Cedar rust requires two hosts - anything in the apple family and the cedar family. After the gall from the cedar tree releases it spores, it grows on the apple trees which release their spores to form new cedar galls. I planted three crabapple trees which are supposed to be cedar-rust resistant, they still get a little fungus on them but not enough to really hurt them. CT - I was thinking blue-eyed grass! I don't know what I was thinking but we call that the century plant. I have some too and yes they do reseed easily although I would not call them invasive. I found one growing in our unmowed area with the wild grass. I took them to a plant swap last year at work and one of the swappers brought plants in this year that had seeded from the plant I gave her. Mine are planted on a hot, dry hill and do fine. I have moles too, lots of them! And I love wildlife too but I draw the line at moles and voles. I don't do anything to repel them though, they are just a fact of life for me. A couple of years before the brood X cicada emergence they got huge! The size of large baking potatoes! Which apparently is not unusual, they start eating the nymphs in the last couple of years before the emergence as they work their way to the top. What I hate is when I am working in the garden and all of a sudden earthworms come up out of the ground by the dozens and I can hear the mole digging his tunnel. Luckily as the soil dries out they tend to go deeper and the tunnels aren't as bad. Back to the garden!

Tony, I'm with you. I have never had any luck with suet of any type or recipe in Florida. I DO think you are more likely to succeed with it in cooler weather because the birds need a much higher energy type food then. And also because many types of suet cakes and mixtures spoil quickly in the heat. But even in winter, my woodpeckers prefer to eat sunflower seeds directly from the tray feeder, and they ALL ignore the suet. I do buy the big SEED cakes (BirdOla, etc) that just look like lots of seeds, peanuts and fruit somehow molded into a large square. You probably know what I mean...there's no suet that you can see, just the seeds & fruit bits. I put that in a wire holder designed just for it, and the goldfinches will eat from that, until it gets too small for their short beaks to reach it through the wire. They still drop shells and a little bit of seed under the feeder, but they can't fling it all over while looking for something they like, so it's much less messy. My goldfinches finally showed up about 3 weeks ago, and I've had as many as 30 in the yard at once. There are at least 4 that are almost completely yellow and black now. Just gorgeous. I haven't seen any buntings or grosbeaks this year, though. And the chipping sparrows left right when the goldfinches showed up. But I'm happy...I have my cardinals back, my white-winged doves are here, and my goldfinches. My seed-eating catbird and my seed-eating Myrtle warbler both left, after stuffing themselves for several weeks. (They obviously didn't get the memo telling them they prefer insects and fruit.) I'm really happy now that the squirrels can't seem to reach the feeders any more. (Still knocking wood, though.) Try one of the big seed cakes and see if you like it! Marcia

Thanks for the nice comments. Marion if you get there into a category, click on the first picture, then click next to go onto the next picture. Anna, Both of your variegated pineapples are doing just fine and getting bigger. If yours have any issues with the ones you got from me, let me know and I can replace. I have some champaca in fruit, will be great to taste again. Actually the vines are already larger than in the pictures, the red passionflower already halfway across the top of the trellis! TF, I like the prairie areas too, they're great. Its amazing when its in flower. Only mow it once or twice a year. Love when gopher tortoises wander thru it! Gary

Great photos, thanks for sharing. After a week of rain, we had a beautiful weekend with bright sunny days in the 70's here in North Texas. Went to the State Fair in Dallas and watched my alma mater Texas beat the Sooners in the Cotton Bowl. Doesn't get much better than that.