Good morning, gardeners!
I am so thrilled to write this diary as a break from reality. It is a welcomed visit to Mother Nature’s bold beauty, bounty and balance — something desperately needed to calm my soul and psyche.
It is a respite from a journalist’s murder, tRump, MbS, immigration caravan/Kavano, arguments, insults, bullying, Rafael Cruz, election meddling, the snark-snipe-bashing, and feeling helplessly trapped in a dangerously mismanaged and corrupt government with a vital mid-term election coming.
Dallas has had very few ‘perfect weather’ days this year. One of those rarities — 70o, sunshine and a light breeze — was Oct. 11, 2018. I visited the State Fair of Texas that day with only a few destinations in mind: the Sammons Butterfly House, talk to the horticulturist at the Discovery Gardens, wander the Livestock Barns and, of course, eat a Fletcher’s corny dog. These four destinations took 8 hours.
Fair Park is a dizzying maze of art deco buildings (built in 1936 for the Statehood Centennial celebration) and the Cotton Bowl (1930), situated on 277 square acres smack dab in the middle of Dallas. Thursday was free entry for seniors and half price food. The grounds were packed with people. Walking at least 10 miles is not uncommon and my places of interest were at opposite corners of the fair grounds. Dodging the crowds made every walk four times longer.
The Butterfly House is a 2 story tropical rain forest enclosed in glass for perfect temperature and humidity control, housing an uncountable number of free flying lepidoptera and an astounding variety of insects and flowering plants/trees. The moment you walk through the specialized 2-stage doors and gain entry to the house, hundreds of colorful butterflies greet you. It is QUIET even though there are lots of people. Color photo charts describing all the butterflies/moths were available at several viewing stations; however, due to the crowd I never could get close enough to read/photograph them. So I cannot identify the butterflies in my pics. If you can identify, please comment!
Butterflies for your pleasure:
I didn’t get to speak with the horticulturist; however, I have her phone number. She’s very involved with the Dallas chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. I want to buy a Texas native milkweed PLANT (not seeds). Five years in a row of cold stratification of seeds, planting, babying have resulted in nada, zilch, zero plants. The Society has native (non-pesticide) plant sales every spring and fall. I missed both sales of native milkweed this year.
Monarch migration is later than usual this year because of unseasonable cold temps in Texas. Do you know that monarchs need their wing muscles to be warm in order to fly? https://journeynorth.org/monarchs/news/fall-2018/101818-cold-holds-butterflies-back
Now for some orchids. Please help me identify them...I’m only familiar with phalaenopsis.
Still more wonders:
Then I was off to the livestock barns — another crowded venue at the goat birthing pens:
Around the fairgrounds:
It has been raining heavily here for weeks with another 3”+ in the week to come. Flood/flash flood warnings are posted virtually everywhere in north and central Texas. The Llano River (tributary of the Colorado River) is raging with flood waters through central Texas and is impacting Lake Travis (Austin) with high water. The Brazos River is threatening Houston. The Trinity River (runs thru west side of downtown Dallas) looks like the Mississippi from helicopter footage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEj8hC5s78E
At last count we had just shy of 13”+ of rain for October. Temps dropped for most of this week to winter equivalents: high 43o, low 40o. At least I was able to take good advantage of the only day of Autumn! Too bad it couldn’t “fall” on a weekend.
Thanks for joining me in the break from reality. Happy Gardening.