Jen, I can send cuttings of the plum. I have not tried to root them and was wondering if you had. I might try to root the Guthrie after it leafs out more. I can also send a bulb of the Eucommis. You can propagate Eucommis by carefully pulling a leaf off and planting the base of it in a small container of good potting soil. The leaf will gradually produce 2 small bulblets by the end of summer. I think Chickasaw Plums require 2 different plants to pollinate before they can fruit. The Indians had hundreds of cultivars, probably lost now. Does Cerinthe major grow easily for you? Mine keep dying. Mexican Petunia, dwarf pink is one I don't have. I'm waiting to see if Mirabilis longiflora comes back. It has smaller but very long stemmed white flowers with a fragrance similar to M.jalapa. I can swap you for a seed or two of Senna didymobotrya. I have Cassia or Senna hebecarpa, similar to C. marylandica. Have Salvia leucantha- Velvet Sage in two varieties. We may get seed of Sinocalycanthus this year. It had a few pods last year. Mike

Sandy, the leaf it's on now will probably be sufficient for about a week or so - it's practically impossible to get them off their original leaf no matter how bad looking it gets, so I don't even try any more. I'm amazed at how well they can grow when eating an old leaf! They always lay their eggs perfectly on the very end of the leaf. I saw a female laying eggs up close earlier this year, and I found out why - they perch in the general center of a leaf, then slide down 'til they reach the end. I saw this female slide, then go back and do it again, like maybe she overshot the leaf the first time. It takes about ?5 or 6 days for the eggs to hatch, a long time, since the eggs aren't very big - a good many RSP eggs must be infertile, because a lot of them just wither and disappear. Also, a good many RSP cats die in the first instar, regardless of whether you bring them in or leave them on the tree. They make up the difference by the huge numbers of eggs they lay. I can't remember exactly how long they stay on the "string" and the original leaf, but a week seems about right. Once I see the cat hanging over the branch (like a feline cat) just up from the leaf, I cut off the branch and bring the cat in to raise in one of my cages. I'm raising one cat now, and another one is in the "J" about to pupate. I'll guess they stay in the cat stage ?3 weeks. In the wild, they pupate in odd places, like I once found one on the outside garage wall by my husband's radio room door, and I found one on my street sign a few year ago! I once watched as a RSP cat pupated, and the ugly bumps they have on their backs are what change into the knob. Here's my famous road sign RSP chrysalid - Here's a picture of 3 RSP hatchlings on the same area of the same cherry tree - clickable thumbnail - And here's a clickable thumbnail picture of a RSP cat hanging over the edge of the branch, a good time to bring them in to raise - And here's a clickable thumbnail of a late instar RSP cat with a giant swallowtail caterpillar - the RSP is on the right - If your egg doesn't hatch, or the hatchling dies, don't blame yourself - this happens to a lot of them and you'll get more eggs! :) MissSherry

I will get a leaf and trunk picture tomorrow. I checked Ricinus but the colors (purple and reds) and the number of prongs did not seem to match(5 to 7 for the ones I found pictures for).. until I found "Unjuga Green" on some website (see link). The picture is not terribly clear but the lead has NINE/9 prongs as the leafs on my weed, and the stem and leafs are all green. The other Ricunus I found had better pictures and the trunk seemed similar to my weed's albeit the color differed. Apparently in Florida nurseries have agreed not to propagate it as it is classified as nearly invasive (basically on the invasive watch list). The seeds are supposed to be extremely poisonous. Here is a link that might be useful: Ricunus Unjuga green

For thickets my go-to in spring and summer has always been a mix of triclopyr/2-4d and a surfactant...according to my notes (haven't sprayed this in quite a while) I was doing 4 oz triclopyr, 5 oz 2-4d and 0.66 oz "Top Surf" Surfactant per gallon. Once you get into autumn a 2.5% solution of glyphosate + surfactant seems to work just as well but its cheaper. I've shied away from spot spraying because I always get collateral damage no matter how careful I am. Now I either mow or treat stumps if there is anything of value in the vicinity. Last fall I bought a quart of Milestone to treat creeping charlie and crownvetch, and for the heck of it showered a wall of buckthorn on the property line with it...Almost immediately the leaves began to shrivel... so far it doesn't appear to be budding but I'm not ready to draw any conclusions yet. Would be a nice alternative since Milestone supposedly doesn't affect grasses but is also residual. It appears to be expensive but each quart makes over 200 gallons of spray (you have to use a syringe to measure accurately)