poaky, you should be very close. The "swamp chestnut" is actually a chinquapin, which is displaying an *amazing* red fall color. Apparently I found in the forum a lot of them show red fall color when young, which then fades as the tree matures.... I keep my fingers crossed. If it keeps going that way it is going to shame the white oak standing next to it. What I am not sure about is that this is the lightest green I have seen in a chinquapin leaf. The purple ones are white oaks. Certainly not landscape quality specimens but I sort of like when a plant is somewhat messy and natural. All trees around here seem to have been grown with the cookie cutter. The bur oak leaves are very much like bur oaks, but the bark on those trees is not at all corky. This is why I think they sent me the hybrids that nursery makes between swamp white and bur oak (which they call swamp bur). P.S. our dog is just wonderful - not a great gardening buddy as he tends to think anything in your hand is a toy. Your dog is wonderful as well. We had been looking into newfies but we were unsure as to how they would do in the summer heat here in IA.

Hey, Owen. I don't know if you'll see this, but I think I have a guess as to why your plants aren't fruiting.... first of all, are they flowering? If not, there might be some other issue. But if they are....the flowers need to be pollinated before they'll make fruit. If the plants spend all their time indoors, away from pollinators, you'll need to do the pollinating yourself. I don't quite know how you'd do that...in biology class they had us use a small paintbrush and spread pollen between flowers, but I don't know how well it'd work. Can you put the plants outside in the summer, so that some bees might come by and help you out? Best, Lara

Matt, Stink bugs are not known to have many natural predators, which is one reason they are so hard to control. There are some species of stink bugs that are herbivores and eat plants early on, and then turn into carnivores and eat....guess what.....other stink bugs! Other than that, some species of lizards and some bugs eat them sometimes, but their 'stinkiness' gives them protection from most other predators. I don't know that the frogs or snakes ever reach the stink bugs. Our frogs tend to be hanging out around the back yard where we have a lily pond, quite a bit of shade, and 30 tomato plants in containers. The big garden is quite some distance from that and most of it is in sun until mid- to late afternoon. There's usually not many frogs in our hot, dry, sunny garden although we have a resident turtle and, every now and then, a toad and some lizards. The snakes are an issue in and of themselves since we mostly have timber rattlers and copperheads (that's what I've been seeing this week), water moccasins in our ponds and creeks (thankfully they are not in the garden) and an occasional western diamondback rattler. Oh, and rat snakes and chicken snakes that like to get in the chicken coop and eat eggs and chicks. While snakes might be helpful in the garden, I don't want them there. I hate snakes. In my garden, the stink bugs are usually on plants anywhere from waist-high to head high, so while a snake might be able to reach them, the toads and frogs and turtles couldn't. At least here (as far as I know), the stink bugs are primarily garden and agricultural pests. In parts of the country where the winters are colder, they invade homes in the fall, undoubtedly looking for a warm place to overwinter. It is my understanding that stinkbugs inside the house are hard to control, and it is hard to keep them out, because they've been known to come down the chimneys! If I had to make my best guess, I'd give our one-day 11.87" rainfall credit for the lower numbers of stinkbugs and squash bugs (so far) this year. I'd bet that relentless rainfall washed away the overwintering ones that weren't up and about yet. We also have been having greatly reduced numbers of grasshoppers, probably for the same reason. Unfortunately, grasshoppers tend to accompany hot, drought-like weather, so we all may have trouble with them later ths summer. I am seeing a lot of tiny hoppers (1/4" to 1/2") just these last couple of days, so clearly another hatch is on. Here at our house, the guineas and chickens control them pretty well though. Dawn

Mara, I am definitely interested in E. 'Cubic Frost'! It's beautiful -- whatever the name. If I don't find one at 'my' HD I'll be trying to beg a start off of you. Patty, house plants don't usually do well for me. The African violet is the only house plant I grow. Like cacti they prefer well drained soil or their roots rot. They can can take short periods of dry soil, but not for long. Bright light is a requirement. Given those conditions and a little weak fertilizer they flourish on my window sill.