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

not to worry, the house is completely safe. if i get water up here, you can be the whole city of st. louis will be floating away. ;) janie, i am so far behind on e-mails, as usual, so thought i'd share this with everybody. it IS so sweet to see! as for mealworms, i am expecting yet another delivery today from sunshine mealworms. when i ordered on monday, she told me they are sending out only 5,000 at a time. apparently, they are still "rationing". who'da thunk?? lol

I would like to update my case. The HOSP made one more attempt (when the wounded BB baby was still alive, but seemed could not compete for food), but that time I noticed that BB parents behaved strange and hesitated to enter the house, though they did not sound very concerned. Just in case I approached the house and stuck my finger in, as soon as I puled it out, the HOSP male flew out and I even touched him, BB parents chased him away. If I knew it before I could catch him. I checked the BB babies and they were fine but scared. I was sure that day the HOSP would not return, The next morning, 2 days later after the first HOSP attack, I found the wounded BB dead and the BB female tried to carry him out. I made her leave the house, took out and disposed the dead BB (smell was already bad). I decided to exploit the smartness of the HOSP against him. As I mentioned he leaned that the spooker was not dangerous, and fishing line was also useless against him. I opened the front wall and left it open to serve as a perch site. Instead I attached two-entry patch and stuck it with a scotch tape. I was certain that the HOSP would be too smart to ignore the sudden transformation of the BB house. Besides the house started looking more scary, like having two big eyes. The other thing I pursued with this transformation is to have emergency exit or entrance, since the HOSP would not be able to block the both holes at the same time. With the 2 holes there was more light inside and I could check the nestlings without opening the door. At first the BB parents were confused, but shortly they figured out their babies were still inside and doing well. As the result I have not seen the HOSP around anymore, the BB parents became more defensive and the three BB babies have fledged yesterday. Now I need an advice or opinion: a) I take the BB house down until I significantly reduce HOSP population. Actually the HOSP infestation was not too bad first, but then numerous young HOSPs fledged from the neighbors house and the area became heavily infested. That house is like the HOSP farm, and at the same time HOSPs would almost never seat on my roof. b) I keep the BB house with the transformed front wall, c) I restore the house to its original shape, where I can set up a trap as needed. Thanks. This post was edited by stal14 on Wed, Jul 2, 14 at 11:24

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.