camp, I don't know if you ever saw it but I did wander over to the ARF in a weak moment last year & posted a tasteless ditty illustrated with some birds but it didn't last long, it was on a thread you started about posts disappearing. I am out of my area of interest with roses but I can just imagine the financial carnage. I've been ordering more grassy material to build this pocket prairie and wouldn't want to make those folks over there feel jealous & inferior over the big bucks I'm throwing around for 'Blonde Ambition' skeeter grasses, more bluestems and especially the very red Big Bluestem turkeyfoot named 'Red October' I can't wait to try out once I figure out a place to plant him. Maybe close to those new stiff blue Indian Grasses where they'll catch the late afternoon sun rays picking up that bright red? I'm already pining for next fall to see the results and bemoaning my lack of space. Greenhearted, my new fav name I ran across recently is Wanda Dudwash. Maybe she can be Fendler's girlfriend. The bladderpods are nice because they bloom so prolifically and early then dry up to almost nothing with the hard pods. You can easily snatch them up if you want to control next years crop. In their habitat, they will make the landscape a sea of yellow as early as February. Mine were in a seed pack I bought from Native Seeds of Sonoran Desert mix along with some other interesting off the beaten track wildflower mixes. I couldn't resist trying this very red Big Bluestem and I can't wait to see it color up next fall. This time of year I am always planning for next fall/winter interest. Come winter, I will be thinking of spring. Here is a link that might be useful: http://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/amaranth

Maria - You must be very proud of both your daughters! Two of my three children are severely ADD, and I know how difficult it is to find teachers that are truly dedicated to their profession. We were told, over and over, that our children needed medication to control the ADD. All they really needed were teachers with a bit of patience and understanding. The medications have too many side effects, and we didn't want two little zombies that sat and stared. We put all three of our kids in a different school, and thanks to the wonderful teachers there, all of them flourished and learned... I hope there is a special place in Heaven for really dedicated teachers! I know it's a thankless job at times, and most don't make enough money for what they do. Instead of all the medications, we gave our ADD children the occasional cup of coffee or can of Mt. Dew to calm them down... and as they got older, we taught them to control the ADD on their own... my husband is still severely ADD, and he controls it with coffee and what martial arts training taught him. My children all are grown now, and all are doing well. They made it through their youth with help from a few really great teachers! Elizabeth - If you're half the teacher that the ones we had for our children were, then you deserve a lot of credit! I hope your students, and their parents, realize how lucky they are to have you! I hope the impending storms are not that severe, and you and your yard come through just fine! The forecast here is calling for lots of rain and bad weather in the coming days. We do need a bit of rain, though...

mesrosebush, What kind of Louisiana Iris do you have? Do you have specific named hybrids? Are you interested in swapping? I'm on the plant swap group on yahoo and have a good reputation on that group as a reliable swapper.I'm looking for Louisiana Iris's with medium to large flowers in pretty colors. How big do most of the flowers on Louisiana Iris's average anyway? I do have specific hybrid names in mind, but would consider unnamed, if they were really pretty. I like colors of pink, cranberry, red, purple, lavender, violet, white, sunset oranges, bi tones etc, I don't have Iris's to trade yet. I have red naturalized amaryllis. Also some red and white and some orange ones that live in the yard. I also have pink and some reddish orange colored ones. Daylilies, named and un named varieties. Red school house lilies. pink, purple and white Mexican Petunia plants in pink, purple and white. Princess Di Canna lilies. Surprise lilies. Naked lady, Bella Donna Amaryllis. Red Pine cone ginger lilies( If I can locate them as they're sleeping underground right now. Two kinds of Hawaiian Ti, red and one that gets colors of cream and fuchsia on the leaves. The Louisiana Iris. I read can get sun scald in very hot climates. That's Florida. Do you live in Florida and if so, where do you have yours planted? Sun, shade, semi shade? If you're interested in a swap, let me know. Thanks, Cheryl

I don't think a picture of crown rot would really be that helpful. What you would see is a gray mushy looking material. What is helpful is the odor and the foliage. If you smell any stink at all coming from the crown you may have already lost the plant depending on the amount of crown destroyed. If you see the foliage falling over and turning yellow it has gone critical. Pull the center foliage and if it comes out in your hand dig up the entire plant and wash and scrub the crown area and then leave it for a month or more on the cement to fully dry out. One gal I know saved hers by putting an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal foot powder on the rotting area after she had cleaned it up the best she could. Think of it like a wound on your arm. On a centimeter of flesh we typically have about 25 million beneficial bacteria. However sometimes harmful bactera gets past the protective layer of bacteria on our arm. If you don't get all the harmful bacteria out of the wound then pus will start and make the wound worse so first you clean it well and use anti-bacterial cleaners such as betadine, or iodine and soak the wound in epsom salts which kills the bacteria. I like to plant new arrivals in aged compost in a pot where I can watch the plant. Once the pot is full of roots I then put the plant in the ground which typically takes 2-3 months. Clearly some cultivars are much more prone to rot than others but it takes a trigger - usually high heat and lots of moisture combined, but not always. I have not had any crown rot for several years. I suspect it is because I garden organically and use almost no inorganic (salt based) fertilizer. Prior to that I did have one daylily where 50% rotted from a large clump while it was in the ground. The other three that rotted all rotted after they had been dug and replanted. I'm convinced that some daylilies have a better "immune system" than others and are better able to ward off rot. The rot is not the disease but merely nature cleaning up dead tissue. Whe a plant is surrounded by disease preventing fauna the disease causing fauna cannot get established. The food and cell sites are simply not available. Overfertilizing with salt based fertilizers will kill the beneficial bacteria and fungi leaving the plant without it's natural defense mechanisms. If that plant lacks the ability to grow beneficial bactera as they do through exudates in the root system it may be more vulneralbe. Also when dug and divided the hair roots are destroyed and the area around the crown may be exposed allowing harmful bacteria to enter the wound site. Normally the beneficial bacteria in the soil will prevent the "boom and bust" cycle of the harmful bacteria. Compare it to damping off with seedlings. When I use sterile soil or well aged compost I never get damping off. However, if I use potting soil that is not sterile damping off is often a problem with seedlings. Why? You would think the aged compost is full of bacteria and fungi and it is so why is it safe? It must have beneficial bacteria and fungi for disease prevention and it does. Crown rot can start when a plant lacks protection. Once crown rot has started you have to clean out the wound and dry it off to stop the harmful bacteria. Salt, sulphur, anti-bacterial powders, or fungicides, bleach work well in killing the rot but a bleach soak will have killed all the bacteria benifical and harmful so the plant may still be vulneralbe to re-exposure to harmful bacteria. I like to use agricultural sulphur or to cleaning out all of the rot and drying it out which removes the ability for the harmful bacteria to grow. If you saw a dead animal rotting and full of flies and maggots you would not say the flies killed the animal. They are actually solving a problem by consuming the rotting flesh. I look at crown rot the same way.