Hi I would like to trade blackberry leaves (I have bramble and cultivars don't know if it matters) musa basjoo, and mexican fan palm seedling for red currant seeds, sabal palmetto seedling and a lychee. Thanks let me know. heather

Thanks, weed30, Christie and Cathy! I went back to the garden and there were more eggs, this time on the other, bigger wafer ash/hop tree/Ptelea trifoliata, I can never figure out what to call them! :) So she came back while I cooled off in the house. I'm cleaning cages right now, because guess what? You know I haven't gotten any gulf frits yet? Well, I saw a female gulf frit laying an egg on one of the passionvines in my garden! I also found some hatchling gulf frit cats, so the gulf frit that I saw passing through about a week - 10 days or so ago probably left me these babies - 'may be the same butterfly. The only problem here is that the hatchlings are eating the flower buds on a passionvine that came from a seed that I planted from fruit from one of my 'Incense' passies. 'Incense' doesn't make pollen, so any seedlings that come from it have as their male parent a passionflower that makes pollen, which, in this case would be either regular P. incarnata or P. incarnata 'alba' a white form of the native maypops. These vines grow next to the 'Incense' in my front yard beds, and bees go back and forth between their flowers all the time. There's always a chance the flowers could be something different or special, probably not, but there's a chance. Oh well, it'll keep making more flowers, that's for sure, because this is one vigorous vine! I imagine the leaves must be more like P. incarnata, since the gulf frits almost never lay eggs on the 'Incense' - that's good! I've got another passionvine P. mooreana growing by 'Incense' and maypops, so I'm hoping for a hybrid from it, too. Anyway, Memorial Day has been a very memorable butterfly day here! Sherry

I totally understand how you feel. Up until last Friday, I could not have hurt a HOSP. However today I would rather wring their neck as look at them. Three weeks ago we had a hatch of 5 baby bluebirds. We watched them everyday growing like litttle weeds into fully feathered beauties. My husband get telling me the HOSPs would end up killing our babies. He wanted to get a trap, but I stubborningly refused.. A decision I would live to regret. That day was a week ago today when we saw a male HOSP on their house. We found bluebird feathers on the ground. When we opened the box the babies were baldheaded and bleeding. their eyes and beaks had been pecked as well as there wings . My husband handed me the first baby who died in my hand. As I stood there watching my husband pulled 2 more out that were dead. As we walked away the HOSP headed for the house again to finish them off. I took the nest out, asked my husband to get me a spare house bringing it in our house to keep that monster away. I held those little guys and cried my heart out. They died sometime after 1 am when I fell asleep. We ordered a Sparrow trap that night. In 2 days we have caught over a dozen sparrows. I have been responsible for doing away with over half of them and I am not done yet. I guess it takes seeing what I saw to get to where I am.

Thats to bad Tim, but at least they are somewhere where they can survive now! Will you be able to see how they are doing or get updates at all? Glad you have another pair there anyway, hopefully it wasn't them that broke the TRES egg...was the other nest abandoned before or after the BLues showed up? I have seen some bigtime fighting between Blues and TRES when the BLues have gone to a TRES box...the TRES won in my case and the BLues took the paired box..then they both nested peacefully side by side... Donna