Flutterby Farm & Gardens

05/19/2026

Native Smooth Rose

05/19/2026

Happy finds!

Jewelweed (hummingbird favorite) and common moonseed (supports pollinators and woodland birds)

This will look awesome once the jewelweed blooms!

05/19/2026

Foxglove beardtongue (sown by seed) and woodland pinkroot (1 out of 6 that survived the rabbits).

Woodland garden 1.

I bought trillion bulbs and will plant in fall.

This woodland has been challenging to restore because of the bunnies. Lol

05/19/2026

Canadian anenome. Native Ohio woodland perennial.

05/18/2026

05/17/2026

You have at least four types of spider web in your yard right now. Each one was built by a different species to catch a different kind of prey.

You don't need to see the spider to know what she is. The web is the ID 🌿

🕸️ The orb web — the classic circular web with radiating spokes and a sticky spiral. Built at night, often destroyed by morning, rebuilt the next evening from scratch. This belongs to a garden spider. She catches flying insects — moths, flies, beetles, mosquitoes. If you see a big wheel-shaped web between two plants, leave it. She's removing more pests overnight than any trap you could hang

🕸️ The funnel web — a flat, sheet-like web with a funnel-shaped retreat at one end. Found in ground cover, rock walls, and foundation corners. The spider sits inside the funnel and waits for vibrations. When a cricket or ant hits the sheet, she rushes out, grabs it, and drags it inside. Fast, startling to watch, and harmless to people

🕸️ The cobweb — irregular, tangled, three-dimensional. Found in corners, under furniture, in garages and sheds. Most cobweb spiders are small and harmless. Their webs catch crawling insects, ants, and even other spiders. The messy web in the garage corner is usually one of these — and she's been quietly managing the insect traffic you never noticed

🕸️ The sheet web — a horizontal, hammock-like sheet of silk stretched between grass blades or low shrubs. Below it, a tangle of fine trip lines. Insects hit the trip lines, fall onto the sheet, and the spider attacks from below. The spiders that build these are tiny — you'll rarely see them — but their webs are everywhere if you look at lawn level on a dewy morning

🌱 How to use the web as your field guide:

- Circular and organized = orb weaver. Flying-insect hunter. Leave the web intact — she rebuilds it nightly anyway, but tearing it down costs her a night of hunting
- Flat sheet with a funnel at one end = funnel weaver. Ground-insect hunter. Common along foundations — she's eating what crawls near the house
- Messy tangle in a corner = cobweb spider. General predator. The messiness is the design — it catches insects approaching from any direction
- Horizontal hammock in the grass = sheet-web spider. The trip-line-and-fall strategy is one of the most effective trapping designs in the yard, and most people have never noticed it

Four webs. Four strategies. All of them working for you 🌿

05/17/2026

American Bush Honeysuckle purchased at the Cincinnati Native Plant Safe at Bowyer Farm! We made a sign so no one cuts it down in their fervor to remove invasive honeysuckle.

05/17/2026

Native Smooth Rose about to blossom

05/02/2026

Western blue Virginia bower (Clematis occidentalis) is considered extirpated (extinct in the wild). Blooming at Flutterby Farm & Gardens.