Bug Squad

Let's hear it for the tower of jewels, Echium wildpretii. Native to the island of Tenerife and belonging to the family Boraginaceae, it can tower as high as a 10-foot Christmas tree. It's a biennial, meaning that it takes two growing seasons to complete its life cycle.

How's the butterfly population faring in north-central California? What do you plant to attract and sustain them? You can find out at the second annual Butterfly Summit, a free event hosted by Annie's Annuals and Perennials in Richmond. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Congratulations to doctoral student and pollination ecologist Maureen Page of the Neal Williams lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology! She's the recipient of a prestigious three-year fellowship, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, for her research proposal...

So we purchased a sky blue Penstemon cultivar with a tag labeled "Penstemon Margarita BOP." BOP? Bureau of Prisons? Bottom of the Pyramid? Business Owner's Policy? Basic Operation Plan? Breach of Peace? No, none of the above. It's an acronym for "Bottom of the Porch.

Just call it "Fire and Fury in a Pollinator Garden." That would be the firecracker red flameskimmer dragonfly, Libellula saturata. They fly into our pollinator garden in Vacaville, Calif., attracted by the lily-padded pond and the all-you-can-eat buffet of flying insects.