That's funny "flowers", and the answer is, my "Gold Regal", greatly reduced to fit my head in a way to allow room for any of the others. I even had to reduce the "Blue Angel" considerably. My suggestion, only plant "mini's" in your scalp in order to have the room for the most possible varieties! John, you flatter me, but thank you just the same! I just have more "time" on my hands, lately, to learn how to "play" with these things! It really is not as difficult as some may imagine! What I do have, is a big imagination, and sometimes that is helpful in "coming up" with the ideas! However, Andrea and Jed did the work this time, in giving me the idea--I just had to put it together!!:O) janice BTW, Ken--I'm afraid the Hosta Journal might think this too "silly" for their magazine--but, thanks for thinking they might like to have it! Only certain kind of hosta-folk could bear with it, I'm afraid! LOL

I never have. I had the same experience as you; no matter how early I started plants I didn't get flowers until late summer. So I thought it needed warm temperatures. But then the darn thing kept blooming until November in central Ohio! I've heard that cobaea is naturally pollinated by bats, but that the bats we have in North America simply don't do that. Found a few articles that reference that, this from a UCLA publication: Bat pollination is especially important in certain families, such as Old and New World Bombacaceae, including the baobab, kapok, and floss-silk tree species. Classical examples of bat flowers occur in the Bignoniaceae, including the sausage trees cultivated on the UCLA campus, and calabash, among others. Cobaea scandens, a cultivated vine of the phlox family (Polemoniaceae), has flagelliflory and is bat pollinated in western South America. Although in Westwood we have some bat-adapted flowers, and these plants form fruits, we have not determined yet whether bats are responsible for fruit formation on campus. This sounds like a good nighttime homework assignment for a UCLA undergraduate student, one not afraid of bats and vampires. And from the Kemper Center for Home Gardening: Native to Mexico and tropical South America, cup and saucer vine is a vigorous, rapid-growing, tendril-climbing vine that typically grows to 30-40 in its native habitat. When grown as an annual, it can grow 10-20Â in a single season. The descriptive common name is in reference to its bell-shaped flowers (cups), each of which is subtended by a saucer-like green calyx. Flowers last about 4 days, emerging green but maturing to purple. Flowers have a musky fragrance. Blooms late summer into fall. Pinnate leaves have four leaflets. Also commonly called cathedral bells. Flowers are reportedly pollinated by bats. And this from the Encyclopedia Britannica: Certain highly specialized tropical bats, particularly Macroglossus and Glossophaga, also obtain most or all of their food from flowers. The Macroglossus (big-tongued) species of southern Asia and the Pacific are small bats with sharp snouts and long, extensible tongues, which carry special projections (papillae) and sometimes a brushlike tip for picking up a sticky mixture of nectar and pollen. The plants involved have, in the process of evolution, responded to the bats by producing large (sometimes huge) amounts of these foods. One balsa-tree flower, for example, may contain a full 10 grams (0.3 ounce) of nectar, and one flower from a baobab tree has about 2,000 pollen-producing stamens. Some bat flowers also provide succulent petals or special food bodies to their visitors. Characteristics of the flowers themselves include drab colour, large size, sturdiness, bell-shape with wide mouth and, frequently, a powerful rancid or urinelike smell. The giant saguaro cactus and the century plant (Agave) are pollinated by bats, although not exclusively, and cup-and-saucer vine (Cobaea scandens) is the direct descendant of a bat-pollinated American plant. Calabash, candle tree, and areca palm also have bat-pollinated flowers. Somehow I don't think we can replicate this with a soda straw and long fingernails!

Jeanne, I think due to the storm on your side of the country and the storm going on in my personal life right now and just general lack of participation, I'm going to cancel this swap. I hope that's OK.

I can see a face in the iris. It looks like a mans face, so I called it a gnome and not a fairy, for fairies and gnomes hiding in gardens. I didn't think fairy was appropriate! The N part was for the "N" assignment. Hope that helps! My dad can even see another face in the lower right iris petal also!