Well, I'm a big fan of cats. They are what they are though, hunters. My cats cannot get out of my yard, more for their protection than for any other reason. There are a lot of feral cats in my neighborhood, we trap, sterilize and release as many as we can and it has made a difference in their health and in the numbers. I can see what they catch from my roof and mostly it is small mice and lizards, occasionally a bird. They often get the young pigeons and they can have as many of those as they want. Also the grackles if they could catch them, garbage birds.

Here's a picture of the vine that won't die. Did I mention that while it won't die, it also won't ever really look good. I'm not about to try and trim it though, not without a lot of penicillin and bandages. I hit it with the hose every day and it still looks ratty but alive.

Looks like Asparagus fern, maybe?

Asparagus, but not the cute fern type Hetty. This is an evil one. Vicious back curved thorns that hook flesh and if someone out of impatience is not careful, can do a lot of damage. Plus this one is on steroids, very fast and in disciplined rambler. Excellent for security though. Thanks Jonna for reminding me about this variety, I had forgotten it. Get a blue chemical 50 liter drum, cut the front top of leaving the handle intact for hanging. Pot it into that, give it some soil and see it go.
By the way Jonna this is not the most vicious asparagus, there is another one. Larger leaves and more vulgar sort of growth. I like these living security fences , there is no easy way of breaching these.
Regards,
Arif.

Yes, it is some type of asparagus fern but not the type I had in Calif. That one had small thorns but not unreasonable. This one will draw blood if you even brush up against it and trying to cut off and stuff pieces of it into a bag for disposal left my arms a bloody mess, even with a towel for protection. I feel like watering it is me trying to bribe it not to attack while I'm sleeping

extranjera said: I feel like watering it is me trying to bribe it not to attack while I'm sleeping

good one!

It is fearsome looking. In this case I image its bite is much worse than its bark.

Far worse. You need patience and some capacity for pain, quietly unhook yourself from the barbs but if you impatiently pull away, then . Try explaining to the medical attendant what exactly happened. There is one fine leaved one and one with coarse leaves. Jonna's looks like the fine leaved one. The coarse one has powder on its thorns, so if you can withstand the pain of one then there is a standby weapon available to it. Allergic itch .
Regards,
Arif.

ah argh! If it gave me a rash I'd really be unhappy.

I have a horrible but now almost funny story to tell. I can only tell it now because the itch is going away and the welts are only bruises. I've mentioned that I hate ants, well, I really hate them. There are dozens of kinds here but the really horrid ones are really small and they bite. The bite makes a huge welt on me, turns into a bruise and then itches like crazy for 3 or 4 days.

The other night I was going to take a shower before bed and didn't want to close the roof door, I like to shower at night with the view of cathedral lit up. So, I turned off the light in the bathroom, took my shower, grabbed my towel and was drying off when I started feeling burning spots all over. I turned on the light but I still couldn't see anything but I felt the welts coming up. I got my partner to look (younger eyes) and there were tiny, tiny ants all over my towel. They had come out of the baseboard, up the wall to the towel rack and onto my towel. I had bites ALL OVER!! In very uncomfortable places!

I took to my bed with some benedryl for the next 2 days, it was horrible. I did get up the next morning and get the exterminator over here, he had just been here a few weeks before and his guarantee was in effect. I told him my sad story and he circled the room at the base of the wall with a gel and put more powder in the outlet covers. He told me this is the worst season for them because it is hot and dry and they were in my towel looking for water.

I started thinking about poking holes in this 150 yo house and trying to blow poison into the walls to kill all of them. I know, it's overkill and I won't do it but I would certainly love to nuke the lot of them in my neighborhood. They live in the electrical channels in the walls and it sometimes feels like the house is made of ants. I don't see them often, and never in the kitchen where the exterminator is very careful to keep clear but I don't think he was as diligent in the upstairs bathroom before, he will be now.

Get Phosgine(mustard gas) gas grenades or tablets meant for grain silos. Tape up the windows fire the grenade come out taping up the door behind you. Leave for 48 hours sealed up. Then open and vent properly. Find out how many days it takes the eggs of these ants to hatch. Repeat the gas again and again after what ever the hatching period is. Three applications should be enough. No toxin can penetrate the egg shell or womb that is why the repeat.
Your commercial fumigation guy failed because he did not take the egg hatching period into account. These gels are make customer feel good things, just go for the gas. More effective and can get into all the cracks.
Regards,
Arif.

I was in the mood for such an exercise a few days ago but I would never get the other half to agree to it. I'm not feeling as vengeful now, nor itching, so I don't think mustard gas is on the menu. I won't be drying off with or putting anything on though without some light and my glasses that's for sure... And I still hate all ants!

Jonna these ants, do you know how big one colony of them can be? I have measured one colony spread over an acre. They have hundreds of exits. You plug one and out they pop from another.
I have a colony of small red ants(need glasses) in my bathroom. Their colony is behind the tiles. I plug one hole and they come out of another. In the end I gave up and let them feast on me. They are very bloodthirsty in summers when the humidity is negligible. Lizards, frogs, humans every thing is fair bait in their search for moisture. I have seen a lizard(7") vanish in front of their onslaught in fifteen minutes. Snakes also fear them.
Regards,
Arif.

My Schlumbergera gives me blooms here and there, and for this year, as sporadic as it goes, it made good timing..now extending to Happy Hearts Day Keeping the love aglow in our gardens

These plants deserve all the they get.
Regards,
Arif.

Mine had the same idea and it has never bloomed in feb. I usually only get one blooming out of my CC's but look what i got this valentines.

I love this plants blooms 'polka dancer'

Jo, don't you just love that plant? Is that one you got from me? I think it is and if so, it will bloom again I feel sure. Mine is just finishing another blooming session. It has bloomed almost constantly since November. Even the babies bloomed.

Hi folks! I just stumbled onto this forum... wandering far from my normal stomping grounds in the Edibles board. I have some succulents (including a holiday cactus of some sort) that I'd love help IDing, but that's it's own thread.

But I saw your question about symmetry, JB, and figured I could give you a hand there. The easiest way for me to visualize it is to think of holding a mirror up to the bloom (no need for a real mirror, just a good imagination). Bilateral (literally "two sides") symmetry will only let you hold the mirror in one direction to get the same picture on both sides. People are bilaterally symmetrical - if you put a line up and down through the nose and navel, we're the same on both sides, but if you put it crossways like a belt, we aren't.

This flower is bilaterally symmetrical:

You have to hold the mirror vertically, because the petals are different sizes on the top and bottom (from this angle of view).

Radial (from the same root as radius, the measure of a circle) symmetry is like a wheel. You can put your mirror at any angle, as long as it passes through the middle point, and you'll see the same thing on both sides.

This flower is radially symmetrical:

The petals are the same size all the way around, so no matter how you hold your mirror, you get two matching halves.

[Both photos from Cahac, posted in this thread. I hope you don't mind me using them as examples.]

Aesthetics, wonderful.
Regards,
Arif.

BitBit, thank you so much for taking the time to explain bilateral symmetrical the way you did. Even I can understand that. You are so special.

Glad to be some help. I still haven't managed to get the photos of my plants up, but I'll be looking for the expertise of others here soon. That's the great thing about a community like this - each playing to our own strengths.

Arif, you say aesthetics... to me, it's just biology Funny how we all have our own perspectives.

An ancient controversy between the arts and the sciences. I was just praising the Supreme Gardner who created this wonderful garden known as Earth .
Regards,
Arif.