I gulped a bit when you mentioned that you'd bought a lot of Muscari bulbs. I'm guessing you wanted the 'ribbon of blue' effect. If you want to bulk up Muscari bulbs it helps to plant into a free-draining soil that has been given a simple boost with well-rotted garden compost. It needs to get at least six hours a day of sun and moderate water over the growing time. Plant the bulbs around three inches apart with about an inch over the top - and do this in late summer as that's when they start roots and foliage. There's no need to water luxuriantly unless you have prolonged dry spells (weeks with no rain). A preplanting serving of general garden fertilizer - less rather than more - a handful to a square yard, and well mixed through the soil can be helpful if you haven't fed the area for a year or so. If you have - skip the food. While they're dormant over summer - let them bake. You can lift your bulbs and move to their designated area when they are dormant or even in growth. They're quite tough. Just - beware of the spawn. They're as bad as Ixias and Oxalis for proliferating. :-((

*L* They DO set up a row when they lay, don't they? After all, eggs MUST BE PROPERLY WORSHIPPED. Usually hens will lay an egg every other day, but young hens just coming into lay can be sporadic at first until their egg laying apparatus gets the kinks out. She also may pop out an egg tomorrow, it's not uncommon. Expect anything. :) You can encourage the use of the nest boxes by making them as irresistable as possible. Nice deep straw, darkness, a sense of being well-hidden and protected, and privacy are all 'must-have's' for hens. Make other areas too open and exposed. I have a curtain of black landscape cloth over the openings of my nests, with a split up the middle. This gives them a nice, private, dark hidey-hole but the landscape cloth allows air to circulate so it's not too hot in there. Congrats on the egg! :) Wait untill the OTHER girls join in on the Egg Song next time, you'll think the world is ending with all that noise. *L* Velvet ~:>

Thanks for the tip, Elisabeth. I need more potting soil, too, so I can check them out. Oh, MissSherry, I've seen those wasps carry off full size caterpillars, too! The sulphur female was back again, but I didn't see if she was ovipositing or not. At the time, she was nectaring on the Nicotiana I picked up recently - white with a pink tint to the base and calyxes of the flowers. I'm kinda worn slick tonight. Kenna was here today and we had a good time. We have a new stray cat, Lady George (cuz she looks identical to my indoor cat, George) that is very friendly and was obviously feeding wee cats somewhere. She decided she wanted us to try to find them, so we hunted high and low, and she finally found them in a basement next door! She was thrilled and now has in mind to ween and tame them. Oh, my..... I did get to pot up some seedlings of Asclepias viridis and Salvia 'Forest Fire'. I think I'm really going to like this Salvia. It is fire engine red with black calyces - sounds stunning! I've got so many seedlings to pot up, and I'm not going to do this any more in the future, so I'm feeling very obligated to pot up as many of my seedlings as possible, and either give them away to a couple friends here, and probably to Sandy if she wants some, too. I am growing the red flowering Tecoma for the first time, and I think it will look very pretty, too. The Flame Acanthus that I didn't think would come up w/o stratification is coming up well. Note to self: Don't believe everything you read! Have lots of Silene regia (might be good for your meadow, if native in MS as well) to pot up. Lots to keep me busy for a good while anyway. Sorry to ramble on.... Susan

...I mean the "eggless/cat-less" plants. After posting this, in my urgency to get the cats into some "home," I found a link to a "raising MBs" site, and put them in a tupperware container with a wet paper towel. They seemed to have settled down (when I found them, and took the leaf off, they were all wriggly). So they're on my kitchen table at the moment, and I took some of the plants out of the pile and put them in vases. I don't know how long the MW will last in a vase; hopefully long enough for this project. There are probably 100 or more cats on this leaf. After I found them, and stopped ripping out the MW, I don't know if there's enough for all these cats. I'll probably end up taking them all over the neighborhood trying to find a new stand of MW for them to do their thing on. I don't own a fish-tank or anything to raise them completely. They'll have to go back outside. I feel like a louse.