Wow. Somebody asks about generalizations and gets a bloodied keyboard. The original poster made some general observations about her group. Wanted to know if this held up to what other people are are seeing. Somebody jumps up, takes the general observations as pigeon-holing, and takes it personally, even defending her/him self against something that was not mentioned until that point. Keep in mind that this is a forum that just about anybody can post on. If you think the subject is silly, accusatory or doesn't apply to you, then move on. To come back on and belabor the point is a bit much. Generalizations (and the "wondering" of the original poster might not even be that) are just that, general. It means not everybody adheres to all the generalizations equally. For somebody to stand and pointedly tell somebody else that they aren't like the "generalizations" is excessive. It is acting like somebody pointed a finger at you, like you are so affronted that somebody would call you ______ (fill in the blank). That feeling compels them to come back and explain in detail why they are different. Harsh, or egotistical, neither is pretty. If I were to come on here and make a generalization that all Agaves are succulents, somebody, somewhere in the world would come up with one growing in the swamp. Great, but maybe the generalization still holds. It also was said that the original poster's (o.p.) Cactus club was urban. Didn't read that from her. It also was implied that the o.p. said she was familiar with a Cactus club being a "lonely heart's club. Really? The the o.p.'s words were thrown back at her. First of all, Urban Northern Ohio were your words, Wantonamara. You have obviously never been there. To call it Urban Northern Ohio shows that you have decided that northern Ohio must all be urban. Mostly farms from Cleveland to Indiana. Go there sometimes, the farms are much more prosperous that anything you'll see west of Abilene. Generalizing here. It cuts lots of ways this generalization thing. I don't often post here, and I didn't for years because of the hard tone some people take. I was here when Spike Hernandez (his pseudonym) opened up shop in about 1996. I've seen that hard attitude drive very knowledgeable out, not that they were involved in the kerfuffle, but who wants to read somebody's attitude. I know I'll avoid opening some posts now (including this one ever again), and if 10 people do that it gets quiet around here. Drama is best left to live plays and old movies.

Well.... I don't know. I've never tried it. What I have tried is streamwater on my CP's. I had a bad reaction with my D. binata, but that may have been from the significant temperature disparity, rather than a nutrient issue. Personally, I wouldn't, but... The thing about CP's is that for the most part, they operate from a nutrient poor paradigm. That's why RO, rain, distilled, and deionized water are recommended. Tank water will have nutrients, but how much and how significant is difficult to discern.

Broken Lady, We used to have peacocks about a mile up the road from us...but they didn't make it through their first summer. I am assuming the coyotes or panthers or cougars got them. I did love seeing them roam the neighborhood, but they are so obnoxiously loud! Leaper, When we lived in a civilized neighborhood in Fort Worth, where everyone had lovely yards and no ponds (this was in the early 1980s) I actually built a small pond and then mail-ordered some of those bullfrog tadpoles from a pond company. When I opened the package, the tadpoles were so large I thought they'd sent me fish by mistake! Of course they grew into lovely bullfrogs with lovely voices and we enjoyed their singing so much. And, I don't think the frogs bothered anyone because everyone stayed inside with the air conditioners running all the time and probably never even heard the frogs! lol I love the frogs, but they have been quieter than usual this spring undoubtedly because we have been so dry. So, if a little more rain will fall, maybe we'll have a little more frog and toad singing around here! As loud as they are, I miss them when they are abnormally quiet! I know they are here, because I hear them and see them every now and then, but not as much as usual. Dawn

Susan, I love zinnias and have grown them every year for as long as I can remember....dating back to early childhood. My dad always planted them in our flowerbed when I was a kid, and it was my job to deadhead them. My first flowerbed at this house, which I actually built in the future back yard in the spring of 1998 (six months before the builder started building the house) had zinnias and hollyhocks in it. I love Whirligig. When you plant it, you never know what you're going to get. I have planted some of the newer hybrids like the Profusion, Magellan and Zahara series, but prefer the old OP varieties because the butterflies seem to like them more. This year I grew Lilliput as a border plant around the raised beds of tomatoes and now have volunteers everywhere because I wasn't deadheading them regularly in the July and August heat. My all-tie favorites are the cactus-flowered types and Benary's Giants, and the green zinnias like Envy. I deliberately let all my zinnias reseed at the end of the season and it is fascinating what kind of flowers you get year after year from the flowers cross-pollinating one another. Sometimes I get bi-colored blooms which is always pretty cool to see. Out in the front pasture some spring-blooming wildflowers like Indian Blanket and Pink Evening Primrose are blooming. They have come out of heat- and drought-induced summer dormancy and burst into bloom just as they normally would burst into bloom in spring after winter dormancy. It is sort of bizarre, but we have some of that after every extreme summer drought. Tracey, I've never seen moonvine with the same kind of trilobed foliage as your mystery vine. I'm not saying it never could happen, but it would be more normal for a vine with that foliage to be I. nil or something else. Moonflower vine has heart-shaped leaves. When you have different vines mixed together on a fence or trellis sometimes it is hard to tell which flowers go with which leaves. There is something about your trilobed foliage that looks very familiar but I can't remember what I've grown with leaves that look just like that. To me, morning glory and moonvine flowers are more spectacular in fall than in summer. The summer heat can fade the color some, but once fall's cooler temperatures arrive, the colors become much more vivid, and that includes the white of the moonflowers---it is just a dazzling white in cooler temperatures. Even the green of the foliage looks so much better once the heat has diminished somewhat. I've noticed the butterflies visit the fall vining bloomers nonstop all day long in my garden. You'll also notice as the weather cools that both moonvine and morning glory flowers stay open more hours per day. Susan, I agree with you on the misuse/abuse of animals, including the pinning of butterflies and the operation of puppy mills too. Dawn