Actually, I thought we had lost a lot more, but we did get an all-day rain a couple of weeks ago, and there are signs of life in some that I had thought were gone. Below is a list of the registered daylilies we lost. Most of them were established clumps. Rose Emily My Heart Belongs To Daddy (new, will be replaced) Mildred Mitchell Sabine Baur Platinum and Gold Malaysian Monarch Chama Valley Concorde Nelson Yesterday Memories Sherry Lane Carr Lady Neva Ruffled Perfection (one of my favorite dips) All The Magic Vintage Bordeaux Pat Soileau Pandora's Treasure Charles Johnston Galaxy Explosion Sublime Enchantment Surprise Encounter Mask of Eternity Marilyn Siwik Clothed in Glory Oktoberfest Evelyn Kloeris Tetra Connie Burton (new this year, never did thrive) Orange Velvet Chartered Course Tetra Siloam Ralph Henry (it never did well here) Seize The Night Fire Music San Juan Sunset Court Magician Bas Relief (the first one to die) Good Morning America Shaka Zulu Alpine Ruffles (new this year, but did not survive) Last Flight Out Darla Anita Last Frontier (huge clump - wasn't expecting this) America's Most Wanted Electric Marmalade Magic (new this year) Tune The Harp Romeo Is Bleeding Pure and Simple Winning Note Wishmaster (one tiny nub remaining - it might make it) Blue Pink Beauty (new clump this year) Scaramouche Dragon King Fortune's Dearest Pirate's Lady Debbie Smith (new this year) Watchyl Lavender Blue Felicia Grace Bonnie Holley Lord of Rings Beside Still Waters President Ronald Reagan I have been having health problems since January from what I believe was a bad reaction to the antibiotic Levaquin, so have been really under the weather since then. I wasn't able to get out and spray the daylilies with K-Phite this spring. When I first started dabbing pollen, I didn't keep any records of the pollen parents because it seemed like too much effort. I finally came to my senses half-way through the flowering period and started tagging the crosses. Due to so much wind and having to water, water, water, the tags were in pretty much of a mess when harvest time arrived. Jean, like you, once I get down on my garden cart I can't get back up again. Thanks to the after-effects of Levaquin, I can just barely get into my SUV now. So, if anything gets done in the daylily bed, I have to get help. I can manage to pull up a weed here and there. I even got brave this morning and planted two daylilies that arrived a couple of days ago. Some of the recorded crosses: America's Most Wanted x J. T. Davis Midnight Magic x Born To Run One Step Beyond x Casa des Juan Enchanting Esmerelda x Pathway to Paradise God Save The Queen x Casa des Juan Invitation to Immortality x Leslie Renee Greek Effect x Mildred Mitchell God Save The Queen x Carnival In Mexico Last Flight Out x Cerulean Warbler Inherited Wealth x Crazy Ivan Divine Comedy x Claudine's Charm Sherry Lane Carr x Angelwalker Spacecoast Gone Bulldoggin' x Out Of This World Enchanting Esmerelda x Belle Cook Desperado Love x Crazy Ivan Angelwalker x Spacecoast Gone Bulldoggin' Kate Carpenter x Out Of This World Invitation to Immortality x Song Triumphant Great White x Claudine's Charm God Save The Queen x Mildred Mitchell J. T. Davis x Malaysian Monarch Betty Warren Woods x Pathway To Paradise Invitation to Immortality x Carnival In Mexico Beautiful Edgings x Double Cranberry Ruffles Born To Run x Song Triumphant Scarlet Orbit x Victorian Lace Roses In Snow x Presumed Innocent Collectors Choice x Belle Cook Roman Cohort x Darla Anita Song Writer x Vatican City Mask of Time x God Save The Queen Tupac Amaru x Song Triumphant Song Writer x Mildred Mitchell Half-way through sprouting and planting seeds, I realized I couldn't possibly grow so many seedlings, so most of the seeds from recorded crosses were sent to a young couple in Mexico who are very interested in growing and hybridizing daylilies. They live in Comitan de las Flores near the Guadalajara border, and they tell me it is neither hot nor cold there - like a year-round spring. The daylilies are having a long blooming season there. They were still living here when we moved from the country last year, so I gave them a lot of the daylilies I couldn't bring with me. They were realy fascinated with the multiple-colored ones, stating that there were only flowers of just one color growing down where they were from. What I did not know was that the entire postal system in Mexico shuts down for a week during their national holiday on Sept. 16, so the seeds had to sit at their post office until it reopened the following week. I haven't heard from them yet if they made it O.K. Nancy

