I love to see this Loropetalum shrub which I have trained into a tree. It blooms practically all year just beyond our front porch here in Florida, where the weather is still rather warm right now and the love bugs are swarming...again.
[Aside] Too hot, too hot!
To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.
I have tremor cordis on me: my heart dances;
But not for joy; not joy. This entertainment
May a free face put on, derive a liberty
From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom,
And well become the agent; 't may, I grant;
But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers,
As now they are, and making practised smiles,
As in a looking-glass, and then to sigh, as 'twere
The mort o' the deer; O, that is entertainment...
--from William Shakespeare's Winter's Tale--
Rose in Illinois recently asked me what a love bug is. Can words adequately describe this free-loving menace to southern living? I have found a few words here and there that just might satisfy your curiosity about the critters. They are seldom seen alone, and you almost feel sorry for the poor males. I said almost. Washing windows is not recommended during love bug season, but I had no choice if I wanted to get this autumn chore done before leaving Florida this weekend. If I get home for Christmas, I would like to see the sun shining brightly through my windows and the Loropetalum blooming just beyond them.
I would love to have a shrub or a tree blooming almost constantly. Soon we will have frost and all plants will go to sleep...
ReplyDeleteHave a nice weekend!
Katarina
I would love to have one that blooms all summer long. Pretty foliage too.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
Those bugs are ugly and really kinda pervy. ;0)
ReplyDeleteOl' Bill really had a way with words didn't he?!
ReplyDeleteMy A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants has a "Loropetalum" entry. I don't see "Lorapedlum" listed.
I think love bugs would be extremely hard to describe to northerners. I lived in Alabama and I could not believe the infestations of them everywhere-squished on the car and roads and yuck! We had gotten a head's up and were like, "What are lovebugs??" We don't have them up here and I wonder how far down they go? I lived in southern Alabama and they were there. As I remember lovebugs are about the size of fireflies but all black and slow to move and fly. Like gnats. They are stuck together and fill the air when they come out. Quite a sight.
ReplyDeleteCount me into the Northerner category.. a love bug..interesting..
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info on these bugs. No wonder I had never heard of them before. The link to the blog post was especially helpful--those are pretty disgusting pictures! This is one insect I am glad hasn't found its way up north:)
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought these were the horrible bugs I read about in Bob's blog post, Walk2Write, but then realized yours are Love bugs... his are Kissing Bugs. Love bugs sound odd but Kissing Bugs sound horrible!
ReplyDeleteAnnie at the Transplantable Rose
I haven't seen any love bugs around here recently...seems they come in swarms here and there...well...will proabably happen any day now! My poor car suffers every time. LOL :)
ReplyDeleteHi, Katarina. I don't think all shrubs of this kind share the same bloom habit. I guess this particular one likes its place near the porch where the roots can stay cool and it gets a lot of attention.
ReplyDeleteMarnie, thanks. The leaves are pretty small, and they don't seem to all fall off at the same time so the "tree" is really never completely naked. Maybe its modesty won't allow for it.
Hello, MBT. I don't about pervy, but they are pesky and messy. Talk about pervy. My daughter and I walked past a tangle of legs beneath a blanket on the nearly deserted beach yesterday. They weren't exactly lying still.
Yes, TC, Bill is probably my favorite of all time. Thank you for the correction. I guess my last post was appropriate. I want to blame it on the tag attached to a similar shrub or maybe on the Google entries I found a while back, but the blame just doesn't seem to stick. Fairly soon, as if by magic, you will see the error disappear.
Hi, Tina. I agree. They are yucky, especially stuck to your windshield. Luckily, my daughter's car is missing most of its paint job already so she doesn't have to worry about losing any more to the effects of the bug guts.
Michelle, you've never made it this far south during the spring or fall? You don't realize what you're missing. They are amusing to watch.
Rose, I am getting ready to close my suitcase. Are you sure you don't want me to sneak some in along with spidey's egg sac and share the love? Save some cooler weather for me. I'll be there soon.
Hi, Annie. Do they have lips? I don't have time to read Bob's post but will get to it pretty soon.
Hello, Julie. You probably don't have a messy compost pile like I do in the back yard. They lay their eggs in that kind of stuff. I need more predators for the larvae! Nothing seems to like the taste of the adults. I guess they're too greasy tasting like lousy french fries.
Thank you all for stopping by and commenting!
W2W: What an interesting combination in you post, flowers, bugs and WS. You brought it together well.
ReplyDeletere: Oracle at Delphi. I wonder if cattle and dairy farmers benefit from methane vapors?
ReplyDeleteThank you, FG. I have a feeling WS was a nature lover and probably would have enjoyed the love bug spectacle.
ReplyDeleteTC, only if they are women and work on the side as fortune-tellers. Men must be immune to the effects; they generate so much of their own. ;>}
I left myself wide open for that one!
ReplyDeleteI'll go lick my wounds now. ;~)
You asked about the pond dye on my post. They claim that it helps with algae, but according to the DEC, it really doesn't. I think they do it so that it looks better....
ReplyDeleteSorry, TC, I just couldn't resist. Don't feel too bad, though. Some women are just as "expressive" as men, only more "soft-spoken."
ReplyDeleteMichelle, maybe you can find out if there have been any toxicity studies done on the dye. Even if it has a minimal effect on the wildlife or the quality of the groundwater, that's enough to consider using something else to control the algae, like an aeration system. Thanks for responding here.
Dear Walk2Write,
ReplyDeleteLove bugs and Kissing bugs and bugs that go bump in the night....
Grasshoppers and Katydids and
bugs that sing give a fright.
It is Autumn, the bugs are busy,
the bees are buzzing,
life is good.
Thanks for a fun post.
Sherry
Thanks, Sherry, for the poetic comment! I can see you like to be creative with words as well as with your camera. I am enjoying the comments as much or more than composing the post itself.
ReplyDeleteDear Walk2Write,
ReplyDeleteMe too!
Comments are fun. Wonderful way to be in relationship with people from all over the world. I also post on Q's Corner with pictures of the birds and bugs in my backyard. I have relationships with many of them. Walking in Beauty is my walking journal. Thank you for walking with me.
Namaste,
Sherry
Sherry, how in the world do you find time to keep several blogs going? I struggle with maintaining just one along with visiting and commenting on other blogs. I'm finding more almost every day to add to my blog list. It's probably going to take up the whole sidebar one of these days.
ReplyDelete