Thank you ladies for the birthday wishes! The tree is a Nyssa sylvatica (aka Black Gum, Sour Gum or Tupelo). I have 9 of them growing on my property that were here when I bought the land. Many smaller ones have popped up since. Only a few of the big ones bear fruit. They like wet or dry woodland soil, will create groves over time, and are native to E. North America. They get non-messy blue fruit in late summer/early fall, neon red or orange fall foilage that stops you in your tracks, need no pruning unless you want to, summer leaves are deep green and glossy, and they are pest free. Down side, you never see them for sale in garden centers, but I've seen them available on-line (mostly native sites) as seedlings. You can start them from seed. (OK, does anybody want seed - if I can get it before the birds do - or maybe a small seedling, as I find them?) They are bird magnets in fruit and bee/hummingbird/nectar insect magnets in bloom. They do not grow exceptionally fast, but the wildlife value is high as a food source, if they turn out to be female trees. FTM - hope you get some great photo ops when the ice closes in - I'm excited for you (and us)! Brenda - lucky you - getting regular visits from a friendly RCKinglet! They are so pretty and like many little birds have a personality, or so it seems. Jean - those holes are huge. I've not seen them before - thanks for posting them. I wonder if any will become nest sites or are they drilling for insects and sap only? I have a pair of RBW that have drilled their nest site into the top of a broken off trunk, of what was once a double trunked oak. The big oak was hit by a small tornado or something that whipped through here a few years back and it wiped out one of the two trunks. A real big tree and so high up I can see their nest hole from afar. P.S. FTM - Yes, I agree - next poster please start a Bird Sightings 3 so it will be easier for Brenda to open quicker until the broadband fairy visits her home! I wanted to put my reply post here, rather than have it look out of context as a first post on a new thread, since I added no new photos. CT

Oh my, they have adorable goats on top of everything else? That would be an excellent reason to plant your proposed roses as far from the fence as possible. Plumbago sounds like a good idea with pink or white roses, providing again you can prevent it from being a delectable goat snack. I would advise against pyracantha because you will come to HATE those vicious thorns (ask me how I know). Pink Lonicera would probably also work very well. I'm just wondering if there's any way you can plant your roses etc. far enough away from the ivy for them to prosper, so that the ivy could continue to be your first line of defence against the (no doubt charming) neighbors, and that way you also wouldn't have to take down the chicken wire. With the ivy there you won't have to wait several years for the roses to grow tall enough to block out the neighborly mess. You seem to have a goodly amount of grassy area to play with so that you can put the roses quite some distance from the ivy. Perhaps you could even have a pergola of some sort for a handsome centerpiece and work your way out from there with other plantings. I would definitely post on the Antique Forum; they'll probably be able to suggest some fast-growing and beautiful climbers. Good luck, Renee, I'm sorry you're having to put up with all this. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, though, if you end up with a stupendously beautiful garden of roses and companion plants that was created out of necessity. Ingrid

Barb, Mg crosses can only occur between the same type of MG. Ipomea nil with Ipomea nil. etc. Emma could cross with another nil, but not with a japanese variety. so far I have never had a cross come out with any of my MG seeds that I have saved. On the other hand, I'm getting lots of them from trades and commercial purchases. I believe your white hige is a japanese variety, but grandpa otts, emmas gift and knoila black are all nil and they could cross pollinate. No worry, though. I've been growing emma's gift for 5 years. first year from seeds from emma herself and since then saved seeds. She comes true to seed every year and gives me tons of seeds, so will have plenty of seeds for trades, more than I could ever use in a 100 years. Last year I sent out 75 packets with 25 seeds in each one and still have a ton of them left over. No worry on knoila black either. I laugh when I see that one on ebay as "very rare". I don't know how it could be since it is such a huge seed producer. Each pod has 4-6 seeds in it and on mine, my friends and my neighbors, every flower turns into a seed pod. So far I have 40 seeds off one vine and lost count after counting 60 more pods on it. One vine will give you well over 200 seeds. granpa otts I've never grown, but from what I have heard it produces tons of seeds too. As for the number of new possible MG blooms, it will happen when the bees go from one plant to another, but it doesn't always happen and you have to collect seeds from that one pod, if it was crossed. And wind can do it as well. When I plant my MG on the fence, I keep a minimum of 2 feet from each vine, usually 3 feet and never put a nil next to a nil or a purpurea next to a purpurea. So far it's worked for me without any problems and I've been doing it for over 10 years. I also keep very careful eye on my vines and don't let them tangle with each other unless they are tangling with the same one. I have enough space between each vine that I can just put a tag in the ground for each vine and label it that way. Once I plant all my MG, I then make a map of the fence and mark where each vine is on the map, so if a tag goes traveling on me, and they are known to take many a walk in the mouth of a chipmunk, i can still know what each one is supposed to be. If it blooms something that it isn't supposed to be, I can change the tag to mark what it is on the map and not worry about the tag. My map isn't fancy, very simple as simple is much easier to deal with than big fancy stuff. The tape works great, masking tape and a sharpie works well, even better is fine pointed deco paint pen. if the sharpie print is in full sun it can and will fade on you. Fran

I have been reading www.sialis.org that is where I saw that boxes should be monitered. The little one flew extremely well and was fast I did not get to see the tail feathers. He just swooped out and flew right into the pecan tree. Checked the tree and ground this morning but did not see anything. Did not dare mess with the box again. This was not the last to leave there were others in the box but I did not keep the door open long enough to count. I figured I had done enough damage. I hope I have not learned a lesson at the expense of a little bluebird's life. I don't guess I will ever know. Oh and to answer your first question I did think that since all my other bluebird parents were on their second nest with new eggs I was not expecting to find any little ones.