Just a quick note that my seeds have sprouted outside with partial shade. I am so excited! I was running out of sunny areas in the house so gave it a whirl in the 100+ degree heat here. I was too scared not to have some shade, though, and they did come up! They're just starting to come up, so I can't say how many I'll get compared to indoors yet. From what I understand, zones 7 and 8 or higher have no problem growing summer crops in the fall so I also am trying tomatoes. Not a single one has come up yet, but they also hate this high heat. I have some seedlings indoors to transplant if these do not come up. I've had the other tomatoes outside for over a week now, though, and nothing from the outside ones... ugggh ~Angela

I just wanted to post that I was out at the National Arboretum a few weeks ago. The large Q. acutas looked like they sustained some damage from teh past winter. Some twig and a few branches died back. Sad to see. But they will certainly survive. The Q. salicina looked like it had NO damage at all surprisingly. I have never seen acorns on them. Interestingly the Q. phillyreoides had some acorns. No apparent dieback. They all looked rather shrubby to me and not large single trunked trees. L. henyri and Q. myrsinifolias looked just fine. Q. glauca specimens at the Arboretum have all had a rough go of it over the years. Numerous diebacks. Pretty pathetic. They should really not be grown up here. But maybe they got some northern provenance stock that they wanted to try. I didn't see where they were from. Unrelated, but all the hollies looked great. Even Ilex latifolia. The Ilex latifolia in my yard looks great as well. No apparent winter damage. A small amount of leaf spot but overall I was very pleased. This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 10:33

Sorry you're not getting any gulf frits, Laura! That's too bad if the zebra range is shrinking, Mary. I got one visit years ago, haven't seen a single one since. If they're retreating, I'll probably never see one here again. I just released the gulf frit - she's a female. The sun came out, the temps went up to 90 degrees, and she was flying all around the cage wanting out, but now I'm hearing thunder out there. I sure hope she'll be alright! There is a pair of gulf frits that have been nectaring in my garden, a male and a female, but the female hasn't laid me any eggs, at least I haven't seen her do so. So I'm wondering if they haven't mated, maybe don't like each other, strange as that sounds? Maybe he'll like the female just released, and I'll get some eggs/cats! :) Sherry

I've had a late season rush of palamedes cats. Quite a few have already pupated, but I still have 7 or 8, I think, that are still cats. The cooler weather has slowed their growth considerably! There may still be two on a big persea borbonia or p. palustris that's close to my house. I saw them several weeks, maybe a month, ago when I was high on a ladder gathering leaves for the palamedes cats that I had in my cages. This tree, like all my perseas, looks absolutely terrible this year, and I've had to work to find decent leaves to feed the ones I'm raising. Here's a picture I took of a late instar cat on the redbay in my front yard and a picture I took of an early instar cat last year - They can use any of my pictures - I have more - or come to my house and take pictures of the two in the tree, assuming they're still there. I'll look for them today. I'll be in Florida from Nov.29th-Dec.6th I live 35 miles north of the coast - I'd be surprised if they find any perseas with cats on them on the coast due to the extensive damage to the trees from the hurricane. MissSherry