Fusarium wilt has become all too common with periwinkles (vincas) planted in the soil. The disease takes out 90% of plantings in many areas. It is soil-borne and remains in the soil for years. As the previous poster suggested, March is far too early to plant periwinkle in Texas anyway unless you are in the lower Rio Grande Valley. If you like periwinkle, they are best grown in containers placed so that water from a contaminated bed won't splash up on the foliage. It's usually warm enough by June 1 to plant them. They are very unhappy with cool nights (or days). The upside is that it can't get too hot for them unless they are allowed to get so dry they die. Often they will show some wilting (from lack of water, not from the fusarium wilt) in the heat of the afternoon but will snap back later in the evening. Don

First, the hawks flying around aren't after anyone's dog. They want to eat mice, voles, or small birds. It's not a concern. The bird under bush didn't "go there to die." It went there for protection, and because it could no longer fly. Hawks dont'go to someplace to die. They try to stay alive as safely as they can. When you can't fly, you have few alternatives to go to except under a protective bush (if you're a hawk). Most hawks die in their first year. Only one out of five (on average) is able to make it through the first winter. That's normal. Nature produces a lot more hawk offspring than can possible survive. Only the best do, and this specimen, sadly, was one that didn't make it. If the birds seen flying "around the neighborhood" are dashing through the trees, you have Cooper's hawks, searching for a feeder-drawn dickey bird for lunch. If the birds are large and circling above, they are probably red-tails.

I'm imagining all of us caravaning across the country with our motor homes stopping to eat and shop and "enable" each other!LOL I'm sure trying to do some of that anyway. Have one big problem so far--getting DH to STOP so I can shop! LOL He tends to just want to stay on the Interstates bypassing all the towns that I think would be fun to stop and explore and keeping the "pedal to the metal". I'm trying to get him to understand that there are lots of neat places to visit along the way. Luvs

Oh Dear...this is a hard one. I lost so many in a Rodent Infestation and then again so many more when my tree toppled, that it seems all the ornies that are left, are all my favorites now! Every ornie that isn't a standard round glass or plastic ball-style, has a memory attached to it or represents someone in my family ie; Woodworker Santa= Mr.Amity because he loves working with wood. I was able to save one of my Grandpa's ornies...even though it had a few tiny chew marks in it, I just had to clean it and put it on the tree. My daughter painted this when she was six years old. She's now 34. Me and the kids made these back in the late 70's using a kit and the oven to melt the 'glass'. Made by Grandma in late 60's. I've never had to re-stiffen it. I had several. Unfortunately this one is the only one that survived the Rodent Rage. Painted by Son back in the late 70's. Woodworker Santa;