I've been seeing Cabbage Whites since last week, Cathy, so they shouldn't be too far away for you. The reports on Monarch Watch reflect the Monarchs are at the Texas/Oklahoma line, so maybe soon. But none of my milkweed is up yet. Sandy, I was talking about Dawn. She just reported seeing lots of butterflies - no Monarchs yet. I need to ask her to let us know when she sees, and if she sees, the Monarchs crossing the Red River. Darn, MissSherry, I just cut down and tossed my Xmas Cassias, pods and all. I'll check and see if there is one I missed, which is usually the case, if you would like me to send you some seed. They grow so fast here, so I would imagine they would grow even faster in Mississippi, unless you intend to get plants. Are you sure no seed dropped on the ground even? MissSherry - my Ichang Lemon made it through the winter! Now, I have faith in its hardiness. McKenzie Farms is a great place to order hardy citrus from and Bob McKenzie is extremely knowledgeable. He comes highly recommended on the Citrus Forum. A lot of people in Texas were worried about their Satsumas. Has anyone tried growing Cestrums? I have two (nocturnum and Bacchus), and can't wait to see how they will do as an annual. I try something new in the form of a tropical every year. I hear they are pretty easy to grow. We'll see. Whenever someone tells me that I always seem to have trouble with it. LOL! Give me something and tell me I'll never be able to grow it and somehow it does great. It's psychological, I'm telling you! The second year with my Verbena B's, none of them came back from the roots, until last year when they did exactly that. Hmmmmmmm. Sandy, have fun at the Market! Susan

This is such an interesting topic. yes, i believe they do stay in chrysalis and that they can somehow sense the weather outside is not favorable. It is just amazing. I am in north Texas where we had pretty mild temps for most of the summer and I had swallowtails emerging pretty regularly. Now that we have had two solid weeks of temps at 107 I noticed that none of my chrysalids have emerged. Nature is so incredible. A couple of months ago I had a giant swallowtail emerge and fly off. Later that afternoon I saw what I am pretty sure was the same bfly come back into my yard and get up underneath a crepe myrtle. He was hanging on for the longest time not going anywhere, when all of the sudden a wild wind and rain storm blew through. So he sensed it was coming and sought shelter long before we saw it. I love this stuff!! :-)

I found one in my pool cage after returning from a five-day absence. Was not sure how long since it eclosed (didn't even realize the pupa was in there!) but figured it might be kinda weak if it had been waiting a couple of days. (There are some nectar flowers in there but who knows if it found them.) So I gave it some gatorade early in the morning while the BF was still sluggish from night, held her in my hand and helped her unroll her proboscis (using a pin) into a drop of the juice. She drank like crazy and I took her out once the sun was up a little and she took off. They say you can put fruit or juice in the enclosure, but sometimes I find that they only drink with my help while they are in a small enclosure. My two cents. Good luck and hope the nasty weather makes a quick departure. I guess it is slated to be here tonight, although not so cold.

Depending on what you are using to kill the grass it could be a long time. The information on the package should tell you everything you need to know about wait times and how it affects other plant material. A couple years ago I had a very weedy area and hired a guy to clean it out for me so I could plant bluegrass there. He killed everything with Roundup and said I only had to wait two weeks. So I waited three weeks, planted the grass and it did fine. He said that the roundup breaks down in the soil in about 14 days. Having said that, I'm sure there are alot of people who would disagree and say that it can last much longer. I've also had some experiences with weed and grass killers that seem to last for about a year or two. So you need to be very cautious with poisons. Corn gluten meal is an organic pre-emergent that will prevent weed seeds from germinating in the soil for about a year. It won't prevent the grasses that spread by rhyzomes though so you would want to just use it to prevent weeds popping up from seeds that are spread by birds or the wind. Corn gluten is available at feed stores and at some garden stores. One thing about your heavy clay, it is normally very high in nutirents and although it's hard to garden in, it is good for the plants. Besides adding the compost, try also adding zeolite. It's a natural, organic material that will enrich the soils and make it less hospitable to weeds. Weeds seem to prefer to grow in areas where nothing else can. They prefer poor soil. So by enriching your beds weeds are less likely to take hold. When you do get some nice new things planted be sure to mulch well. This will deter weeds, but it also makes any weeds that do manage to pop up much easier to pull. Compost loosens the soil, mulch helps keep it moist. One other thing I would suggest is to introduce earthworms into that bed. Earthworms have their own kind of magic they do on your soil, by tilling it with their burrows and fertilizing with their castings. They will also eat dead plant material and dry leaves that fall into the bed. Composted cow manure is a good amendment to add when you have earthworms too. Cow is good because the rumination process kills most weed seeds. Domesticated rabbit manure is good because they only eat processed rabbit feed and it has no seeds. I use a 4" cedar mulch in my rose garden and the weeds and grass actually grow between the soil and the mulch layer. Their roots are in the mulch so when I pull them out they come right up. I can shake off the mulch and toss the weed. I know you're frustrated with your azalea bed, but you have such an opportunity right in front of your nose. You don't have to throw out those azaleas you know. If you pot them up, soak them for a few days in water with fish emulsion and hang onto them until you are ready to replant you could certainly put them back into the amended bed where I'm sure they would flourish. Keep in mind that most the other things you're talking about putting in there won't look like much in the winter. The good thing about the azaleas is that they fill out and stay green year round. Cheryl