They were sure loud last night. The toads are back now and together with the leopards, a little gray tree frog and some cricket frogs they had quite a party. I went out to the pond and turned on the lights and it didn't bother them at all. They were everywhere and putting on a great show. I guess the reason we have so many is we only have a few small fish. I wonder if "act 2" is tonight? Hope so. Michelle

I've got dozens of 'Ellen Bosanquet' which will be flowering here by the last week of July. I have two plants of another very large Crinum given to me about fifteen years ago that make absolutely huge clumps with football sized bulbs and the leaves are rounder in cross-profile than EB. These have large number of quite tall flower stalks with large trumpet shaped flowers similar to an Easter lily and about the same size as one but white with a blurred pink stripe down the center of each petal. They smell fantastic at night and each stalk may have well over a dozen flowers. The problem is that they flower starting around July 1st and have mostly stopped by the time the EB start to flower. This big white variety reflowers in late August and September and I would like to cross the two. Any tips on how to save pollen for a little bit of hybridization experiments? I'd like to try it both ways for insurance. I live in Northeast TN where neither are supposed to be hardy but I've had the EB's since the mid 1980s and none of them are ever mulched and Crinums are one of my favorite plants. I also have several large groupings of pink "Powellii" hybrids that I might also want to throw into the mix. They look the pink fireworks at lower levels during the grand finale of a fireworks show where everything is going off en masse. None of my neighbors or any other plant enthusiasts I've encountered in this area have ever even seen a Crinum before much less three different types.

Just get him out of the skimmer. He'll be fine if you put him in the shade somewhere. I hope you have done so by now. :)

Randy... Great pictures! I don't have any Gray Tree Frogs but usually end up with some Green Tree Frogs & little Anoles [green lizard] in the house when I bring plants in. If the freeze warning is just for a night or two I usually just leave them til I put the plants back not knowing if they can survive the cold. Found one Green Tree Frog in the kitchen, one in the bedroom but put them back on the plants til time to go back out... :-)