I love the pagoda AND the pots! I made about 50 stepping stones this year with a concrete mix, but haven't tried cement/perlite pots yet. What did you use for forms? I intend to have a lot of pots in our new landscaping, but I'm really ignorant on this subject.

plantfreak, It's interesting how gardeners always envy gardeners in other parts of the world. We grow quite a few tropical plants and orchids in our house. They are a struggle to keep healthy and we are thrilled when one of the orchids bloom. Then we'll travel somewhere in a more southern climate and see the same plants neglected but thriving in someone's yard or along the roadside. I remember when I was a young lad and saw my first palm tree. It was magical. We went up and touched the bark and had our photo taken. You ask when cyps flower in our region. Firstly 'our region' is quite large and the ecology varies quite a bit. In my garden the Yellow slippers bloom around the middle of June. The Sparrow Eggs maybe a week before. Both stay in bloom for a long time. I have some Yellow slippers on the north side of the house that aren't in bloom until the fourth week of June. In the wild it is much more variable. The Sparrow Eggs are in bloom anywhere starting from the first week of June in lower elevations to the first week of July at higher elevations. The same with the yellows but a week later. The wild C. montanums are often only out in mid July because they are found in areas of deeper snow cover and the growing season starts later. The C. montanums, however, can be out earlier at lower elevations (especially across the border in the province of British Columbia). The most prolific orchid in our region is the Calypso. They come out in the millions of clumps starting about June 10 or so. They can be found all along the coniferous forest that runs along the eastern base of the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Especially from the latitude of Calgary northwards. Among the white spruces there's often Calypsos opening their blooms beside the remnants of snow patches...very similar to how crocuses will open with snow still on the ground in the garden.

Since woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters, they are unlikely to use your boxes for nesting. I don't believe that HOSP is much a problem for woodpeckers, which should be able to successfully defend themselves with their strong beaks. The main problem for woodpeckers by far is habitat loss due to lack of dead trees. Then starlings, which compete with red-headed woodpeckers and flickers. Red-bellied woodpeckers are pretty assertive birds so I don't think starlings are as much of a problem for them. There is such a thing as a starling resistant flicker house, but again since woodpeckers are primary cavity nesters, I don't know how often they'd use one of those.

Konrad, aren't they ADORABLE!!!! Ours come nightly to the hanging pb dough and suet feeders on the front porch... love to hear their high pitched SQUEEEEEEEKS! In our owl box, we are lucky enough to have a pair of screeches. She is red and is obviously sitting on eggs at this point as she is RARELY seen. He (gray) on the other hand spends many hours sunning in the hole of the box... waiting for nightfall when he zooms about catching enough for both of them waiting for the day when the little ones will REALLY need 'zooming' from the parents. This is sooo cool to watch. Screeches are like little stuffed toys sitting in the hole of the box!!!!