Angie, Thanks so much! I'll tell you what I did in case anyone else ever needs to check the welfare of older nestlings. After my initial post, I went back out to look at the box to come up with some kind of strategy. When I saw a shiny, green fly near the hole, I knew I had to do something and fast! I got a deep bucket, a shallow dishpan, a wash rag, and two towels. I quietly approached the house from behind and plugged the hole with the wash rag. I then removed the entire house from the pole. I put the house down in the bucket and covered it with one of the towels. I set the dish pan right next to the bucket and covered it with the other towel. I pulled back the towel on the bucket just enough so that I could get my arm down to the box and also put my face down to the edge so I could see what I was doing. I tried not to leave any other openings and hoped that if they came flying or hopping out of the box, they'd land on the floor of the bucket or would hit my arm and face. I slowly opened the door (front opening box), and found three nestlings cowering inside. The smell was AWFUL, but at that point I couldn't see any actual signs of anything dead in there. I removed the nestlings one-by-one, examined them, and put them in the covered dish pan. They all seemed strong, were fully feathered, had stubby tails, and no longer had any sheathing on their feathers. All of their bellies were extremely messy from being down in the nasty mess of a nest, but other than that they looked good. I could hear them hopping and cheeping in the dishpan as I worked. I could see the remains of one nestling in the nest. The other one has either fledged or decomposed to the point that it wasn't recognizable. All five seemed healthy last Sunday morning, but it's been hot here so I guess it didn't take long for them to decompose to that point. I pulled out the old nest and replaced it with fresh grass that I pulled from the yard. I then reached my hand in the dish pan, under the towel, and picked up and replaced each nestling to the nest box, which was still down in the bucket. During this process, one did jump out of the house but landed on the floor of the bucket. Again, I tried to keep the bucket mostly covered with a towel so that they couldn't escape into the yard. Once I replaced all three, I closed the box and plugged the hole with the rag. I put the house back on the pole and waited five minutes or so before slowly and quietly removing the rag. I then moved off and watched to make sure none of them came out of the box. They stayed put, and within 10 minutes their dad was feeding them again. I know the box will still have some residual smell and that worries me. The pole is baffled, but I believe that a determined coon can get past that. I'm hoping that won't happen and that they'll fledge very soon. Once they leave, I will thoroughly wash the box and let it dry before replacing it. I'm hoping the male will find another mate and try again.

The 3 babies are still in the box this morning, a few hours short of 14 days old (they hatched in the afternoon hours). The baby birds in my pic do not hunker down, that is their normal position when they are at rest in the nest cup and at complete ease. They do gape when I inadvertently make a noise, even a soft noise. This is not like usual monitoring where the baby birds see the monitor. I know this all because I peek several times a day in my special spybox and have watched them at rest, move about, fluttering their wings, etc (I have also done monitoring the usual way) Yesterday late evening I peeked in the box, briefly turning on a faint light and saw the mother bird sleeping and fluffed up big time. It was a bit colder than the previous days at 8 degrees Centigrade. She looked very much like a mammal with very long fur, LOL.

Proud to report (late) that they finished fledging yesterday. 2 fledged yesterday morning and 2 the evening before. They are now just yards away from the nestbox in tall cottonwoods. All though I'm no longer providing waxworms and mealworms, he appears to be a great father. Hard to say if he'll find another mate and start another brood. Seems like the timing is just to late. Tim