Diohio's Outbox

I refill a lot of them every day. I'm trying to replace some of the older 1/2 quart feeders with full quart feeders so they last more than a day. I'm making about a gallon of nectar for them each day. 1 part sugar to 4 parts water (or 1 cup sugar per quart).

Yep, that could be it. Try it with lots of compost mixed in. If you drink coffee, throw the coffee grounds in that area too unless you use them in your compost.

Exactly Flcrazy about the crawfish tail ! Very observant. The first time I saw one I thought it was a bee of some sort. I'm fortunate to get at least 3 different kinds here. The Hummingbird, the Snowberry and the Nessus Sphinx isn't a clearwing but comes to nectar during the day like a clearwing.

Chameleon plant ! Houttuynia cordata. I have this too. It's very invasive and once you plant it you'll never get rid of it. I love the colors though and transplant it to areas where it can get out of hand if it wants to. It loves water so I like to pot it and put it in little containers of water. Heck, you don't even have to pot it........just bare root in water keeps it going.

I really like this. I see it has a friend there too.......the little crab spider below !

My grandaughter and I picked these and put them in different glasses of water and food coloring and the flowers turned the color of the water they were in ! Very neat. Queen Ann's Lace is also a host plant for Black Swallowtails but it can be very invasive.

Love this !

I just looked in my flower "bible" Lori and it didn't say anything about soil pH......just that it likes fertile, moist soil in sun or part shade. I know mine starts to wilt in high temps and if it hasn't rained recently I have to water it. It likes moisture. Could that be the problem? Do you put it in full sun or part shade? I have more acidic soil here so I know it likes that. Oh, also it's good to zone 4. What zone are you?

Yes Lori, they have manuvers I never believed could be possible ! And they're in constant chatter here.......my yard sounds like it's full of squeaky toys ! I could never count them but I'd bet there are about 40 here this summer. I have 12 feeders out plus a yard full of nectar flowers for them.

Yes, Lori, it's in the impatien family. And thanks so much for informing me about Blodyn's Impatiens niamniamensis pic. I just went and had a look. I LOVE it ! I WANT it !! LOL ! My favorite colors. I've never seen anything like it.
Glad it sparked a good childhood memory.

Is it a spurge ? That's what it reminds me of but I don't know what kind.

OH I Love this !! Fancy jewelweed in my favorite colors ! Where did you get this Blodyn?

Hi Blodyn, this is TREfoil........you got the r and e backwards. I believe it's whole name is Birds-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus). It's growing along the highway in a town not far from here and I stopped one day and dug one and brought it home. I have it growing in the daylily bed now. I love the bright yellow color. It's not native here (from Europe) but it was used a lot along newly constructed roads for erosion control. It's fairly aggressive but hasn't been for me.

This one fools you Lori..........the buds are yellowish-white and then out of nowhere comes the pink !

Yes, they're Gaillardias Spritz. This daylily has the double factor so sometimes it's a double bloom and sometimes not. This one has one extra petal I believe.

Thank you both ! Everytime I see a Zebra Swallowtail it's a WOW moment. I'm so lucky to have many Paw Paw's here in the yard and edge of woods (their host plant).

Thanks ! I will admit I have 5 different kinds of loosestrife here and not one has made me hate it yet. I have the dreaded purple in a large pot in my pond. It's been there for 8 years in that same pot.

Xela, if you buy the variegated one you'll probably end up with some solid down the road.........at least I did. Once it got established and started spreading a little, I've had to dig away some stems that were solid green. I guess the variegated was trying to revert back to solid. So now I have a nice clump of both solid and variegated ! Actually a few clumps of solid now.

Yes, I do treasure the moment every time I get a chance to hold one of our little featherd friends but it happens way to often and doesn't always have a nice outcome. The thing that gets me is how tiny some of them really are ! Like a Chickadee, Goldfinch and Hummingbird. Very tiny.

Thanks everyone. Yes, they are brother (Butchy left) and sister (Marti right). They're just over a year old now. This is their favorite window sill and I had to really laugh when I saw them together like that. It's a fairly long, hard jump to get up there and I've only ever seen one at a time. Someone was really brave to risk the jump with the other one already up there !

Lori, you could probably collect seeds from them too, for next year. If I'm remembering correctly, the seeds are very tiny like powder almost. A friend gave me the origional plant (pink) that died over winter the second year but fortunately dropped lots of seeds. Some winters they survive, some they don't but thank God for the seeds. I'm zone 6A.

Two years I bought a white one and this year it's finally starting to reproduce a little bit. I think I see 4 or 5 plants so far.

Good luck with yours !

I'm sorry Amy, I forget that you don't have hummers in the UK. It's just short for hummingbird.

Grammazoo I didn't know about the pink either until an internet friend in Canada sent in pics of hers and then we traded seeds. I have the wild Spotted Jewelweed here (orange) and also the Pale Jewelweed (yellow) and now I have light and medium pink !

Thanks everyone. Crystaltips I'm using a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ20 digital. I love it. I have the setting on Auto so I can just point and shoot.

I saw the reddish-orange one when I Googled it and yes, I love that one too. I think I'll give it a try. I really have a thing about Bird of Paradise ! I'm still hoping that my REAL one blooms this summer !

I don't know if you'd call him a tabby or not.......he's gray and has tiger stripes but the gray is taking over his body and you can mainly see the stripes now on his legs. He's one of 3 kittens that I kept from a feral cat I took in last spring. She just had another litter and this summer she's getting spayed for sure (if I can get her in the cat carrier that is) ! But this second litter is all tabbies (their feral father comes for food every night and is a tabby with white, just like 2 of the kittens !) I'll have to post a pic of them soon.

Not sure X........I have some stratified seeds if you wanna try ! If you do, send me your physical address privately.

Yes X, Asclepias tuberosa (in the milkweed family). I don't know how "Weed" got attached to the common name........it's definately NOT a weed !

Oh that's funny Lori ! Butchy's whiskers twitch when he's doing his funny little "bird chatter".........do you know what I mean by that? I don't know how to describe it ...........it's like a quick half-meow, maybe 5-8 times in a row. It's always when he's BEYOND excited when he sees a bird or chipmunk. Sometimes nothing comes out but "K K K K" his mouth still does the quick motions. Very funny.

I think you're right Lori ! I hadn't even noticed that. May be a fly. I just hope they weren't looking at each other because I believe they are canibalistic and I havn't been able to find either one of them since this pic ! I hope they're hiding.

My gosh that's a lot of rocks !! Poor girl.