Zinnia elegans

My first zinnia bloom of the year at home! Next to it is a dogbane beetle which I just learned so much about this morning! They look like Japanese beetles (bane of the garden, amiright?) but they feed on dogbane and milkweed. They’re native and they eat native plants. I thought I had transplanted salix integra but it turns out I’m growing dogbane which is native!

On this wonderful #wildlfewednesday I saw this mama Monarch lay a few eggs on my milkweed! Also the four eggs I found over the weekend are now baby caterpillars!! I’m going to wait till they’re a little bigger before I decide to take them in to raise them. #monarchbutterfly

Gorgeous photo 😍 hope you are successful in raising them 🤞🏻

My front yard zinnias are a mix from the packet from last year and the zinnia Macarena and zinnia Persian carpet. I guess this row is the from last years mix. I love the color of this one! #zinnia-mix #zinnia #zone7

I’m loving my #zinnia garden! Although so many leaves have been eaten through by Japanese beetles, they’re still growing strong!

Pretty! Sorry about the #japanesebeetles

Beautiful 😍

My first zinnia bloom of the season!! #zinnia

Yippie!🌸