My gardening interest is in growing food. While I like flowers and ornamental plants, they are not my hobby.  I’m definitely not passionate about growing them, learning their Latin names, or keeping up with the latest introductions.  I’ve often said “if you can’t eat it, why grow it”, but I’m really not that cold about the beauty or necessity of flowers.  We have a lot of colorful plants in the yard, but they are easy-care perennials and the work involved in maintenance is usually only weeding.

This large clump of heliopsis masks the stump of a birch tree that died a few years ago. As the tree’s life ebbed, the heliopsis thrived and is now a massive display of yellow daisies for most of the summer and early fall.

The flowers attract insects of many kinds. Our war on insects has proven catastrophic, so we better be doing everything we can to keep those still with us. Ornamental flowers are a big help here.  We had a lot more monarchs this year than in the past several years. I hope that’s a good sign.

Painted Lady butterflies are not in trouble like the monarchs. They really like the flowers.

Honeybees are definitely in trouble.  Here’s a bee sharing a flower with a leaf beetle.

Leather beetles are just showing up in the flowers. In a few weeks, there will be lots of them.

My favorite pollinator is the bumblebee.  They outwork honeybees and are far less likely to sting.

Here’s a bumblebee covered in pollen.

I didn’t catalog all the insects I saw while taking these pictures, but I’m sure I could have come up with several dozen different types.  Most of them would not sit still long enough for a good picture.