Daily Musings _ page 14

Victor - there is still a difference between imagination and reality. A socially constructed reality would mean you would interpret and treat your wife as if she were CZJ :-)

And who said I don't??!! Actually my wife is quite beautiful. But if I have a Monet, can I not also appreciate a Matisse?

So True!

I bet his wife was looking over his shoulder while he wrote that.....

Hee hee. Anita, after 16 years of marriage / slavery, she's over my shoulder when she isn't.

Anita - You are a snake - I found your picture.
http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/images/ncopperhead1.jpg

ughhh!!!!

Anita, I once convinced a total stranger who was TERRIFIED of snakes to hold one. She did it for about 30 seconds, but for the rest of her life, she can proudly proclaim she had actually held a snake once in her life.

Snakes are actually exquisite - like beautiful, moving jewelry - and they feel like wonderful - so very smooth - and some eat squirrels!

I love snakes.

Now, if you could find a snake to eat your deer, Victor . . .

Andy - I got some butterfly pics on the milkweed tonight.

these two were fighting for a while

I got a close shot of the monarch

Beautiful, Al - do you have a butterfly garden?

We do. The nectar plants are easy to have and the host plants we have been adding to.

I have been thinking of having one garden in the terrace a butterfly garden. In Kamloops, BC (where we lived before we came to Ma.) there is a public park with large butterfly garden. I think it is a great idea.

If I understand the concept, you need to include flowers that a butterfly can easily access - like coneflowers, and stuff for the catipillars - like parsley. Is that right?

The host plants are what people tend to leave out because they don't want to look at leaves eaten up by caterpillars.

The host plants aren't exactly hideous. They do vary per the type of BF's your are trying to attract. Milkweed does not transplant well and is better to start from seed. Hollyhock is a host for some also.

I let my bronze fennel live because it is a host for black and anise swallowtails. (Otherwise that thing would be dead, dead, dead!) Actually the caterpillars are quite stunning in a womy kind of way.

Wow! I'm a libra and a horse but mostly a wiseguy. It was an attempt at humor when I confused astronomy with astrology. Actually, though not a belever, I do have most Libra traits.

Victor, I wouldn't care much for a Matisse but that's another subject.

I used to believe in skepticism, but now I'm not so sure.

I'm a firm believer in ambivalance.

Thank God I'm an atheist.

"A wormy kind of way..." love it!

xxx, C

I'm adding Spirea to my list of good intentions that became problems. Both 'Little Princess' and 'Goldflame' are popping up all over. And my 'Goldsturm' Rudbeckia is expanding well beyond the original area as well.

Victor, see my thread http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/738805/

xx, Carrie

Well cross them off your list. Buddleia is a major spreader for me now as well.

Goldsturm - Oh yeah that one seeds just fine. Does you buddelia die back to the ground in your zone? I can't imagine it ever seeding here.
I don't have any spirea - a bit too common. I do get smoketrees coming up from my neighbor.

No the Buddleia rarely dies to the ground here. Don't re-seeders violate your policy of 'one of each', Al??

I know, it makes me feel bad when I have to weed out cosmos,hollyhocks and black eyed susans all the time.
Buddelia dies back all the way here.

Spirea is "too common"? That's ok, the rarefied air up there makes me dizzy. I need common oxygen to breath.

xxxx, Carrie

I do a lot of work at commercial sites(retail/industrail) and it's one of the 5 plants everyone of them has.
Best of luck with your breathing.

Al,

Once I spent 5 weeks on the about-to-die list in hospital because I had pneumonia and influenza simultaneously. I kept forgetting to breath. I had 100% oxygen forced down, like blown down, my face for several of those weeks. I am fully completely recovered, no worries, but "best of luck with your breathing" really hit a nerve. I'm not sure why my comment of last night struck me as funny enough to post. Thank you, but my breathing is now just fine and out of conscious control.

Tell me about Mardi Gras Helenium...


xxxx, Carrie

I rearranged my helenium into one bed which should be a knockout later this summer. I put Mardis Gras in tha back row because I keep seeing it listed at 3'+ even though it never got that tall here. Well - next spring I'll put it in the front row because it is shorter and blooms earlier. Looks to be similar to Sahin's Early Bloomer.

here it is in back.

It will be almost done flowering before the other ones start.

good site:
http://www.samshrub.co.uk/helenium/helenium.htm

This message was edited Jun 24, 2007 10:01 AM

Oh My!! I didn't know threr was that many varieties!!!

Well, of course a lot of them are similar. It would be pretty hard to get more than 10 varieties without some major shopping.

Does it fit my category of compact perennials? PS I still have my WS Ruby Tuesday around here somewhere...

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/738805/#new

xxx, Carrie

Mardis Gras will be a bit bigger than Ruby Tuesday, but not huge I would say. There are a lot more smaller echinacea around now too that might work.

kims knee high is a smaller on isn't it?

It is, although I have heard reports of it getting taller than listed. Short ones I have are After Midnight,Pixie Meadowbright and Jade.
Lilliput and Little Giant are also listed at under 2'