dyzzypyxxy said: If people want a plant with flowers that color, they should buy fake ones. They'd last longer, too.

Over on the Orchids forum, those dyed blue orchids are fondly known as the Ti-De-Bowl orchids because they look like they were dyed with toilet bowl cleaner.

Whatever, plant lovers won't buy those dyed plants, and there will always be people with bad taste who will, I guess. I try to make a loud comment about the dyed orchids whenever I see them at the stores . . . I'm not usually loud or rude but those things bring out the worst of my manners.

Me too!
Some years ago, driving by a house a few blocks away, I nearly crashed because my head was swiveling around and I couldn't believe what I saw. They had a lawn - sort of OK; but no flower beds; nothing. But then, suddenly, there was this mass of color all along the front of the house. I stopped the car to take a closer look; and realized that they had just stuck plastic flowers in the ground - seriously. In about a week, the sun started to fade that plastic and it looked - well - more fake and more horrible. I wanted to scream out -- "We're in Florida folks and we don't do fake plants here!".

Yeah, you've really gotta wonder about some people, don't you. With all the beautiful, easy flowering plants you can grow here that someone would spend money buying fake flowers for their yard . . . what a joke!

I've got to give some credit here - you see those dyed orchids at Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart and even at the grocery stores, but never at Trader Joes! They sell nice orchids for less than those other places, too. I've got one blooming for the third time that I got there for $12. Oh, and another daylily as well, although they are suffering from the high heat.

Elaine, what a gorgeous Orchid and Daylily! I wish we had a Trader Joe's here but the closest one is @ 50 miles away in Winter Park. Trader Joe's is building a huge distribution warehouse here locally so maybe there will be more stores coming to Florida in the near future. Next summer my husband and I will be moving south to retire in Sebastian, Fl and the closest Trader Joe's to us there is @ 70 miles away in Palm Beach. I think we need more Trader Joes on the east coast of Florida!

Just looking for some sympathy here, I've had a bothersome raccoon coming into my pool cage for weeks now. He makes a mess knocking over my plants, and poops in the shallow end of the pool if I don't chase him out at 2am. I am losing sleep, worried about him hurting my cat, and getting really frustrated because this guy has defeated my clever humane trap, too. First he was getting his little hands through the mesh and pulling the pieces of banana out (that's what I bait the trap with), then one night I saw him actually IN the trap, but carefully not stepping on the trip plate.

Last night I thought I had him - I had glued some window screening around the bait area so he couldn't get his hands in, and put an extra plate on the trip area so he couldn't help but step on it. Here's what I found this morning - he has tripped it, but actually opened the other end of the trap to escape, and stripped off the screening as well! Unbelievable.

They are SO clever. Sorry that wasn't sympathy . I would worry too. Not sure what to suggest....

Raccoons sure are clever critters! How is he getting into your pool cage, is he ripping the screen to gain access? I wonder what food source (plant) is attracting him into the pool area? If you can figure that out and remove the attraction, perhaps he will move on to better feeding grounds. I'd worry about the kitty also ... raccoons not only carry rabies but are very protective if they have their young ones nearby and even though felines have claws I doubt they'd be a match for a raccoon.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the masked critter moves on.

plantladylin said:Elaine, what a gorgeous Orchid and Daylily! I wish we had a Trader Joe's here but the closest one is @ 50 miles away in Winter Park. Trader Joe's is building a huge distribution warehouse here locally so maybe there will be more stores coming to Florida in the near future. Next summer my husband and I will be moving south to retire in Sebastian, Fl and the closest Trader Joe's to us there is @ 70 miles away in Palm Beach. I think we need more Trader Joes on the east coast of Florida!

I'm with you there -- I love Trader Joe's but it's quite a drive.

@dyzzypyxxy
Try putting the trap outside your pool cage area. Just keep feeding it until it gets more comfortable and then perhaps it will spring the trap.
Have you checked with your local animal control? I think you may find that it's illegal, in Florida, to trap raccoons yourself and you may have to call them. Find out if this is true (it was a few years back - but things change); and since you already have a trap they may let you use yours (not charging you) and then haul it off. The only problem with this is: I don't think they relocate them and if she has babies they will be left to die.
If you did catch it yourself, then relocate far, far away (without the neighbors seeing you); preferable across some water, like a river.

I just looked at the FWC page and don't see anything where it says it's illegal to trap a raccoon in Florida:
http://myfwc.com/conservation/... but I can't access the page regarding nuisance wildlife regulations; I get a page with a warning saying the connection is not safe or something so I didn't continue. I agree with Elfie that once trapped, the raccoon should be relocated far away or it will more than likely return to it's familiar feeding grounds.

