What a treat on a cold winter day! I have never seen any of these roses "for real". What an intriguingly lovely HP. Do you recall any scent? And that Hugh Dickson! Yummy! The beautiful Eglantyne~~ And PA looks SO good with that color clematis (which I just happen to have:). Ayrshire Queen~~ like something out of a fairy tale. Thanks. Donna

horster, I don't consider your comments gas on the fire, I am all about learning from other gardeners. And I do understand that sedums can be particularly difficult to ID. As Allan Armitage states in Herbaceous Perennial Plants "Finding the correct name for a stonecrop is an adventure in frustration, for even the great plant hunters came back from expeditions with bags of rare plants suitably given their botanical names and "some kind of stonecrop." lol I will quote some more from Mr. Armitage as per your discussion of S. kamtschaticum vs S.kamtschaticum subspecies ellacombianum and S. floriferum 'Weinstephaner Gold'. Under S. kamtschaticum he states, "There is a good deal of variability in the species and plants which were originally given species or subspecies status (S. ellacombianum) are sufficiently similar to be lumped under S. Kamtschaticum. Related species: S. ellacombianum is sometimes classified as a subspecies of s. Kamtschaticum but the stems are not branched, the leaves opposite and have scalloped rather than toothed margins. It is shorter (4-6") and more compact. Beautiful star shaped flowers in lime green foliage can be seen in the spring and summer. However, after all is said and done, there is little difference from the garden point of view. S. floriferum is, as the name suggest, a floriferous species. It produces numerous flowering shoots along the whole length of the stem. Very similar to S. kamtschaticum, it is often listed as a variety (S. kamtschaticum var. floriferum). The flowers are smaller and paler yellow, but overall, plants put on a better show than the kamschatka form. Cultivars: ÂWeihenstephaner Gold is a terrible name for a wonderful plant. Dozens of golden flowers cover this ground hugging plant. Highly recommended. Plants are sometimes listed under S. floriferum" So now that all this is as clear as mud... Anyway if you have a chance, how about taking a look at my other post - ID of Sedums please, part 2 and see what you think about those sedums. The post has fallen off to the 2nd page. Thanks much. Kathy

This skipper looks to be a long-tailed skipper. If you look closley you can see the faint silvery-blue color right behind its head.

Good luck with your determinations folks on the Ithomiinae family from these low resolution pictures. I probably have more experience with this family than all the folks who run this forum regularly combined, and I wouldn't attempt a determination without the bug in hand. There are about 300-400 Neotropical sp/ssp in 3-4 dozen genera of this family, with many dozens that are so close (not even taking into account for species variation) that even the experts in this family often can only give their best guess WITH the bug in hand. So I won't support any of the guesses. BTW bandjzmom, pellucida is a subspecies of Ithomia agnosia unless it has been reassigned to species level since my work with this group years ago. The Sister is an Adelpha cytherea ssp IMO. Fun to have you here Siam as the tropical species were never brought up much until you started posting your pictures. Gives me an excuse to dig into the Neotropical drawers of my synoptic collection. Larry