I would NOT suggest trimming any roots this time of year! This time of year in north wet states, the irises are just coming out of dormancy with a little green growth starting. I definitely would not shake off the dirt as it will destroy roots, and they need those roots for their spring growth and establish a viable plant. If youÂre like my daughter in Oregon, she just moved to a new house, and in this winter weather, had to dig her irises. I helped. We just dug big clumps, dirt and all, put in bags, and took to the new house. SheÂs placed them on the ground and built up more soil around the clumps. She says they seem to have taken the transplant well, and are showing some new green growth.

If y'all have questions on any of the sphinx or silk moths, the Butterfly Gardening forum has lots of answers from people who have reared them before. Right now, there is a lot of discussion on Cecropias. Unfortunately, Oklahoma does not see a lot of the silks because we are at the western most range for them. The Eastern US sees a lot more. We do have lots of sphingids, though. Bill Oehlke has THE best website for info on the silks, sphinx, and catacolas. He has helped me out by answering lots of questions, and has used a lot of my images of the sphinx I have found in my backyard. I'm giving you a link to the lunas in case you're interested. If you have a female, you can put her in a paper bag where she will lay eggs. Then you can cut around the eggs and put them with their host plant and watch the cats grow (instars) and form their pupae (needs sticks and stuff to construct the cocoon). I'd love to raise some if I ever get any, but I think I will order the cecropias eggs from Bill to get started on them. They eat either Sweet Gum (as do Lunas) or black walnut. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Luna Moths

As Bob said, a check in never dial a connection, and if you see Earthlink there, remove it. I found Earthlink in the registry 6 months after I used the add/remove to uninstall. The way I found these was with RegSeeker, 'Find in registry' & 'Search for' and typed in Earthlink. or if you wanted, start/run/regedit/edit/find/type>earthlink

I hope you won't shut up and knuckle under, Bart. Sounds like you came from an intolerant background. But you all do sound like an echo chamber. Guess it's nice to have common values. I think I value human rights too. Maybe re the bathroom issue human rights trump people's comfort zones, but I think forcing people on this issue is itself intolerant. People change gradually. IMO gradual change can be more lasting and more valid as it may come from the heart. Sometimes maybe there is not time to wait around for that. It's debatable. IMO Martin Luther King had it right as he didn't demonize anyone. He treated people like he wanted them to exist, to be around, to contain a different attitude and to relate to better to. Not to pound into oblivion, shame into like mindedness, trivialized, etc. IMO race relations and acceptance of gays got a lot better through the last half of the century and beyond. I think it came from the heart. From just living, discovering friends, finding that relationships were valuable, people who used to live more apart could work together. I know I took joy in it. The demonizing and force work against all that. The appropriation of identity politics issues. Some do it in a cynical way I believe.