Raccoons dont stay in one place to long, they are always changing homes, so , maybe if nothing else, it will move on. What I dont know is, if when they change homes they still stay in the same area or if they dont care.

There is a cat flap to let the kitty in and out of the cage, Lin. She was born a feral cat so refuses to use a litter box, and if I block the cat flap, she wakes me up to get out at night. She has a fancy electronic cat door that operates off her microchip to let her into the house, so at least the raccoon can't come into my bedroom! But she wakes me up growling if the raccoon comes near the windows.

I think it is the water that's attracting them in this hot, dry weather. I've trapped probably 3 or 4 raccoons each year for coming into the cage. Sometimes there are scented flowers, but nothing else, and strangely, there's other water out in the yard for them - a water garden and a bird bath just for starters. But raccoons do like to 'mark their territory' by pooping in the water so the step area of my pool is very attractive to them.

I used to keep a couple of big brugmansias in the cage to shade the orchids but they got just too big and I moved them out. When they were blooming, the raccoons would come in because of the scent. Also if any of the sweet-scented orchids are blooming, that can draw them in, too. I've had my Coconut orchids blooming the last couple of weeks but they're over now.

It is ok to trap, but illegal to relocate wildlife yourself, and there's a $500 fine if you are caught with any wild animal in your vehicle, unless you are a licensed wildlife person. When I trap the raccoons I call Animal Control and they charge $20 to take the raccoon away. I believe they are euthanized since they are not indigenous to this area. They used to relocate them but found that the survival rate for them when relocated was very poor so it was more humane to just euthanize.

I remember hearing that it was not good to relocate squirrels because their survival rate was poor when they were moved to a new territory but I didn't realize it was the same for raccoons. At our old house I had trouble with something eating my orchids that were hanging in the backyard trees and I always blamed it on the squirrels but it could very well have been raccoons as we had tons of them around at night ... thankfully we never had any of them access our screened pool cage! I didn't know they marked their territory by pooping in water, that is hysterical ... unless of course they are doing it in your swimming pool!

Years ago a large, neighborhood tom cat breached the pool cage at our house but he came through the screened roof; I found him curled up in a chair by the pool one morning. Luckily I hadn't let our kitties out yet because I'm sure the fur would have been flying! We had five cats back then and the screened area across the back of the house that included the pool was the only "outdoors" they knew and they did not like other cats.

Seems the rain by-passed us today. Nice & sunny. But I've been stuck indoors finishing a quilt. At least it is nice to look out the door & see light & not sheets of rain coming down.
I have been seeds I want to get into the ground later today - after I'm done with the sewing.

So many plant sales the next few weekends. I'm going to be collecting butterfly host plants so my cats stop dying of malnutrition.....

No starving caterpillars, Jean! That makes me a sad Melanie. But that's good you're going to get some more plants. Of course, the more plants you have, the more eggs they seem to lay and then you're back where you started. That's why I'm growing Pipevine in my shade house where the butterflies can't lay eggs on it. I never have enough. But at least I can dump my caterpillars at MOSI. What plants are you looking to add?

The rain totally found me today and I am glad! I still have some plants that haven't been in the ground too long and I get tired of going out there and hosing them down.

Lucky, Melanie. We've had zip, zilch, zero rain for seems like weeks. There was a storm to the east of us a while ago today, but it has totally petered out. My rain barrels are getting pretty empty.

I especially need more of the Passion Vine. they strip mine down to the nubs every time it attempts to put out leaves. I'm starting a field of B-fly weed, parsley, fennel, & such out back. Hidden by nectar plants. I have a mini pipe vine they also devour.

We got a pretty good downpour with thunder and everything!

Jean, that sounds like a good mix! I had to take four Gulf Fritillary cats off my Corkystem Passion Vine (P. suberosa) today and move them over to my much larger Passiflora 'Lavender Lady'. Both the Frits and the Zebra Longwings love the Corkystem. They eat it down to nothing and as soon as I get a leaf pop out someone lays an egg (or four) on it! Luckily, I've had three volunteer plants come up this year. I already transplanted two. I'm also growing P. lutea which the Zebra Longwings always seem to favor. It's been getting covered up by invasive ferns so I moved them, as well. So far, all the transplants are doing well. The rain certainly helped!

Well, I was kind of worried about this plant, since I've waited years to try it. But . . . Ta Da! My Bat Plant has put up 3 new flower scapes and a bunch of new leaves! Just in time for my family's visit, too! Think the 2yr. old will like that freaky flower?

Oh Elaine, that is a beauty!! Hope the 2 year old doesn't want to pick the flower.

Elaine - your Bat is wonderful!!!! I've heard they are very temperamental. Glad yours has decided to flourish.