If the culms are smooth it's not Aureocaulis, as all forms of this have a rough,sandpapery surface. Allgold dose have green stripes but there usually very narrow and very sparse, I've never seen one with that ammount of striping. I'd have a go on Vivax, seems to fit you're description and photo quite well.

Melissa, The rose looks fantastic, and a couple blooms coming even! It will only get better looking every year : ) Please post when the blooms open. The irises look great too. Alana, Your irises and clematis look wonderful. Diene, Glad spring made it up your way : ) I love those double daffodils. Sassy, I need to divert over your way on the drive back from my dad's! It looks lovely and peaceful. Becky, I know what you mean about certain things just don't come out well on camera as in real life like my lilac, but I think the Claudia tulip does look great. Tracy, I love that phlox and your rock garden. Mariann, Tiarella is one of my favorites. That's a great start for a new shade garden. April, That is a pretty clematis what ever the name may be. I don't think it really matters, I've never met a clematis I didn't like : ) Marie, Lucky you with the amaryllis. They've never done that for me. My Virginia Bluebells are blooming. And here's an odd one I planted last fall, Fritillaria persicaria. Happy Mother's Day Everyone, Remy

Beth, I'm in Michigan so it will probably be different where you are, but commonly chickens need at least 10 hours of light to lay, so when the days get short and it's still dark when I go to work at 8 am and dark when I go home at 5 pm, the hens stop laying. I could put a light in their coop and get a heated waterer and keep them laying pretty much year round (except for when they molt), but the electricity would cost me more than the eggs are worth, so I just freeze eggs when I'm getting a lot. Hens also stop laying when they are molting. Hens molt annually, they start losing their feathers and grow new feathers. They look absolutely awful, BTW, when they are molting, half naked chickens. (grin) This is a good explanation from thepoultrysite.com. "After a hen has been producing eggs for several months, she becomes increasingly likely to molt. Molting and egg production are not mutually compatible, so when molting occurs, egg production ceases. The rest from egg laying allows the hen to restore its plumage condition by shedding old feathers and growing new ones. At the same time, the henÂs reproductive tract is rejuvenated, allowing it to increase its rate of egg production and produce higher quality eggs when it returns to lay. Under natural day lengths, molting tends to coincide with the change in season so that hens molt in the fall after they cease egg production due to declining day lengths. In these circumstances, it is normal for all the hens in a flock to go out of production and molt more or less in synchrony. However, if artificial lighting is provided, a hen may molt at any time of year and not in synchrony with other hens. If this happens, she should return to lay in several weeks." Old hens stop laying eggs eventually and there are some chicken diseases that will prevent laying. Also, if a hen is "broody" she will stop laying, because she wants to hatch the eggs she's sitting on. Mine lay at optimum production about 6 or 8 months out of the year, they never stop completely, but I'll go from getting 10 or 12 eggs a day to getting one or two per day, sometimes none. Annie

I'm not too familiar with the San Luis NWR complex (Alamosa, Monte Vista, and Baca NWRs) just from what I have seen while I was down there earlier this month (Baca, while it is the largest NWR in Colorado, is currently not open to the public). I can look stuff up on the USFWS Region 6 website at work and find anything out there. You can access the website, too, and I would link it if I had internet but right now all I have is my phone. The refuge from what I saw was about what you described. There is an auto tour (paved) with some trails around a few of the wetland areas. The big draw there is, of course, the cranes. They will be back in the fall on their way back to Bosque del Apache in New Mexico for the winter, but they will be a little more dispersed than in the spring. The thing to remember about refuges is that, unlike national parks, they are managed more specifically for wildlife rather than recreation. I definitely want to go back there Skybird, and if we did this year I was thinking May. They have a bird event but I don't know if it's free like the Crane tours.....