It sounds like you and the other nice neighbors should form a neighborhood watch program. Make friends with the patrol officer (the one who told you the bad name for your neighborhood) and get his cell phone number. Then when there's a problem, call and report it. If the nice neighbors keep and eye out for each other, the bad neighbors will have to shape up. Even the most drunken parent gets tired of answering the door and finding a cop on the doorstep. Also, if anyone in the neighborhood is a lawyer, or if you have a lawyer friend who'll do it for free, have a letter sent to the parents (on the lawyer's letterhead) informing them that they are allowing their children to become a public nuisance and that legal action will follow. Also warning of potential drowning, etc. At the very least, that will help protect you in case something really bad happens. Ginny

How deep should the tubers be under the soil? I was not able to grow in straw either - but have quite a few plants doing well in my planter boxes. I dug down to the bottom of the box, laid the sprouted potato in and tossed on a handful of soil. As it grew, I added more compost to the top rim of the box. This allowed coverage to about 12 inches. They look fine although time will tell how much yield will be forthcoming. Should I put up side boards on the planter box so more of the top shoots can be covered with soil? The above-ground foliage is about 8 inch tall now. I saw something similar on the Vegetable Forum - Bejay

Hi Diana, I suspect that what you refer to as mutated, was always 'Kwanso'. 'Kwanso' and 'Europa' may be closer than cousins, but definitely related. I doubt it will do much good for you to personally try to stop the natural spread of either daylily. They seem to brighten up the ditches, which is not a bad thing. They are also commonly used for landscaping tough areas. 'Kwanso' seems to tolerate more shade than the rest of the family. When I say invasive, I mean in comparison to other plants. If planted close to something else, without barriers, you will soon only have the daylilies. They are very aggressive spreaders. H. fulva 'Europa' was introduced to the US via Europe, hence the name. If someone in France would pay $5 a stem, I'm sure there would be lots of people willing to supply them. Put my name on the list please. All the daylilies you have planted by the fence may be there in the next epoch, not just the next generation. The ditch lilies and 'Kwanso' varieties historically date back thousands of years. The amazing thing is that they reproduce vegetatively, not sexually. So the ones you planted by the fence are clones of plants that have been around a very long time. Ed

The photo is not the best because there is no close-up but from what I see it looks like poison ivy. You can buy poison ivy killer at Home Depot or Lowes. My yard has tons of it and I save the ivy killer for the established vines. For these little guys I take a garden spade to get rid of them.