I am in the "confused by the difference between wildflowers and weeds" camp. I grow a lot of things on purpose that other people call weeds, and I call wildflowers. On the other hand, I have so much goldenrod in my yard that I always pull it out of my gardens, and I thus consider it a weed. Technically it is also a wildflower. Anyway, I have a LOT of it that is stunted, because it is a favorite target of whatever it is that goes around to plants and puts a milky colored frothy sticky substance with some kind of baby bug in it. The baby bug then eats at the plant while maturing. I have found this goop on a wide variety of plants but there is more on the goldenrod than anything else put together. Hence I have significant insect damage on a native weed/wildflower. But not knowing if you call that a weed or not, I am not sure if I invalidate your theory or not. I have even seen creeping charlie with some sort of big lumps in the stem that suggested a creature had attacked it and laid eggs. Certainly creeping charlie is a weed. Alas, it did not spread enough to wipe out my creeping charlie. But it was really freaky looking. Marcia

SEED STARTING FOR THE HOME GARDEN I have discovered a cheap, simple method of starting flower and vegetable seeds for the home garden. It utilizes the principle of capillary action and a moist newspaper mat. To construct such a device, the following items will be required: A roller paint tray obtained from the paint department of a box store. 2. A 5-foot length of 1ü inch PVC pipe obtained from the plumbing department of the same store. This needs to be cut into 25 2-inch cylinders and then filled with a good seed starting mix. 3. A 6-inch piece of I-inch PVC pipe to be used as a plant ejector. 4. A half dozen sheets of newspaper. Lay the newspaper on the sloping part of the paint tray with several inches immersed in the paint holding well. Fill this well with water and watch as the newspaper mat slowly becomes saturated as it draws up water. Plant a few seeds in each mix-filled cylinder and tamp lightly so the bottom of the mix is in contact with the wet newspaper. It will soon start drawing up moisture via capillary action and become damp. Keep adding water to the well as needed. Using short pieces of an old venation blind and a lead pencil, identify each cylinder with name and date of planting. In a week or two, the seeds will germinate and green leaves will appear. When about 2 or 3 inches tall and ready to transplant to a larger container or the garden, use the 1â ejection tool. Place this over the green leaves of the sprouted seedling. It will telescope nicely into the 1üâ planted cylinder. Pull up on the planted cylinder and the seedling will be bottom ejected without disturbing the roots. Add fresh planting mix around the new, larger container and place in a bright-lighted window for further development.

When we first moved out to our present house in this rural setting about 6 years ago, my daughter was 7. There were all sorts of cool 'bugs' out here we had never seen 'in town' so we went to the bookstore and got a paperback book called "Fabulous Florida Insects" so we would know what we were looking at, know if it stung you, etc. This is a full color book with amazing photos. There is a "Fabulous Florida Butterflies" book that we got as well that shows the caterpillars and adult butterflies for most FL species. We spent our first summer walking around the place with this book trying to identify all our bugs, it was a blast for a 7 year old tomboy. We were sitting out on the patio just last night, my hysband was playing his guitar, and we looked out into the woods and there were fireflies everywhere lighting up. We never had those in town. When my hedychiums really get going in June and July, there are bees and butterflies all over this place, and hummingbirds too. They love them. I found that the best way to attract the natives (and the butterflies) is not to pull out every little wildflower in the flowerbed, but to allow some of the "weeds" that are really wildflowers to co-exist with the store bought stuff. I seem to get a wider variety of visitors that way.

Most all "wild flowers" are also classified as "weeds" depending on where they grow. Also cultivated flowers can be "weeds" if they are growing where they are not wanted. For example there is a "Rosa Rugosa" growing in a Lilac clump so that rose is a "weed" since I do not want it there. Where was the "wild flower" mix bought from? Some sources do not actually sell true "wild flower" mixes. kimmq is kimmsr