Jamilyian, I just learned something interesting from you! I wasnt aware that Hostas didnt thrive in zone 9. Not that it matters here in zone 6, but it is something that I never knew before. If you have never been to a botanical garden before, be prepared to be overwhelmed!! I live an hour away from the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, which has an incredible home gardening display garden. Any plant (new or old) that you can think of is there. There are many plants that my eyes just go right over in the books and catalogs, but they are able to bring them to my attention with the creative combinations they do with them. I have been to MANY botanical gardens all over the country (my vacation destinations are determined by which one I want to go to next). I have been to some that arent so great, but I guess that depends upon personal taste. Although I LOVE tropicals, and Hawaii has been my favorite trip of all, I wasnt too inspired by the botanical gardens, simply because I cannot do what they do in their climate, and the plant choices are quite limited it seems. I guess what I mean is, there is little inspiration for anything other than my indoor garden. I remember questioning why there wasnt anymore annual displays, like we have here. Of course, you can find a zillion other things to do in Hawaii and I certainly wasnt dissapointed!!! I could spend a whole week driving that trip to Hana, finding tropicals in the wild that grow like trees, where here they are limited to (at the most) a 12 inch container! Can anyone elaborate more on the Hosta issue she mentioned? I dont understand why it is that they would "die out" and not return. Is it true that they need to "freeze" for a while in order to thrive? Wouldnt there be many species that would do the same thing? I find this very interesting, I never thought that most things would NOT thrive in zone 9. This could be my lesson for the day.

Several years ago a male Painted Bunting bathed in the birdbath, but I haven't seen one since. See Indigo Buntings most summers--none yet this year. The last two years I saw both an Oriol and a Rosebreasted Grosbeak visit my feeder for a few days in the spring, but so far not this year either. The Goldfinches are now in their lovely black and yellow summer dress. And there is a phoebe nesting under the eave of the storage shed as there has been for almost every summer for 30 years. I love to watch the birds.

Scott, I agree with every single word you said, except for that "Roll Tide" comment. LOL I cannot imagine the wildlife management folks would do anything to harm the mountain lions and, in fact, I'd rather it not come to that. In a perfect world, they'd trap and relocate them to very remote areas and wildlife refuges, not that there's any guarantee the cougars would stay in that area since they are going to follow their food source, so to speak. Of course, it isn't a perfect world. I have watched the NW wolf re-introduction program with great interest too and feel like the feds have made some mistakes that have led to great mistrust of them and their program. I wish they'd had a better/more efficient plan to deal with the problem wolves preying on domestic ranch animals right from the start. I'm merely hoping for a better year here at our place in 2010 with no real big kitties visiting the garden. Maybe I shouldn't have planted that whole row of catnip and catmint for my kitties and it is right along that garden fenceline too. Roll Tide? So, you support Alabama? Having suffered through OU's bowl game, and then TCU's and UT's, I'm just glad the bowl game season is over. At least the Dallas Cowboys are still hanging in there, and that gives us a little something to watch as we wait for seed-starting time and planting time to arrive. With the Florida sub-species, I'd like to see them thrive and grow because they have their role in the ecosystem. What will happen, though, if they start preying on animals or being a threat to people? What will happen if they start moving into Georgia and other areas? The 'idea' of having them around is easy, but the reality seems harder to manage. Jay, I felt exactly the same way when I read the post from our visitor from Texas. At first I wasn't going to say a word but then I thought I'd make the points I made. Maybe this is a person who has no idea of the danger involved in having large predator animals hanging out in people's front and back yards. I have found there are lots of people who have no clue about wildlife. When someone tells me they think it would be "cool" to walk out their door and see wolves or bears or cougars 'out there', I just shake my head. Let's not forget the elderly couple here in Love County that was attacked by that buck this fall. The one thought that sticks in my mind is the statement that our undersheriff made about how there was so much human blood on the ground when he arrived that he figured someone had to be dead. I'm glad they survived, and now whenever I see one of "our" deer hanging out around the pond or compost pile, I head right inside the house and wait for it to leave before I come back outside. The last two weeks we've had both coyotes and bobcats on our property, and I know this because the coyotes are leaving scat and both the coyotes and bobcats left tons of tracks in the snow and mud (thankfully the mud is about to dry up.) In an odd way, seeing them around a lot is good because they become a lot more scarce when something bigger and meaner than them is nearby. Dawn

Hi again gwanny for free, This "pumoing gas" that you spoke of ... is that sort of like shooting one's self in the foot? Our governments have held several investigations. Which concluded that, yes, the claim is true - there's no collusion in the gasoline business ... that it really is competitive! And, in this area of about 340,000, I think that about half a dozen may have believed them. The "market" that business figures to be more or less like god, works so that when you have something that pretty well everybody needs, you can pretty well charge what you please. Which has meant that one guy who had the keys to a pretty well essential service ... ... has become the world's richest guy. In about half of a generation. Been investigated several times .... came out smelling like a rose. Works even better, especially if the stuff gets used up ... and, being non-renewable (in the short term - something less than a million years), the world's running out of it! Good wishes for not needing something that's essential. Or, if you do, having your own source of supply. ole joyful