Curly, I, too, had a bird's nest in my Duchesse d'Auerstadt arbor - a cardinal's nest. I spooked her twice. Once trying to tuck in some wayward canes and once trying to get a photo of the babies. Turns out the babies were more mature than I thought. They flew away. Woosh! Scared me good. I was on the phone with my sister at the time, and she was yelling, "Get away, get away, you'll hurt them. They won't be able to get back in the nest." I said, "Sue, they FLEW AWAY. They're fine." Yours is very cute. Just wait till they hatch! Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Hi Christy, I don't know what your pictured rose is, but one that you might like would be John Franklin. It does well in the south, not just in Canada. Antique Rose Emporium carries it, and that's an excellent and dependable place to buy roses. Theirs are ownroot 2-gallon plants that are a bit larger than most places send. Maggie is definitely a rosy red when it blooms and I'd highly recommend that one, even though as it ages it gradually turns purply. Not a spot of disease anywhere on ours. I really think everyone ought to have at least one Maggie in their yard; it's a perfect rose on a very healthy bush! Ours is relatively slow growing. Planted in the yard from a gallon-sized plant in April here, it's only about maybe 14" high now, but we let its buds develop and bloom lots (or it might have been a larger plant by now). We've had Double Knockout and liked it. No disease of any kind, even though it was planted in too much shade to bloom heavily. The small double flowers were attractive too, though not the very large kind you might think of for filling a vase with. The plants themselves were well-filled with unusually attractive foliage. A nice landscape plant. General Schablikine is often considered a red, but I don't think of it as a red, but as variously shaded tones of deep pink to dusty pink on the same bloom. It needs no spray and the flowers are ultra interesting. They don't last particularly long in a vase, but we keep cutting them anyway because I want to keep looking at it all the time. It will bloom on into the beginnings of wintertime. For all our roses here in the Piedmont of the state, we don't use sprays. We choose roses that are suited to no-spray conditions, and there are a good many of them. If you get a rose that's claimed to be as healthy as this one (Antique Rose Emporium is careful to be truthful in their descriptions) and if you use all-organic growing methods and fertilizers from the start, there's every chance that you won't need to use poisonous chemicals in your yard in order to grow roses successfully. Variety choice is key here. Best wishes, Mary P.S. I hope you made it through the hurricane in good shape. Here is a link that might be useful: John Franklin

I have followed this hummer cam for the last year or so. Phoebe has several nestings a year. She has made her nests in the rose bushes in the same guys yard for several years now. The 2nd baby died. Last year one baby fell out of the nest when a crow tried to take the babies. It was caught on the cam.

A couple things I do to help the birds during their nesting time is give them places to build their nest. Doves only put down a couple sticks before laying their eggs so I give them platforms that are sort of saucer shaped — to keep the eggs in the nest. I just take 1/4 in square screen, cut a 8x8 inch piece and bend the ends over canes so it doesn’t fall. Also works great on metal arches. I also place them up under the over hang of the roof on our buildings. That way they are out of the rain. Make sure they have more than one easy escape opening. Robins like the roses but they do need a bunch of the canes close to each other so they can place their nest in the ‘hole’. You may want to tie some canes together if your bushes don’t have any. Also if you have a cane sticking straight up with off shoots that form a cone just cut the center cane out leaving just the cone. They can build their nest in it without it falling out. Wrens will fill your bird houses with small sticks so other birds can't use them if the houses are close to each other.