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| Pollen galore: my favourite White Buddleia photo |
We inherited a white variety of Buddleia when we moved in to our current home back in 2012, and each year I complain that I wish it was a Black Knight or one of the purple species like B. Davidii that are particularly attractive to butterflies. But for a few short days before the flowers turn to a rusty brown, it looks beautiful. Followers of this blog will know that during the strict lockdown I kept a close eye on some of the plants, including self-seeded ones, in the garden, charting the insects that landed on them. I decided to 'watch' the Buddleia this year, and the photos in this post represent some of my sightings, including the total number of butterfly species seen on the bush. I need to spend more time watching and photographing the bees. And I note we should be dead-heading to allow new inflorescences to form.
The Comma was the first butterfly to land on the white flowers this year.
...and quite good numbers of Red Admirals.
We have not seen a Peacock for a few days, but there were one or two about last week. A couple of years years ago I bought a beautiful Peacock butterfly card while we were on holiday in Galloway. When I unwrapped it, it seemed that the writing inside was the wrong way up.
What I have since discovered is that Peacocks often prefer to take an upside-down pose, like the one in my photo below: the image and the writing on the card matched each other after all!
