Indeed, I enjoyed the presence of several flitting Painted Ladies earlier this summer. While I never observed any eggs or larvae on this foliage, the Texas Thistle is a host plant for the Painted Lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui. I was aware of the rosette last year, but left it alone and unidentified. Trust me when I say that those prickles HURT! Actually, the wildflower nymphs left the rosette last year, but no flowers appeared, as Texas Thistle is a biennial, blooming in its second year.

This pretty-in-pink flower bloomed in June and July, having arrived as an attractive, though prickly, evergreen rosette. This year, Texas Thistle, Cirsium texanum, was the wildflower nymphs’ gift of choice. Perhaps, wildflower nymphs, being such quirky critters, choose to leave me something new and unique to my garden– just because they can. Where do these garden gifts come from? Maybe birds have dropped seed by way of their excrement, maybe seeds wafted into my garden space from the wind. Each plant has appeared in a different spot: some in the back garden, some in the front a few popped up in containers where other things were housed, and several have grown along the southern side of my house, where there isn’t much of a garden, only a utilitarian pathway.

The wildflowers have all been Texas natives, usually spring or spring/summer bloomers. Each year it’s a different wildflower and typically not repeated by either seed or root during the next growing cycle. Every year for most of the past decade, I find a wildflower in my garden that I didn’t plant.

The lovely eggs wildlife