Jane, if you only have one feeder out, you might try a good mixture with black oil sunflower seeds stirred into it. Don't get the cheapie kind with those little reddish-brown "BB's" in it. I have never seen ANYTHING actually eat those. I get mine at PetSmart, and I really love the Stokes mixture that has no hulls in it. I feed it, black oiler sunflowers and safflower seed. Safflower seed goes into a feeder that doesn't have squirrel protection, because they don't really like it, but cardinals and titmice do. HOWEVER, no matter what you are feeding, there will be times when birds are not around for various reasons. I have hardly any right now, mostly due to a pair of hawks hanging about our neighborhood. And even without the hawks, birds often disappear for a few weeks now and then. One more thing...don't forget that WATER is probably even more important than seed in luring birds to your yard. You'll notice that most of Maureen's pictures feature her great birdbath. Be sure to provide several "baths" around the yard. They can be anything from decorative features to trashcan lids on the ground with 2" of water in them. I often turn clay pots upside down and put a clay saucer on top for water. Keep the water CLEAN and shallow, maybe even adding a rock in the center for birds to stand on. Good luck! Marcia

Plants I would trade teeth for: Abies alba 'Mlada Boleslav' Abies alba 'Pendula' Abies balsamea '961018' Abies balsamea 'Nana WB 3' Abies balsamea 'Nana WB 4' Abies fraseri Flyns Flash - although I think it would be better-grafted, low. Picea abies Rothenhaus Picea omorika Zdechovice Picea orientalis Schovenhorst Picea pung.Blaukissen Pinus cemb 3 Zinnen I wish I could grow flexilis. Pinus long. Shulman Grove Pinus mont. Sisk Mtn. Pinus mugo Koemann Franz Awesome. Thanks man. Dax

Pretty stuff! Apparently purples are my thing today because I really liked ITTY BITTY BLUE and LUCID MOMENT, but they are all nice. Your picture of LOVE SPILLS OVER makes it look lovely from over here! Julie

It can be very cold in El Paso. They actually got a decent amount of snow this last winter, more than us up north in central NM. My dad who grew up in Michigan and resides here in NM where it snows regularly says the biggest snowflakes he has ever seen in his entire life he saw in El Paso! Warmer atmospheres allow for bigger flakes, incidentally. Colder than one would think. It doesn't snow often, but it can surely snow (unlike most of AZ). The ariidity helps tremendously with the palms.