Thank you both for the replies! A big ugh to carpet beetles though...I just read about them online and I can't say I'm happy with them being in the house here. Sounds like I need to do some cleaning and see if that gets rid of them and if not, maybe I need to call someone *grumbles* Wonder where they came in from?

We just moved to our house in PA a year ago this month, and the previous owners left their shepherd's hooks in the yard, with one birdfeeder attached. I rec'd a nice birdfeeder as a housewarming gift and have been so delighted with the birds that are visiting. I will probably regret all the seedlings that will be sprouting in my walkway and beds in a few months, but for now, I am a (happy)slave to the birds. So far, my main birds are tons of male and female cardinals, goldfinches, juncoes, sparrows, 2 red-headed woodpeckers, and chickadees, plus two nuisance squirrels. This past spring and summer we had two separate bird families rear babies in the eaves of our gazebo, and that was just great watching them on the day the babies learned to fly. The parents spread out into two trees and called loudly for their children to follow. Slowly, big brother waddled out from the nest and perched percariously on the edge of the eave. "Wow, it's a long way down from here", he thought as he looked below his little feet !! However, he got up his nerve and hopped off the ledge, only to crash a few yards down on the patio (I gasped in horror as he hit the ground !) Quite embarrassed at his first flying lesson, he started hopping into the brush to hide as he gathered his wits about him, and then began a series of short, low flights until he was resting at the base of his parent's tree. Well, in quick succession, his siblings followed suit, all going off in many directions, so fast I couldn't keep up with them all. I learned to recognize their young voices as they called to their moms for help, under a bush, under the bench, or right in the middle of the lawn ! Happily, all seemed to make it into a tree and I am hoping that they come back as adults and make my gazebo their family's choice of home once again. Looking froward to spring and new bird babies !! It's funny, in summer I concentrated on attracting butterflies since I thought the birds could find plenty to eat in spring, summer and fall. Maybe this year I will continue feeding the birds year round, and try to attract more hummingbirds as well. Thank you, God, for making such beautiful animals for me to look at !! I am amazed at every detail.

I was going to say erromena or royal standard, but I see the purple in the flowers so I am leaning erromena. Not ventricosa, that one has the bell shaped (not trumpet shaped) flowers. Alexa

My earlier post, was meant for a first time palm seed grower and not to question the varieties pictured as to accuracy , but as mentioned, if you've not grown some before , you might find the odd look of immature leaves, as leading you to question what you planted, is all I meant. If I hadn't known for example that the soil used was devoid of weed and other types of seeds where I planted my date palm seeds, those first crab grass looking leaves that came up , might have made me question what I was looking at or perhaps some other type of plant even, though I did cheat a bit and dig down carefully from soil level at the leaves to see if indeed they met up with a palm seed, and not some other type of unintentional seed!! I noticed somewhere else that someone had started a data base of sorts of many types of plant seedling photos for identification purposes, should one question their plants for accuracy, or in the case they lost the name tags, and I guess such a thing might be helpful for identifying young palm seedlings in some cases. It's not unsual for me to plant other types of seeds, and sometimes have unexpected results if things were mislabeled etc.