Inspected this morning and found it had not revisited my tomatoes. However something (same animal?) had a feast on my leafiest brussels sprouts plant. This was not the work of worms (which I have also had) - entire leaves were gone to the stem. It also pigged out on my zinnia plants, the three on the row perimeters. Munched the bud heads right off. Again, I've had insect problems on some of these plants, but I don't think a Japanese beetle could do this type of damage. See photos. Whatever is doing this new damage has to be fairly tall as some of the zinnia and brussels leaf damage is at least two feet high. The zinnias are surrounded by cayenne and jalapeno plants, which were of course untouched. This reminded me that some people use pepper spray to deter animals. Anyone had luck with this? I know you have to re-apply after rain. Homemade? Store bought? I'm willing to try anything!!! Tho a fence is a last resort. Not sure

My 'Balentino' has green stalks when Emaryllis has them purplish grey, any reason to doubt the id?

UPDATE!! If anyone still cares, I may have found a source for the "Orange Rascal"....in the USA. As my searching continued, I came across a posting, that listed the varieties of Hipps. within the Brecks, Hardy Amaryllis Mixture, (5 bulbs) (SKU#73695): Balentino/Valentino...Helios...Candy...Swan Lake.....and, drum-roll please,..Dah Da!!! "ORANGE RASCAL". (I came across this information doing a search for "Sonatini Hippeastrum Valentino"). This collection is/was $39.99 and may be available come Spring '12. I wonder if the same varieties will still comprise this mixture, because I will be essentially paying 40 bucks plus shipping, for one stinkin' bulb. Pretty pricey! By the way, when I called Brecks and asked them just WHAT varieties were within their "hardy" Amaryllis Mixture, they had no clue. Great record keeping! My searching would have ended at this point if only Brecks knew what they were selling. The end. Frank

We obviously live in different states! Glad you got away with it though. Here it's often the intent will make the crime. For instance, you used to have to exit a store before you could be accused of shoplifting, but not anymore and actually to hide something might not get you a theft charge, it'd still probably be a vandalism, malicious mischief or similar charge, possibly a theft or some other charge possible, but with the extenuating circumstances, I know I'd never convict you if *I* were on your jury! :D I didn't have quite as lively experiences as you but I sure appreciate the situation you're in. Years ago now, my dad had car trouble one time and was only able to get his car to about 30 mph on the freeway. (Had a plugged catalytic converter.) Instead of getting off the freeway and coming to my house, or calling someone he stayed on the freeway determined to just drive home and with the camera system they watched him and sent a squad. The highway patrol was a hotdog and put in for an examination order and *he* recommended no night driving and some other limitations to his license and from there, things just snowballed. I tried to handle some of the things and had a PI buddy check it out but technically the HP did everything legally, though they agreed that ethically/morally it was questionable. So my dad had to go in for a driver's interview and during the interview my dad is carrying on about how he drove ambulance in the War and drove the CO's Jeep, etc and the examiner goes, But that was 50 years ago! And the day he went in was a snowstorm, he was late getting there because he got lost (didn't know where he was going) and was so flustered that he couldn't remember where he parked his car when he was going to leave! After that, they wouldn't let him drive home so they called my sister to pick him up. I went with so we could take his car home. As soon as we walked in he yells at the top of his lungs CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT???? TELLING ME I CAN'T DRIVE MY OWN CAR!!!! I tried to tell him to shut up or he could well lose his license. What do you suppose happened? Well he then got an order to come in for a road test, which he failed, not just once but 3 (or was it 4?) times, then decided the world is out to get him so he's not taking the test any more. The silly part is that he was failing the parallel parking and since he was handicapped, he never parallel parked anyway and I tried to tell him to just not do it. Start the attempt and just stop. At worst, he's lose 5 points (3 for procedure and 2 for proficiency) and if he was careful they might even give him the procedure points but once he knocked over the poles it was considered an accident and an automatic failure. Stubborn? Just a little... He was at the point he could have asked to have parallel parking waived, but his temper took over. Then got caught driving without the license! Sheesh. With that is a mandatory court appearance and he basically went in with a chip on his shoulder figuring "put me in jail" or something. He wouldn't hire a lawyer, was so hard of hearing anyway and didn't shave for a week or change clothes. Looked like a bum off the street. They started the hearing and the judge stopped it and said "you need a lawyer", he said he wasn't going to get one, so they appointed a (totally incompetent) public defender who essentially plea bargained for jail time and a fine for him. The judge went wait a minute and said let's clear this up now. Asked my dad if he had his license with him, he did, asked if he'd give it to him, he did, then the judge said, Will you let me keep this if I dismiss everything against you? Surprisingly he agreed to it. Now he never said he wouldn't drive again.... Oh well, after that is another even longer story but it is an interesting life at times, isn't it? I think you should get your dad a t-shirt "I'm a little rascal on my Little Rascal"