I have a lot of toads and (harmless) snakes in my garden. As was mentioned earlier, keeping them around is a matter of environment. They need food and protection, so a conventional row garden with no place to hide and keep cool in the hottest part of the day is not going to keep them around. I grow in a French/Bio-intensive style so the foliage is thick and offers a lot of shelter. The best part of having toads and snakes around was when my boys were little and they had the mom who was not only not afraid of such critters, but gladly picked them up and showed them to the kids before moving them to a safe place. Yeppers, that's right. For a few short summers, I was cool. Then came puberty. Kay

I think Horton was right about it looking like a Leopard Frog - they look like the Southern Leopard Frogs, and the website below has a GREAT picture of them. Also mentions a possible subspecies, Florida Leopard Frog. The website even has some sound files, too! Maybe that will help. Good luck ~ they're PRETTY little frogs!! Maybe one of them ate a Prince ;) Here is a link that might be useful: University of Florida's Wildlife Extension Frog Lookup

That is a wonderful rose that i have. What you got though, were hellebore orientalis seedlings. I put the seedlings in reused cups i'd used to try to root roses to keep them upright and hydrated. There was a sign by them so folks didn't get confused, but i guess it didn't stay close by the whole time. I was lazy and didn't mark off all of the old names (there were 2 flats worth of cups and seedlings and i ran out of time)- figuring most folks would know that wasn't what was in them. Sorry! Tammy

They vary in color. Some Southern Toads are gray with black spots, some are solid grayish black with little discernible pattern, some have reddish spots and some are solid red.