Buggin' Out

At first, I only noticed the two honker eyeballs on this spider, whom I have now identified as Agelenopsis sp. (thanks to spiders pages by UC Berkeley's College of Natural Resources and Arthropods of Orange County), a.k.a. Grass Spider, builder of funnel-shaped webs in low shrubs, such as this, my not-yet-blooming butterfly bush.

Here's the crazy thing: These guys have EIGHT eyes! My picture isn't zoomed in enough to really make them all out, but the eyes are in three rows. The top and bottom rows have two eyes each; the middle row has four. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Next up is the ladybug garden ornament mom and dad gave me when I saw them in Austin. I put it next to my struggling little rhubarb plant in the back yard. Like me, my dad has a real thing for rhubarb and rhubarb pie in particular. It's really hard to find in grocery stores because, if they carry it at all, it's only in season for a few weeks in the early spring. When my local Whole Foods has it, it's usually $8.99 per pound, and it takes two pounds to make one pie. I've found it at Von's for $3.99 or even $2.99 per pound, but I missed this year's rhubarb shipment, if there was one, altogether.

So it makes sense to try to grow rhubarb oneself, no? If only it were so easy! It's a cool (but not cold) weather plant that gets wiped out by heat. Dad had the worst luck with it in Tennessee. This year, I thought I'd give it a try when I saw the Victoria type bulbs at OSH. There was some decent growth happening at first, but then we had a brief snap of 90+ degree temperatures, and the leaves all wilted to the ground. They kind of tried to perk up again, but then something ate the living daylights out of them — perhaps snails or slugs? I haven't caught the culprit. Now, I have this one good-looking leaf, along with about three very small struggling ones and two semi-wilted eaten-up ones. The biggest stalk is completely dead.

While in Austin, we visited a favorite spot, Tom Dromgoole's The Natural Gardener, and they had some amazing-looking rhubarb plants. I couldn't believe my eyes. It's hot there, hotter than it's been here, and yet...  The workers told dad that the rhubarb takes a lot of tending to, but I wish I knew what I'm doing wrong. Like most gardeners, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I just don't know what that is. Rhubarb Pie Gods and Goddesses, please enlighten me!

Finally, I share three pictures of Musca domestica Linnaeus (Insecta: Diptera: Muscidae). Okay, yes, it's the Common House Fly. Three different flies, three different locations: above, on my Aeonium canariense succulent (identified using Geoff Stein's page at Dave's Garden); below, on a spent iris; and at the bottom, on my Sedum diffusum (minor form) succulent flowers (identified using the insane Sedum photos site).

 

Flies clearly adore all kinds of succulents and succulent flowers, but they seem to get truly HIGH on Carrion Flower, a.k.a. Starfish Flower, a.k.a. Giant Zulu, a.k.a. Stapelia gigantea (info. at Cal Poly Plant Conservatory). If you missed by two previous posts on that foul-smelling beauty, click here.