Jenny--BEAUTIFUL honeysuckle! I remember those from my childhood--hadn't thought of trying them out here. But yes, hummingbirds love them. I've been trying to recreate my favorite "home" gardens as much as possible on my little balcony (about 4X8ft, but already pretty crammed with plants...and yes, I experience the 'jumping in the cart'-itis that so many here do!)--I grew up in Indiana, though, so it's been a lot of trial and error trying to figure out what will grow out here in essentially year-round-summer conditions. I try not to pay too much attention to the tags and at least give it one good shot;-) Which brings me to my lilacs. I know a lot of people say it's probably too warm out here for them to thrive, but in a JIC (jump in cart) moment, I took one home from Lowes about a year and a half ago, right after I got my new balcony (Since it was Lowes, I'm not sure what kind of lilac it is). It looked like a sad little stick with just a couple of leaves and one lilac bloom on it when I first got it, and it pretty much stayed that way (sans bloom, once that ran its course) for almost a year, but I didn't have the heart to dig it up...Well, my persistence paid off, I guess, because suddenly this past spring, it grew about 6 inches and leafed out all over the place. I got pretty excited thinking I'd have blooms all over pretty soon. Not so fast. It stayed all green and lush for a couple of months...looked to me like it had budded pretty well, too...but no flowers. Okay...maybe it's too young still and all the energy this season went into the growing and leafing?? But then all the leaves started turning crispy brown just on the tips. That slowly spread to brown all around the edge of almost every leaf. And that slowly turned to yellowed leaf edges along with the brown. It's not dropping any leaves, although some of the leaves seem to be 'cupping'...I can't find any evidence of scale or other bugs...I figure it must have something to do with either watering or fertilizing, but I'm not sure what to do. I had been watering it pretty evenly whenever the soil was dry to the touch, and I fertilized when I first started seeing the yellow creeping in (I think with just a generic Miracle Grow one, but I can't remember for sure)...Also bought some greensand from Gardener's Supply recently and tried sprinkling a little of that around the base. It doesn't seem to be dying, exactly, but it's obviously not healthy...and I'm not sure what to expect in terms of it ever blooming for me. I also bought another one from Gardener's Supply...A Josee lilac, I believe. A dwarf lilac only expected to grow 3 1/2 to 4ft tall. It's doing much better so far...just a tiny little thing, but MANY blooms all over it right now (and it smells heavenly!) But I'm just starting to see some of the brown tips and leaf cupping on it. I'd like to nip it in the bud (no pun intended!) before it becomes widespread on it. Obviously I'm doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what... And finally...if and when I do get those issues solved with these guys, what's the deal with pruning them each season? The Josee is supposed to bloom several times throughout the spring/summer, so how do I tell when it's finally done? And out here in CA, what exactly constitutes a 'season'? (I have that same pruning/season question for my roses, if anyone out there has any info there...I should probably check out the Roses Forum for that) Anyway...thanks in advance for anyone's help with the lilacs...they are one of my very favorites from childhood, so I'm hopeful I can get them happy and healthy here with me. And Jenny, keep the pics coming! You must have the same green thumb my grandma had...she could touch anything with leaves and roots, stick it in dirt, and end up with the most beautiful, lush, healthy plants. Wish it had rubbed off on me!!

Thanks, guys. Those glass flowers are amazing! I wish the pictures could be enlarged to see the detail. I have this vague memory that I might have seen the real ones many, many years ago when I visited Boston. They truly are exquisite works of craftmanship, and glass is such a classy material compared with Sculpey clay. It has a translucency that's hard to get with polymer clay. If I make the Sculpey clay really thin, though, the light passes through and makes the petals glow in the sunshine. I'm always striving to get this effect, but it's hard to do. When clay is pressed this thin, it tends to slump either in the forming or in the baking stage. It is definitely a labor of love, but then so is gardening for hummingbirds and feeding them. It is such a thrill to make a feeder and watch them head right for it, take a sip, and zip off, disappearing to parts unknown. Some of my flowers are quite a bit larger than life, and I sometimes chuckle to myself and wonder what those little hummingbirds are thinking when they see a Salvia coccinea that is 3x bigger than it ought to be. "Ay caramba! That's the biggest salvia I ever saw!" I've had my share of failures, but have gotten better and better at making them hummer friendly. Although I try to make them works of art, they remain, first and foremost, functioning hummingbird feeders. Here's a couple more: A NOTE TO CS7580 (Otherwise known as Connie, I think)--If you're seeing this, I just wanted you to know that I tried to send you an email by going through your member page, but I think it didn't go through. I know you were interested in trying to make your own Sculpey clay feeders, and I remembered some instructional things I hadn't mentioned in my original post that might help you with your efforts. If you're interested, maybe you can send me an email by using my member page. Hopefully, it will work for you. Once I have your email, I can get those extra instructions to you. They are very important, and I think you'll have trouble being successful without them.

Now I'm really stumped. I thought for sure this time that it would work. The interesting thing is that when I reposted them using Internet Explorer, while I was still in Internet Explorer, I could view the second set that had been submitted in Internet Explorer, but not the first set that had been submitted in Mozilla Firefox. In other words, when logged in with Internet Explorer, the Mozilla ones had boxes with red x's in them, but the Internet Explorer ones were fully viewable. Weird. When I'm in Mozilla Firefox, I can see all of the images, regardless of which way they were submitted. I'm sorry if I'm being tedious, but just hoping that there's some techno-whiz out there that will know what's going on. Why can I see them just fine, and you can't? It's frustrating, because I think they're really special and unique feeders and are very much worth seeing. I'm out of ideas and feeling disheartened. Does anyone have any helpful ideas?

Thank you Joe I'd love to see hundreds of Monarchs roosting in the trees as they head south like some people report. I rarely see more than two or three in my yard. Here's a link to the map of overnight roosts at the same website. None in Missouri or Arkansas so far but Kansas and Oklahoma each have one. Here is a link that might be useful: Fall Roosts