I have some poison oak around my house. Just wear gloves, long sleeves, and long pants. BE VERY CAREFUL, and you will be fine. You might have a little reaction here and there, but it will pass. The truth is you should tackle it while you are broke out. There are a lot of myths about it. Myth 1: You CANNOT spread it by scratching. Some places break out earlier than others, so it seems to be spreading. Myth 2: Everywhere exposed will break out. Also not true. If you get the oil on your skin, and wash it off properly (and quickly) it will not break out. I generally break out once a year, always in the same place. I see a piece trying to come back and just yank it out with my bare hands. Then I wash, but I always seem to forget to remove my wedding ring. So, that area of my finger breaks out, but not the rest of my hands. One year I will not make that mistake...but not yet!!!

I previously posted here that using ash with cecropias would result in small moths. Well, I had a lot of extra cecropia eggs this spring so I ended up raising cecropias on an ash stump that refuses to die. The stump keeps sprouting new growth which sports soft leaves, much different than the leaves on the older ash trees. The cats raised on the stump ash were my first cecropias into their cocoons and produced the longest and plumpest cecropia cats I had this year. So, I'm a believer in new growth ash leaves. BTW, emerald ash borers still have not hit my neighborhood but my in-law's neighborhood has been trashed. Tried viburnum for the first time this year. I have no clue what kind it is. Sleeved 4 cats on it. Cats grew very slowly and then quit eating during 4th instar. YMMV Friend came out to my house late July and I gave her some 2nd instar cecropias off one of my mystery maples (using the mystery maples too since I had so many cecropia eggs this year). She tried to get them to eat numerous species of leaves. The one cat that lived ate sweetgum. I got to see it yesterday and it is huge compared to its siblings that are still on my maple (saw two yesterday that are still 4th instar). Started raising a bunch of cecropias on walnut last year and I'm doing it again this year. Using black walnut and English walnut. Cats do very well on it and readily switch between the two types of walnut.

OkPrairie: The best blooming hibiscus for me so far, with the longest lasting blooms has been the Texas Star. It is open in the morning when I leave at 8:00 a.m. and still open in the evening when I get home at 6:00 p.m. The other hybrids' blooms don't open until after I leave for work, and sometimes, if I'm lucky, I'll see one open right before it declines in the evening. I'm so enjoying this long weekend. We need some more rain, but I also enjoy getting out and watering in order to check on the plants (for bugs, diseases, deadheading, whatever). Can't do that if I rely on soaker hoses and sprinklers all the time. I love having them for back up, but true gardening to me, is hands on. I'm waiting for Gulf Fritillaries still! Got plenty of passiflora. My new aster is putting forth new foliage and appears it will be a vigorous plant - to about 4' with purple flowers, blooms in late summer, and is supposed to be a grand nectaring plant for butterflies. Time will tell. Oh, it is aster tartaricus 'Jindai'. Ordered it from Lazy S's Farm. I love those folks there. Plants are small, but they will return your e-mail, make suggestions if you don't know what you are looking for, but know what you want it to do for you. I have plenty of milkweed seeds for next year (will start indoors early), asclepias curassavica. I've heard the Monarchs really like it best. Weeds, weeds everywhere. Too many to try to play catch up with now, so will just have to weather the weed storm until next year. I really need to put in some tough ground cover that will grow at the base of crowded plants, enough to stay the weeds. Any suggestions? I'm thinking maybe Bugle Weed will do the trick, or money wort. I have that, and can put plenty of starts out there. Tomorrow, I'm cutting back the Joe Pye Weed. The Morning Glories have taken in over so they will go with it. I expect I'll get some more growth out of the eupatorium before frost sets in. Datura is blooming, and I am to get some seeds of the yellow flowering datura. Am looking forward to that. Of my 3 hydrangeas planted in the back yard, H. Frau Reiko and oakleaf hydrangea are the best. I love the hot pink blooms on H. Merritt's Pride, but it demands so much more watering than the others. Does anyone know when Elderberry blooms? My Goldilocks ivy is growing well. It really brightens up that shady corner, and doesn't seem as overwhelming as the regular ivy. Two of my elephant ears are blooming! 'Illustris' and 'Fontanesii'. Actually, the bloom sets the foliage back a bit, but I wanted to see what they looked like. I'm going to get tiny tubers off my Hitchhiker EE; will try to bring to the trade. Can you guys tell me some nectar flowers that I can winter sow? Tomato_Hornworm - if you get on this forum, I know there is a sphinx moth that uses sweet potato as a host plant. Do you recall which one? Is anyone planting anything this fall? I am not going to get my lindera benzoin until the 1st week of October. I hope it will be okay to plant then. What do you think? I know, so many questions, but you guys are so helpful. If you weren't so helpful, I wouldn't be so inclined to ask! LOL! Susan

Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are all blooming well. Thyme and African blue basil are bringing in the bees to pollinate the others. Pineapple sage is just starting. I was surprised at just how many flowers are starting to bloom, because it still looks mostly green in the beds. So here's my longer than expected list: daylilies, alliums, Johnny Jump Ups (way more than should be out there!), alyssum, dianthus, snapdragons, mums, Angelina sedum, Diamond Frost euphorbia, lavenders, pink skullcaps, coneflowers, scabiosa, autumn sage, mealy cup sage, Hot Lips salvia, lantanas, Blackfoot daisies, penstemon, verbenas, gaura, agastache, Karley Rose pennisetum, zinnias, cleomes, cosmos, petunias, calibrachoa (they over-wintered in our mild winter), pentas, catmint, hollyhocks, Shasta daisies, upright Veronica, lamb's ears, butterfly bushes, hydrangea, heuchera, cranesbill geraniums, betony, astilbe, balloon flowers, and the clematis are just about finished. The cosmos, yarrow, coreopsis, and tropical milkweed are almost there. I'm guessing the cooler weather last week put a hold on a lot of the plants, because they sure were not blooming when I was working in the cooler weather. Neither butterfly bush had blooms open yesterday, but when I looked today, wow, both of them did. It's so hot and muggy out there this afternoon, I just stayed out there long enough to see what was blooming. Last week chilly + this week sweltering = springtime. Michelle