Barbara Cox wrote:
> In article <95d1b.5518$xf.2476@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, "NNTP Cox News"
> <hpmicrowave@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
> Have just been maintaining through this part of the summer, had to pull
> a few water hyacinths from the little pond as they were taking over- too
> shady for them to bloom but they get enough sun to look perky and offer
> welcome shade and cover to the goldfish- had taken a few of the plants
> to a neighbor a couple months back for there new pond and unbeknownst
> they ended up with a few goldfish out of the deal. Goldfish seem to be
> about as prolific as water hyacinth.
>
Barbara, nice pictures, your garden looks very nice.
Please though be aware that water hyacinth is illegal to possess in
Florida except under very rare cir***stances and then only by special
permit. It is truly a plant from hell. If you've ever been on a natural
waterway here in the state and seen the massive blankets of this stuff
you'd understand. And even though you might think that I'm miles from
any natural waterway the smallest piece of water hyacinth can begin the
cycle and it also can spread through seeds either airborne or piggy
backed on a visitor to your pond.
There are a number of great sites listing invasive, try The Center for
Aquatic and Invasive Plants at:
http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/welcome.html
for starts.
> Trip to Lowes today indicated a lot of marked down stuff, pentas for .25
> and orchids at half off were some of the specials. i didn't bite this
> trip.
>
If your interest in pentas is as a butterfly attracter look out for the
pentas at Lowes, Walmart, Home Depot and other chains of this sort. When
butterfly gardening became popular a number of breeders jumped on the
bandwagon and developed large beautiful pentas with much larger flowers
than the species varieties. Unfortunately one thing that got left on the
laboratory floor was the nectar! That's right most (all?) of the hybrid
pentas being sold now have had the nectar bred out of them or reduced to
such a low level butterflies, bees and other insects will not go to
them. Ah, progress!
Keep up the effort, cooler weather is coming.
regards from Hernando County.
--
Frank Caggiano "The best education for the best
caggiano@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
the best education for all."
http://www.crystal-objects.com/
Robert M. Hutchins
Logo Users Ring
http://www.crystal-objects.com/logo/logoring.html
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