Pineapple Guava froze?! Wowza!! First off, don't cut off anything until around March, possibly April for the real heat lovers: that ugly, dead stuff is helping to protect what's left from future frosts. Then just cut off whatever isn't sprouting strongly. Feed moderately then with a high nitrogen ferilizer to help replace the dead portions. Thin out crowded sprouts to avoid "brooms" later on. This fall, feed with a low nitrogen, high phosphate, high potash fertilizer to harden new growth and add extra scales to the buds. Since you are growing them outdoors, you may find more info at the Tropicals forum, or at the Texas Gardening forum. Kevin : )

I'm seeing Monarchs just about everywhere, from my garden, on my way to the store, on my way to work, fluttering just about everywhere. Granted, it's only one here and there, but still great to see them around. I had quite a few yesterday; 3 on one butterfly blush and I saw 2 on the other side of the yard. I didn't see 5 at the same time and they could have gotten over to the other side quickly, as they normally do. Even my neighbor, who is nature challenged, just asked how butterflies mate. I found this strange, but then realized he saw the back to back flying. He was pretty amazed, and I was thrilled. I currently have my first 6 chrysalids of the year, 3 of which should eclose today (I can't wait to get home!) and the others should follow, and 8 cats in just about all instars. This is a personal record for me, I think the highest count I've had was 12 released in one season, and I'm already at 14, unofficially. With all this mating going on, I could've had so many more, but unfortunately, I'll be going on vacation soon, so any new cats will have to fend for themselves, which is never good. Hopefully they'll be no more casualties, only having 1 monarch issue to date. It didn't eat for 5 days and was euthanized...

Thanks Craig for your North Tulsa report. I will forward your info on. Sorry, that I have not gotten with you sooner. I've been busy "chasing Monarchs!" You are right on the money, Dawn. Monarchs love to fly way up there with the raptors. Have you ever seen a Monarch circle around, and then go up until they are out of sight? They love to catch the thermals, as the hawks and other migrating birds do when the north wind is just perfect. They exert alot less energy, and more guaranteed survival by sailing with the wind, as opposed to continually flapping their wings against the wind. Alot of hawk watchers in Texas are also good Monarch reporters. Large roost update: At home, Monday evening, rain and strong southerly winds had Monarchs scurrying to the north side of the trees, looking for shelter. Tuesday morning, the wind changed to the north, and about 9 a.m., the Monarchs were coming down out of the trees, spreading their wings, trying to soak up what sun they could. By 12 noon, most of them were gone. If there would have been any way I could have gotten off Tues., I would have dearly LOVED to have gone out to the large roost, and gotten pics of them with their wings open trying to soak up the rays before they left! That's were folks get these great pics of Monarchs roosting with their wings open! Oh, well.... another time. I have heard that there is another wave of Monarchs noted in Bartlesville, that should be making their way down. This group seems to be late. I had about 6 Monarchs in my yard today. There is always a bit of sadness when a large group leaves, though I know that they "gotta go", and time is of essence. The first bunch of Monarchs are already approaching the Mexican border! Journey North has some great articles on how high can you see Monarchs? Here is a link that might be useful: How high do Monarchs travel?

This thread began as a means to discuss the issue of Sunset zones. The secondary motive was for me to try to explore the notion that elevation is a factor to RMG but not the only factor. Over the course of looking at climate data, I discovered that annual precipitation and the time of its occurrence may be a defining feature for the RMG region. Aridity cannot be the only determinate or wed all be over in the Southwest Gardening forum. Previous and somewhat naively, I had thought that these evergreen mountains here and there indicated that there were areas with rather high rainfall amounts - what hadn't quite sunk in was that while that is true, these areas were all at elevations where gardening becomes impossible. I began wondering if a particular native plant species was representative of the broad RMG region. I'm no expert on native plants so this was a fun exercise even if it doesn't appear to be absolutely successful (perhaps, an impossibility). It seemed to me that the Arrowleaf Balsamroot was most broadly representative. I'm hoping that other gardeners are giving this some thought and will comment. By way of encouragement, my question now is - what the heck is this plant whose image is used here on GardenWeb to represent Rocky Mountain Gardening: Steve