Howdy Karl. I never knew they came that far. I thought Texas or somewhere else in the South where it's warm more of the year. Considering our Winter fruit comes from South America I should have known. That means $5 for the Roses and $45 for shipping, etc. Chuck

Lids People! lol I guess it wouldn't be too bad to have a butterfly fluttering around the house but have you seen how many chalcid wasps can crawl out of a chrysalis? I've only had a couple escapees that I can think of. The first one (a few years ago) ended up getting squished so I was very careful after that. A tiger escaped this summer and pupated on the underneath side of my cedar chest but I found it before it emerged thank goodness. I was worried that it would get smushed or that a wasp would hatch out of it instead of a butterfly so I did quite a bit of looking to find it. I like using the clearish 6qt and 16qt size Sterilite containers. The lids aren't airtight like Tupperware which is good because there's more air circulation. I think I got them at Dollar General. I have had a couple first instar cats crawl out from underneath the lid. Ok those would count as escapees too but they didn't go far. And they didn't fly around the house. lol

I hadn't considered tissue culture as a reason. On the other hand, think about the climate in Costa Rica, and the fact that many of these early daylilies multiply like rabbits. I have three or four older daylilies which were acquired in pots from Lowes and other such places. I moved them to a different place last June and somewhat ruthlessly divided them in the process. Result: fantastic increase. Rather than get rid of them altogether, I plan to move them to a fringe area where they can make a nice little display en masse until such time as I can afford to replace them with something newer and better. So many daylilies, so little cash. Sigh.

Ken I will try to answer at least some of your questions. First of all if you remember the vids I put up maybe a couple of weeks ago where all you saw at the feeders were adult males, well they dominated the front and back yards here and those guys are gone and that is all part of the migration Now let me back up, in the early spring the males are the first to arrive and the reason for migrating north is for breeding purposes only as it is too crowded and too much competion in mexico and central america where they winter. So when the males find an area or yard they like they will protect that against all other comers and will procede to mate with every female they can as the females begin to arrive shortly after the males. Then the nesting takes place and you wont see the females a lot during that period , nesting or incubation usually lasts between 15 and 22 days then if you are lucky you will start to see young ones and so on thru the summer. Now we fast forward a bit as the days begin to get shorter signals the migration south again and the males are first to leave as they have already started as I having a good quantity of males have witnessed. OK what is it about august? It is the extreme peak month of migration, let me explain it this way, consider a snowball beginning to roll down hill it starts off slowly gaining momentem as it goes till,,, while this migration is underway though they have to bulk up for the trip and you will see many big bellies at the feeders. At my place there will be so many hummers it will be almost a continuous frenzy at the feeders and plants. During these feeding periods these hummers may stay at one place 2 or 3 days at a place that offers a lot and they will bulk up and rest some then move on. Some people think they are seeing the same two or three birds at their place but most likely they are seeing different birds as they pass thru. Ken-- I would suspect that even though you have very little action up till now be aware in august especially the first couple of weeks after that the amount of hummers seems to gradually diminsh as the big push has moved thru, but there will still be a good amount, as the end of august approaches there will a noticable disappearence of hummers, its near the end. I dont know what you can expect , if you only see a couple now and then you might see half a dozen at once or more Im not sure. That is why I and others have urged you to keep up the good work you are doing. AUGUST!!!! I can make no guarantees how many you might see, but you should see more. I hope I have answered some of your questions.