Thanks guys. I think the third one, the one with the white and then maroon streaks is called "Centerfold". It was a Walmart's special, so you know.... The yellow one is pale yellow with a little more of a lemon color in the center. Its package, I think, said "Tiger lilium Yellow." Earthlydelights, your's are just gorgeous. Now I'm gonna hafta start trying to find "name" ones as pretty as yours. Ignorance was bliss, and cheaper! :)

I had to laugh out loud at the instructions your Wildlife Department gave you, and I had mental visions of your husband in his trapping gear. It's prolly an everyday occurrence to them and they think nothing of it. I have been clawed and bitten sufficiently by my gentle little hens to take beaks and talons with anything but the greatest respect. Like Lilo says, I have a great deal of empathy with birds of prey. Life isn't easy for that kind of predator. I get daily performances from our turkey vultures (who are carion eaters and not likely to kill anything) and it's amazing to watch them. Over the years, I see that they do their hunting with a precision routine, and it's not at all random. They plot out zones and soar up high, and circle down low and then move over to the next zone and do it again if they don't find food. Sometimes there'll be a dozen of them doing this in tandem. When they light, I know that somewhere in the fields or pastures below, an animal lays there dead or dying. In the wintertime, I watch the routine of one particular female Cooper's Hawk. She is magnificent and for the last couple of years, I have watched her make her daily rounds. Our property is part of it, although she roosts in a grove of trees between some pastures up and across the road. After she checks out our feedings stations, she heads up to our spring grotto for awhile before moving on. Last winter, one of her progeny (I'd presume), a young male followed her same route almost daily. It was so funny, yet sad, to watch him as he first started learning to hunt. He tried to fly into the vines after the smaller birds, and got entangled. He sat there in full view under the feeders for long periods of time, like the birds would going to fly down and into his mouth. He caught on, eventually.

Really enjoyed the article along with the Conifer Kingdom site. Lots of original material to read and see in both cases. I'm surprised to have missed them in the past, it might not be a stretch to place them in the top five American conifer websites.

Eric, it's labeled Rhododendren x 'Northern Lights'. It's one of the few that are hardy this far north. I don't grow Rhododendrons that have evergreen foliage, because winter winds and sun would damage the leaves. Jean, you must have a much larger variety of Azaleas available to grow in your milder climate. Julie