Just as with animals, a plant is either male, XY chromosomes, or female, XX chromosomes. You won't be able to tell the difference until at least the 2nd summer, possibly the 3rd, when the plants bloom. Female plants bear round, pea-like berries which turn bright reddish-orange when ripe. My personal opinion of this "all-male" asparagus business is that it's a bunch of bunk. While the marginially higher yield of all-male plants probably does make a difference for a commercial grower, who probably operates on a pretty slim profit margin anyway, it doesn't make much difference in a home garden situation. IF asparagus self-sowed as vigorously as something like amarath or Sweet Annie, I could understand not wanting to fight a lot of volunteers. But, in my garden, from 100 mature plants, I will find maybe 6 or 8 little seedling volunteers each year. These I just dig up with one scoop of a small hand trowel, and relocate back into the main bed. I consider them a delightful bonus, not a problem to be "dealt with." Asparagus is perfectly happy at one foot spacing. Any more is just wasting valuable planting space, IMO.

KC, I hope that Monarch starts showing an interest in laying eggs at your place. If only we could just say, "Lay" and they'd lay. :) The one I posted about turned out to be a male and has been here nectaring on the butterfly bushes every day since. Your saying that you saw a Red Admiral gives me hope yet for this year. My poor false nettles are just sitting up there not getting used. I'm glad that I got to raise some last year though. The butterflies I'm not seeing here this year that I usually see are Red Admirals, Common Buckeyes, and Monarchs (except for this male). Angie, Thanks, and yes, a person is pretty lucky this year to even see a Monarch. To have one lay eggs would be a real special occasion. I'd be really surprised to be able to raise any here this year. I'd raise as many as I could now, knowing what bad shape they're in. I brought in some Pipevine Swallowtails to raise and have about 30 now. I saw that the Giant Swallowtail that was here for awhile left me some eggs on the gas plants. I'm leaving them out there, though, because I always have trouble with the tiny cats dying when I bring in the eggs. They're the only species that I have trouble with that happening. So I figure they're better off outside until they at least grow a little and then I bring them in. The mama seems to have much preferred the gas plants this year over the rue. Just like when they lay on the rue, she laid mostly all of her eggs on the seed heads. I still haven't seen any buckeyes this year, but the snapdragons are waiting for them in the garden if they decide to show up. I'm glad that you've been having such a good butterfly year and got to raise Zebra Swallowtails and Spicebush Swallowtails. I haven't seen any zebras here at all yet (BAMONA doesn't have them as being reported for my county and I don't think the surrounding counties either, so my expectations aren't high), but the paw paw trees are growing nicely. I do a weekly check of the trees just in case one would show up and lay eggs. I finally got around to planting a wafer ash tree to replace the paw paw tree that had died. I still have a few more wafer ash to plant outside but not sure where to put them yet. Although I've had spicebushes here for at least 5 years and have seen SBST here flying around every year, I have yet to find any cats on the spicebushes. Maybe they lay their eggs on the sassafras trees that are in the woods beside us. Some came up on their own along the edge and I've left them grow. The more host plants the better. Cathy

I like to see oriole birds..their distinct color makes them attractive. @bob414 beautiful pic of oriole bird you have share here.

The toilet thread was the first thread I did..I think. Instead of getting helpful opinions which I welcomed openly, all I got was how nasty it is to decorate around the toilet,then the whole thread turned into a joke, at my expense. Now that is where you are wrong oakley. I didn't see anything that happened in that thread being directed at you. This reminds me of my daughter when she was in high school. She was always so sure that everyone was looking at her, and judging her (typical teenage angst). I told her that everyone else was too busy worrying about what other people thought of them and not to worry about it. Really and truly I don't believe that people here dislikes you or is waiting to pounce on you. We all say or do things on occasion that aren't exactly what we intended, and it is especially difficult to interpret the written word as the the writer intended. That's why smilies where invented! ;)