Well, I did something yesterday that could be considered uh... "eccentric". I mean, what's wrong with postponing breakfast for an hour and a half to take pics of my 2nd instar BST cats??? It seems some people think that to be strange... Oh, well. Maybe through our good examples these [odd] people can be brought to see the light... p.s: I am quickly deciding that the phrase "like herding cats" should (and does) describe multiple situations. It's amazing how hard it is to get 5 BST cats on the first inch of a finger to photograph. After yesterday's experience, I decided to compose a song to the tune of "We Three Kings". It goes something like: We 5 caterpillars of doom/ We'll annoy you greatly/ When you try to take our picture we can move very fast/ chorus:/O-oh, we will move far away/ From where you want us to be/ We'll come and annoy you greatly/ We 5 cats of doom! -Jmcat

It is really hard to tell when it is dead as far as the main branches as they get so knarly and corky to the touch. I don't ever trim my back cause I am never sure what is old wood and whats new. I have finally learned to scrap the wood and most of the time it is green underneath. This one section that I think died also was originally planted on my fenceline. Now there is a second fence up against mine and I can't get to the area to pull weeds (shucks!) so who knows if it got broken off at the bottom or not. I just know the top leaves got burnt from the frost we had. I am always scattering seed along the fenceline so it has started to fill in and as I said, I have tons of it everywhere else. It is a great vine for Polydamus Swallowtails and I love to watch them in the mornings. They nest up in my Crape Myrtles and between 9:00 and 9:20, they start flittering out of the trees. They chase each other around all morning and it is like a racetrack in the sky, trying to follow them. Just makes me smile!

ali, what about putting an arbor in and growing a honeysuckle up it? From the edge and in from the driveway to the tree, I'd edge out the grass from that area and curve slightly to the end of the concrete pad in front of your home, the patio area. All the way to the end. Let's give you some curb appeal ;) Put the middle of the arbor in front of the edge of the concrete pad where the car is sitting, about 3 feet in. From the middle of the arbor to the drive and then going up your house, you could create a path that would curve over to the sidewalk and to the front door. For right now, using newspapers and a 5 gallon bucket filled with water, cover up all grass with layers of newspapers you've plunged into the water. Lay them down, overlapping as you go. I typically use about 10 layers of paper. The more, the better. If you can create your path first, either using stepping stones or gravel, lay down something like visqueen and lay the stepping stones or the gravel over to create the path. Remove the grass where the path will be so that nobody trips over stepping stones or gravel. Take out a V shape where you're going into the lawn from driveway to tree and up and over to the end of your home. Remove the dirt and the grass from the V, so that you've got a drop off of sorts and lay your wet newspaper to curve down into the area where the dirt is. Cover the area up with mulch or mushroom compost if you can get your hands on some, except for the path area. By next year, the newspaper will start to decompose and the grass will be dead, but it adds to the organic matter of newspaper and the dead grass. Worm heaven. From now and thru winter, study up on various perennials and possibly a few shrubs that produce berries for our other feathered friends. Next year, push back the mulch or mushroom compost and dig holes to plant. There should be enough room to the right of the path up to your front door, to add in a shrub. Then the other shrubs could go in front of the poles, under planted and going out to the edge with perennials. I prefer natives. They're adapted to our weather, our soil, they make up our ecosystem. Find a list of native plants for your area, and research those plants as to what hummingbirds like and also which ones make seed that other birds will like to eat on. The native plants won't require dead heading, don't need pruned or cut back so they look better....I just prefer them over all. Now an iris in there isn't going to hurt anything ;)...or a peony....both left by the previous owner that I decided to leave and a friend of mine from TN also gave me a beautiful iris that is sentimental to me. But again, those 2 are easy plants. Hummingbirds will love to sit and rest a spell on shrubs you provide and give you a closer look at their beauty. Too much?? Where do you live? Zone 5, but where? lovefornature, you're doing a wonderful job! It's people like you who join GW that make it an enjoyable site to visit. If you like butterflies and are interested in attracting some of them to come to your yard, you could plant a Aristolochia tomentosa or Aristolochia durior. Another plant I love that I don't know draws anything in, but blooms in late summer, is Clematis virginiana. Another neat native clematis is Clematis glaucophylla. I also answered the e-mail you sent, I hope you got it.

Susan, your A clematitis should make it. Mine is sprouting out of the ground right now. It looks like a good year for pipevines. However, I haven't seen anything from the serpentaria. I think it's just late. Mine is well mulched, and the soil doesn't ever totally dry out. The area gets lots of leaf cover in the winter. Both Asclepias variegata are returning with more stems!! Yes!! Now, for some pollination when they bloom. I put the directions in my favorites on my computer so they'd be available. I also have Syriaca, Davis, Hall's, Sullivan's, and Purple coming up. These are seeds that I stratified and have germinated. The Davis and Hall's came from Georgiavines--so something I've gotten from her did come up. Linda, fimbriata is easy to grow from seed, but is temperamental about coming back up the following year. It doesn't require stratification. I think in your location, you'd have better luck with it than I have. Usually someone on the BF forum has seeds if you put in a request. I think I'm out, but I'll check. Trilobata is another very easy to grow pipevine with a split leaf. It grows well in Texas, but needs winter protection here. I had some growing in my greenhouse, but lost everything when the snows collapsed it. This winter was hard. I'm surprised at how many of my outdoor plants actually made it through our -22 degrees! Sandy