Little native butterflies in the garden

The little skippers are some of the first butterflies to appear in the garden in the springtime.

They never seem to mind having their photo taken.

Here is an umber skipper Lon melane sipping nectar from a Blue Field Gilia Gilia capitata flower cluster.

I've tried to grow these lovely native flowers in our native patch, but the soil is such hard clay, that the plants didn't grow very tall or produce many blooms.

This year I planted several seedlings in well draining rich soil in a large pot.

The plants are thriving, producing many blooms and growing quite tall, some are at least 4 feet high.

The flower clusters contain from 50 up to 100 separate blossoms.

All that delicious nectar for the butterflies!

Acmon Blue Icaricia acmon butterflies also visit the garden all day long.

This one is resting on a withered California Poppy leaf, next to the foliage of a dandelion.

The range of this little North American butterfly is mostly in California, but it can be seen further south in Baja California and north, in Oregon.