That really is interesting Sherry. It is amazing to me to learn about regional differences within the same butterfly species. Only a very small percentage of my Sleepy Oranges which eclose in the fall are the winter color form, so it isn't something that I see often. Nerry, I am with you on the Clouded and the Orange. The Cloudless though are quite a bit larger than the other two, and they can almost appear to be green in color. They also seem to have a real love of tubular shaped flowers for nectaring here, which is not something that I see with other Sulphurs. Angie

I don't do anything really special with mine. I try to keep them adequately fertilized all summer so I don't really need to do much of that. If yours have nice, healthy looking foliage, then I would think they would do just fine. Just about right now you'll start to see the terminal buds and a few buds in the topmost leaf axils and even a few at the crown start to swell up. They'll start out almost invisible and by the winter they'll be the size of a pea. These are the buds that you'll need to get through your winter and spring. Everything I know about overwintering is in a thread I started called Overwintering .... If you don't do something like I do then you might see your top growth killed back each winter, taking the buds you need for the flowers. I think the easiest route is to pop the plant out of the ground, put it on an unopened plastic garbage bag and tie the opposite corners together. Punch some drainage holes in the bottom. This'll contain the root ball. Then bind up the top growth with another bag used like a rope to make it more manageable. Then do something roughly equivalent to laying it down on the ground and, while still giving it the ability to breathe, cover it with some boards or something and then a foot or so of pine needles or dry leaves. Take it out late in the Spring when it looks like you might have the possibility to not have another frost. Be sure to cover it back up when it looks like it could frost. Good luck. Even though Glowing Embers is a great red, the best reds will sometimes make the best blues, and I think it is a great blue one. Hay

Ok I see you started 2 different posts here, one says you installed AVG free and one says you installed AVG antispyware free. Did you install AVG antivirus?? or just antispyware?? If you installed antivirus you most definitely can NOT have 2 antivirus programs running on your pc at the same time. You would first have to completely remove the antivirus program that is on the pc BEFORE you install and run another antivirus program. Do you have the AOL antivirus package perhaps? With antispyware programs normally you can have more than one they work differently so they can be used as layered protection thereby allowing more than one to run at the same time. Do you have plenty of memory (RAM) on your computer? when you get low on RAM it will tend to make things freeze up and run poorly. If you did install AVG antivirus and already had an antivirus program on your pc I would uninstall both of them completely, then go right to the AVG site and re- download and install the AVG antivirus to make sure you got it complete and properly installed. fill us in on exactly what you did and what you got so we know how to further direct you. And lets try to do this on this one post and not use the other one.

THANK you louis...Tx~ I learned a lot here, from N.C. You are totally right, mulch is important; I do use same hardwood mulch that breaks down, only that type, and it pays off beautifully. I have not had to add leaves or cover any Hydrangeas and they are fine, still think it is due to understanding their temperature tolerance levels and mine are all placed near a building's corner, out of course 4 or so feet. They especially do well where they get the warming from the western side of our place. Nutrition- when adding plants in the borders or garden areas I back-fill with a home-made mix that is good for everything, boosts the amount of soil accumulating where once there was just clay- it's from a garden friend- she says to mix it in a wagon/wheelbarrow to have it ready: 1/3 organic topsoil ,1/3 mushroom compost, & 1/3 Black Cow aged manure. I have someone lift the bags(almost always at Lowe's home improvement stores; sometimes I add a bit of peat moss-something I always heard to use, for good measure, and use and keep any potting soil from annual's or dead plants' pots unless they were unhealthy plants. It is great for increasing the amount of the mix , just don't usually use much of that, but it saves $. I keep the soil mix around most of the time, in a manageable wagon (wheelbarrow is fine, too, but my spine is an issue so I can't take chances lifting). YES we have had the colder temperatures than our N. C. coastal home, about 10 degrees difference. Interestingly the hydrangeas of all types have thrived at the freezing-cold farm, whether Oak Leaf, mophead, etc.,blooming by age 3 when spring comes around. My first experience with a Hydrangea was our old,original Hydrangea from the homestead, a Mophead that turned white, green, blush, and was planted at least a number of decades before, by the former owners. It died sadly 4 yrs. back, possibly the deer finished it off as we were not there much and had suffered a bad drought here I recall that year and it was noticeably aging; BUT this being said, it thrived for years, was planted at the very NW corner, benefiting from the protection of the house and Southern exposure perhaps? I NEVER cut it, except for flowers to place inside for joy. I planted more around outbuildings, not the house as it took over the entrance door before, and they are really going well. I pray that they continue to do so up there, because I don't cover anything, and we just had 2 ice-storms switching to 60 degrees F the next week! p. s. last year, this was only 3 yrs. old?!?