of each wing and pale pink dashes along the edges.

A deep orange Gulf fritillary butterfly on a lighter orange cosmos flower.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 18d

Good morning. Two fritillaries and their caterpillars on the Maypops vines from yesterday. I haven't found any chrysalides this year, probably because the garden is so messy. Fritillary/Agraulis vanillae and Variegated Fritillary/Euptoieta claudia. #butterflies #nativeplants 🦋 #gardening 🌱

A Gulf Fritillary butterfly sits with wings outspread on Maypops/passion vines (passiflora incarnata). It is an orange butterfly with long wings decorated with delicate veins that end with arrowheads on the top wings and black circles along the bottom wings. There are three transparent white spots ringed in black on each shoulder. Agraulis vanillae.

Caterpillar of Agraulis vanillae Gulf fritillary. An orange caterpillar with soft gray longitudinal stripes and bristly black spikes all over.

A Variegated Fritillary butterfly nectaring on an orange cosmos flower. It has an intricate checkered and spotted pattern in brown, gold and bright orange. Euptoieta claudia.

Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) caterpillar on passiflora incarnata leaf. It is a red caterpillar with a detailed striped pattern of miniscule white bean shapes outlined in black and formed into lines. It has the same wicked black spikes of the Gulf Fritillary caterpillar.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 19d

Six on Saturday has the blues this weekend. Two salvias, Blue Mistflower, Drummond's Aster, Tall Boneset, Partridge Pea, and the Diana that visited me this week. #SixonSaturday #nativeplants #gardening 🌱🦋

Collage of five photos, clockwise from top left: Salvia azurea just starting to bloom with a Sleepy Orange butterfly, Blue Mistflower, Diana butterfly on Tall Boneset, Salvia farinacea and Drummond's Aster, Partridge Pea with non-native orange cosmos in background. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 21d

I was afraid I had missed my chance to see a Diana this year, but she showed up yesterday. Argynnis/Speyeria diana is threatened in its range in the southeastern US. Gardeners can help just by growing violets: thedianaproject.org #butterflies #lepidoptera #nativeplants #gardening 🌱🦋

A female Diana Fritillary butterfly sits with wings outspread on a thistle flower. It is a large dark blue butterfly with rounded wings. The upper wings have repeating rows of a white dot-dash-dot pattern around the edges that looks like decorative stitching to me, as well as a row of white "stitches" along the bottom of the wings. The bottom wings also have a row of rounded light blue rectangles with a black dot in each above the dotted line. Argynnis diana syn. Speyeria diana. The male looks completely different, with brown and gold wings.

A view of the butterfly with wings upswept on a thistle, showing the rich coppery brown of the underside of the wings and body. There is a patch of pale blue triangles and squares on the upper wing next to the body. In the background is a blurred white house and blue sky.

Another view of the underside of the wings as the Diana sits on a Tall Thistle flower. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a, September 2025.

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Reposted by Julie the ok gardener

ALT Fish and Wildlife Service @altfws.altgov.info · 22d

Day 3 of sharing ways WE NEED YOU to promote conservation.

Today, I am talking about a whole other Department, USDA. The Forest Service is the only land management agency not in DOI. But they are changing rules too.

COMMENTS DUE by September 19.

This time the issue is the roadless rule.

Special Areas; Roadless Area Conservation; National Forest System Lands

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is initiating an environmental impact statement (EIS) and rulemaking concerning management of inventoried roadless areas on approximately 44.7 million acres of Natio...

www.federalregister.gov

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 23d

I'm thinking of planting a native plum for the caterpillars to attract more of them.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 23d

A new butterfly for me, the Red-Spotted Purple. This species has two forms: the southern form seen here that mimics the toxic Pipevine Swallowtail, and a northern form called the White Admiral with a white band across the wings. Limenitis arthemis astyanax. #butterflies #lepidoptera #gardening 🌱🦋

A medium-sized butterfly sits with wings outspread on an asphalt driveway. The wings are deep midnight blue along the top, fading to pale aquamarine along the bottom. The edges of the wings are bordered with scalloped lines and there is a small red dot on the top corner of each upper wing. There are fainter red dots along the top edges underneath that larger dot, and a red blush across the top corners of the wings that is barely visible against the deep blue background. The body is black.

The butterfly with wings swept back. The undersides of the wings are black with a border of white and aquamarine dashes and orange dots. There are more irregular orange and blue spots close to the butterfly's body, and some white spots on the body. Limenitis arthemis astyanax. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 24d

Blue Mistflower is a good native nectar and host plant from the eastern and central US. It likes moist soil and spreads aggressively by rhizomes. These were started from seeds I collected along the shore of a lake last fall. #nativeplants #gardening 🌱 #bloomscrolling

Close-up of a cluster of flowers and buds of Blue Mistflower, Conoclinium coelestinum. They are small pale violet disc flowers with no petals, the buds are flat round discs and the open flowers look like little pompoms made of thread. They are actually more blue in person than the lavender color they seem in this picture.

Whole plants of Blue mistflower growing next to a white house with a brick chimney painted gray. They are about 3 feet tall with emerald green leaves and many small clusters of pale violet flowers. These are planted along the north side of my house in the grass, where I just mow around them. Oklahoma Northern Crosstimbers ecoregion 29a.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 24d

Ailanthus Webworm moths have spread across the country from Florida, along with their adopted caterpillar host plant the invasive Tree-of-Heaven. They help by controlling its spread, unlike the invasive Spotted Lantern Fly which also destroys native plants and crops. #mothmonday #moths #lepidoptera

A slender, somewhat tubular moth with orange wings decorated with bands of white irregular blobs outlined in black. The legs are black with white joints and the head is black with white markings. Atteva aurea. Their native host plants are Paradise Trees (Simarouba genus).

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 26d

I've never been stung by a bumblebee, just wasps, and that's bad enough for me.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 26d

Good morning, everyone. Sorry I haven't been posting but I've been having vertigo for some dumb reason. Hard to type and take pictures when your brain is on a tilt-a-whirl. It's a lot better today, though. Here's a Cabbage White on Spanish Needles from August. #gardening #butterflies

A small white butterfly sits on a tiny yellow flower. It has a black dot and a gray tip on each upper wing. The lower wing is barely tinged with yellow. Pieris rapae is an introduced species from Europe, Spanish Needles (Bidens bipinnata) is an annual weedy native, but the pollinators like it. It grows in the gravelly strip by my driveway.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · 29d

I am having a hard time getting one in OK because I have medicaid and it is no longer covered for ages 19-64 under the pharmacy benefit, even with qualifying conditions. No one but pharmacies are offering it right now.

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Julie the ok gardener @juliejam.bsky.social · Sep 9

I was like "what is this weird bug on the milkweed bugs?" It turns out it is also a milkweed bug that just molted. Does it remind you of candy corn, too? Oncopeltus fasciatus. #insects #invertebrates 🌱 #gardening #nativeplants

A Large Milkweed Bug that is vibrant yellow and white with bright red head and appendages sits surrounded by the normal black and orange bugs. You can see the tiniest hint of black on the middle edge of the wings.

Another shot of the yellow and white milkweed bug rubbing its red legs across its back for some reason. Having a stretch, I guess, like I do when I put on new jeans. Oncopeltus fasciatus.

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