Hi John, So glad the Oscar seeds are performing well for you. The seedlings I've transplanted into the garden are really taking hold now. I used homemade compost mixed with the garden soil when I planted them and they are really growing strong this season; nice strong stems already. Another forum member recently explained to me the difference between Gomphocarpus physocarpus aka Hairy Balls and Gomphocarpus fruticosus aka Cotton Bush, both S African plants. I'd simply lumped both into the same general growing habits but she told me the 'Cotton Bush' is a bit smaller, with more willow like leaves and consensus is the roots should over winter in my growing zone and come back in the spring. My last year's Oscar hasn't come back from the roots so I'm going to also try the 'Cotton Bush' this year and see how it does here. I guess, for your growing zone, they might both be considered annuals. I'll let you know how the 'Cotton Bush' does; it might be something you would want to try. Mary

Cameron, I've been sitting here playing with my camera trying to figure out where the SCN is on the shooting dial, couldn't find it, so I went back and read the instructions - duh! On my camera, which is a little newer model, you go to the kids/pets setting, which is the default setting for scenes, then press the menu button, which leads you to the foliage setting - from there you can set the macro setting. Whew! Lisa, it has 7.1 megapixels. I haven't tried photographing any reds yet - I'll find something red, and see how it turns out. Sandy, my Christmas cassia/c. bicapsularis is in bloom now. Last year it turned cool/sometimes cold before the seed pods matured, so I didn't get any seeds, but if I do, I'll send you some. I'm going to start some c. obtusifolia from seeds next spring, which is the real favorite of the CSs, SOs, and little yellows, at least around here. I'll send you some of those seeds, which are already in the making, even if I don't get any Christmas cassia seeds. Christmas cassia is great, because it lives through the winter (here anyway) and it starts making new growth very early in the spring - I've raised SOs when the weather was still quite cool. You can't plant c. obtusifolia seeds until the ground and/or air temperatures are reasonably warm, but you get very fast growing plants that will grow to about 9' X 6' quickly if you fertilize them or add chicken manure to their soil - I get more cats on it than any other cassia/senna. By the way, I ordered my camera through Walmart - they say they sell it for less than the recommended price, and it was as low a price for that camera as I could find. You just order it online, and they send it to your nearest Walmart for you to go and pick up - it was hassle free. MissSherry

I think the first one is a variable cracker - like me? :) - and there are a lot of longwings/Heliconians, like in all butterfly houses. Anybody know what that gorgeous third one is? Sherry

Thanks so much Devilwoman for making the link. I haven't learned that yet. THanks for the nice words about my pictures. Rich bought me a good camera last August for my B-day and so far I took over 10 thousand pictures. All those flowers in my pictures is ones we have here on the farm that have just bloomed. I keep posting more pictures there when I can and when more bloom