Spedigrees - glad to hear your dreaded nutria rat is actually a muskrat. I've seen muskrats and otters in my pond. I know there has been some beaver activity - evidenced by the downed trees - but I have yet to actually see a beaver. I *think* I actually saw a groundhog the other day. We had one living in our brush pile last summer - he destroyed my gardens. So I'm hoping he found somewhere new to live this year.

I will start an "Early June" thread some time tomorrow. The irises in my garden are just opening. Irises are my favorite flower. I just have a small bed the width of my garage. We're planning to tear the garage down next Spring and build a bigger and better garage - which is probably my excuse to get a bigger and better iris bed! Clematis Miss Bateman in full bloom. I forgot to prune the clematis this spring. This is just a 2 year old plant! Behind the clematis is my daughters art gallery, aka our porch. My 3 year old peonie, flanked by a siberian iris and a japanese iris. I have been waiting 3 years for this peonie to bloom. I only plant white flowers in front of the house, and I am sick sick sick to see a pink bud on it. My only consolation is that I will have a beeautiful pink peonie in a bud vase on my kitchen table real soon. And this peonie will be getting the shovel. Lastly - any idea what this is? I seem to have stumped the people on the Name That Plant forum. I bought these at Weston Nurseries as tulip bulbs.

Laura- I think in Florida, with all the summer rains here, especially in central Florida which is not as dry as extreme South Florida and the Keys, wicking is a good thing. I don't mind watering them, the problem is the heat on the roots in black pots and getting waterlogged when it rains for 3-4 days straight with no chance at all to remotely dry out. In the Keys, there is less rain and after the rains, the sun comes out plus it's almost always breezy. In central Florida that isn't the case. It's MUCH hotter, very little breeze and after it rains there's never much of a breeze and it can stay cloudy and damp for a good period of time. The weather in the Keys is far superior than central Florida for growing Plumerias and all of the huge, old trees there is proof of that. The Gritty mix was not the cause of the winter losses for sure. They were not in the Gritty, none of them. I re-potted them all in the Gritty this spring. I put my 5 new ones from JJ in the Gritty. I have not put the Kapalua or the Toba's Fire aka Embers in it yet. I'm going to let them get their 2nd summer of roots before I disturb them. I want them to be well rooted and strong when I re-pot them. Jandey- I think some the so called compact single tips that get so tall are just not well cared for when they were little. Perhaps the mother tree wasn't well cared for, who knows. ALL of my JJ compact trees have done very well and they came with several tips. Perhaps the need to be forced to bloom early so they don't grow too tall before they bloom and put out more tips. The Safari has 8 tips I believe. John at JJ's has always sent such nice trees. He's really good at picking out what you want if you carefully describe what you want. if he doesn't have it, he says so and doesn't send less just to make a sale. At least that is my experience with him. When he sent my Divine, Thumbelina, J105, Sangria, Delightful order 2 years ago it took 2 huge boxes because I had him ship in pot. They weren't rooted cuttings, they were small trees with many tips and they were gorgeous! He also packs them very well. They lost a couple of leaves then took off and bloomed a couple of months later. Sangria is one I really love. It is a blooming machine and the last so long. It bloomed on one tip for months, well into late fall, early winter(In the Keys). I'm over Lurline. I am beyond caring what she does at this point. For all I know she is rotting inside but I'm just leaving it alone. She will either get leaves or die. I really don't like grafts. I have about 4 of them that I got from Brad's before he when he used to sell mostly grafted. I just don't like the way they look, they aren't good grafts and are noticeable.The grafted are Mardi Gras, Salmon Pink, Duvachelle and Musk Rainbow. Of those 4, 3 of them have yet to really leaf out. Salmon has bloomed and it got leaves early, the other 3 are just now getting them. The top of my wish list was Kapalua and Toba's Fire, plus to replace my Golden Pagoda that I lost this winter. It seems Golden Pagoda is going to be very hard to find. Matt doesn't sell JL trees anymore so have no clue where to get one. I looked, with no success. Kapalua I paid dearly for, but at least I can cross that one off of my list and it is a nice one!

Thanks mimilm, Dax, and terrene. Dax- This effect results from shooting the subject close-up at the long-end of the zoom, with the background at some distance away. The SX30 does this very well because it can focus at just 1.4m even when at full-reach (840mm eq). terrene- Yes that's Missy... (very observant of you!). We still have 9 Blues here every day now. But activity at the nestbox has already begun, so it won't be too long before she will start "encouraging" her remaining fledges from last season to get along with finding their own territories. Thanks again everyone, and happy birding to you all. Kenn