I have never seen birds eat the leaves either. You probably would only need the net over the leaves until they mature. Maybe they taste good to them because they are young tender leaves.

You can take a look here on this database of seedling images. Here is a link that might be useful: Images of Seedpods, Seeds and Seedlings

Rodja, I did not like Blue Paradise because of its floppiness here(I live near the North Sea- very windy) I'm kind of "allergic" to floppiness. Phlox Blaue Morgen has an identical colour but stands up much better(although not perfect to begin with). The best standing of the "blue" ones is Boguslaw's Blaue(from Germany). This one is storm-proof. The general rule here in Europe is , that English varieties of phloxes have bigger flowers, but German ones are more practical (healthier and less flopping). It applies also to Delphiniums, Heleniums and Asters. This post was edited by wieslaw59 on Sun, May 19, 13 at 10:13

Getting Nervous Audrey - do the kids still say "Take a chill pill"? LOL! Stop worrying, it's too early. I saw two little sprouts in my poppy container this morning, but there will be very many more to sprout in there. I may see a very few things sprout in the last days of Feb-early March (like poppies, alyssum and bachelor buttons), if I sow them early enough, but the majority of the sprouts don't start showing up until the back end of March, April. PV