i use this stuff called liquid shotgun... it is a spray that smells like slim jims (just my opinion) and it keeps all sorts of animals away, it doesn't harm the plants and what it does is slightly burns the nasal passages and/or mouth when the animal sniffs or bites the plant. i read on the bottle that you can also use it around decks, sheds, garbage cans, etc. it doesn't harm the animal but creates a less than desirable environment for them. you spray it once and it lasts up to two months. i use it to keep deer away, this is my 2nd year with it and i actually haven't even seen a deer near the yard this year. last year they were eating my plants EVERY night. i also spray my fruit trees with it and it keeps the deer from them, it also wards off birds from the fruit too. if you are interested i will get the exact name off of the label for you. i believe the company that makes it is called bonide. it smells strongly for the first day, but after that i don't even notice it. i have been finding suspicious teeth marks on my pumpkins this year- i have no idea what it is, but i sprayed the whole patch with this stuff and haven't seen any more yet. i like this stuff because i don't like to harm or kill anything, i used to not even kill bugs but since i began gardening i can't help but squoosh the ones that are eating MY food. anyway, i hope this helps... it cost me $20 and i am almost at the end of the bottle (2nd season using it) a good investment if you ask me. i got it at my local nursery/landscaping store. sarah

I have the "Fire ball" one...although its actual name is Euonymus alatus "select". I've had it for 3 years now. It is still only a foot tall. :( I am going to give it a few more years though, because last winter it got mowed over by deer, so I figure it gets a 2nd chance. It doesn't look like it has much - if any - die back this year though. It is in quite a sheltered south-facing location. As for fall color...I had so-so color the fall before last...last year I didn't have any fall color at all. It really depends on the fall I think. If it stays warm and then suddenly we get a bunch of frosts, the leaves just die green. If we have a long fall of cool nights, you'll get good color. So it won't be consistent. Overall, I'm a little disappointed with it...if nothing else, it really is a single purpose plant for me. It looks very plain throughout the summer, so it's only season to shine is fall in my situation. I don't really look at the garden whatsoever through the winter to enjoy its bark. BTW - I second Hykue about your questions, nutsaboutflowers!(I hope you don't mind if I start calling you "nuts"...I like typing shorter names!) Somebodies got to keep things hopping around here.

Funny - I never thought of foxes as digging, but I guess indeed they do, when you consider the word foxhole, lol. Do they always live in the holes they dig? I ask because I have several large holes in my cutting garden, where something was digging in earnest, but nothing lives in them, and they aren't *that* big that something the size of a fox could live in one. Just wondering what the heck is digging... :) Dee

Actually the RHS would alter a few orchid names each year, but several years ago there was a major update. The problem is the sheer scale of that update seeing that there so are so many different species orchids and about 100,000 registered hybrids. Of course, google is not updated so you will find numerous pics of Recchara Frances Fox there. The local Orchid Society has a problem, a big photo library that needs some of the names to be altered. Even orchid nurseries couldn't do an instant update so the new names will slowly filter through.