Please consider buying worms that are from your area. Most worms sold buy the big companys are imported worms, such as Eisenia foetida, or"European Night crawlers."are non native worms. Most company's raised this worm only for the money. They could care less for the enviroment. Take a look at this. Eisenia foetida, or"European Night crawlers."are non native worms,This is why we with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild. Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly. This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil. So, do your best to keep them confined! From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Eisenia fetida, known under various common names, including redworms, brandling worms, tiger worms and red wiggler worms, are a species of earthworm adapted to decaying organic material. They thrive in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure; they are epigeal. They are rarely found in soil, instead like Lumbricus rubellus they prefer conditions where other worms cannot survive. They are used for vermicomposting. They are native to Europe, but have been introduced (both intentionally and unintentionally) to every other continent except Antarctica, occasionally threatening native species.

Gary, your eyes MUST be bad!!! That black spot is about a three footed vulture! No teeny weeny there. Yes, those lilies are all from the ones you sent thru the mail. As a matter of fact, they are all from one of them. I gave the other away to a GWebber for his pond. It had several crowns too! Prolific and beautiful things. I love them and I thank you again. I trimmed the grass from the edge about twice last year. Mainly because the string algae would grab on to the roots and look raunchy. Hasn't been too bad. Of course, I'm still working on the other edge. Shhhhh!!! Have had no anhingas yet. About the only bird that hasn't visited. There is a much larger pond across the street. Dont know if there are anhingas there, but it is the source of our turtles, otters, herons, snakes, etc. The ducks of course, have spent a lot of time here and have been so much fun to watch. Didn't see any ducklings this year, though. Was sad about that. Thank-you, finn21! Anna

Thanks, paparoseman, I'm putting RdV in morning sun w/mostly dappled shade the rest of the day, will prefer if it is darker. I think you are probably right about this. First spring to bloom so may be different in time, but mine has a little bigger blooms, darker, just not so many as the parent plant. Plus it suckers which will be good for this one & where I put it, plus I think it's moving to where it will get more sun, wish I'd planted it out further right on the edge of the drop off w/limestone blocks. If the parent suckered, it probably got mowed by the person who cares for the lawn where I got it. It's been whacked down to the point you would hardly recognize it this year which is a shame and weeds growing through it.

What about our hard water? I've read some other posts where people hand-water their plants with vinegar-spiked water. I was kind of thinking of taking some fat (wide) 15 gallon tubs, cutting out the bottoms, and using those to plant the blueberries inground. That way, they would be somewhat isolated and I could treat their soil more locally (iron sulfate, elemental surful, peat, and some of the other amendments that people have mentioned in other posts). Maybe it would be easier to keep their immediate environment more acidic if I was treating a smaller area? How does that sound? Do you think doing that buys me anything? I don't know what I could do about watering though... seems the hard water would be fighting my attempts with the soil...