Hi! Let me show you what happened when I allowed the below flower, a red scabious zinnia, cross randomly with other zinnias in the garden (we will presume pollination carried out by insects). The mother flower, or at least, one similar example from the same plant, shown below: The offspring (shown at different scale): This one above has full, orange scabious flowers, about 1 1/2 inches across. This one above not a good flower at all, but it may be damaged by the weather conditions we've had, too. Not like it's mother.... This flower above looks like it may have had a whirligig dad...has a good supply of disc flowers. This above flower seems to me to be most like the mother flower, but the florets are a shorter red, and there are guard petals (damaged, I think) of a shade of fuscia. This is the only plant that has inherited the relatively narrower leaves of its maternal parent, too. The above flower seems uncertain of what to do--funny florets in the center, somewhat curly petals here and there, but keeping the red color for the most part. Last, but not least: This might be an interesting one. Daisy-like, some of the central florets turning brown due to too much rain, and more to come! I couldn't believe what sorts of flowers came from that red scabious mother! It's kind as if anything goes when there are random crosses. I have four or five plants that resulted from planned crosses with the red scabious and a red cactus. Will see what happens.... But I sure would like to get another red scabious like the one I had last summer.... ZM, when you said "recombinant" flower I thought you probably meant home-bred, but I asked anyway. I think what you're doing is the right thing. I am going to eliminate those plants that produce mediocre flowers to get better lines going here. For now, though, I am nipping off the undesirable first flowers without destroying the plants. I think some ugly flowers may be resulting from poor environmental conditions! I wonder if we should move to Part 11? ZM? JG

I spoke too soon. Just when I thought they were all gone, I saw a single hummer today at my home made Salvia coccinea feeder. I hand make all of my feeders from small liquor bottles with realistic-looking Sculpey clay flowers. Sculpey (in case you've never heard of it) is a colored clay that you can bake to hardness in the oven at 275 degrees F. Aside from the sheer joy of the birds themselves, I've really enjoyed designing different feeders all summer and figuring out the perfect design needs and preferences. For example, through my efforts, I've learned that their reach with tongue and bill is at least 40mm, but won't go much over 50mm. I learned this when I made one of my flowers too long (about 53mm), and the poor birds would dip their bills in and come up empty! I had to break it apart and shorten it to allow the birds to get access. At first I stuck to only red flowers, but later got adventurous and tried a purple Lobelia. To my delight, they took to it immediately. Next year, I'm going to expand to white, orange, blue, and marbled combinations to see if they show any preferences. Anyway, I had just put this new Salvia coccinea feeder out yesterday, but was disappointed that all the birds seemed to be gone. I figured I'd have to wait until next year to see if they liked it. Talk about delayed gratification!! I was so happy to see a single bird come this afternoon and see her feeding from it. The window box with snapdragons was blocking my view, plus the late afternoon lighting made it really hard to see the throat well, but I'm pretty sure it was a female. As I mentioned earlier, I haven't seen an adult male since early August.

MangoHelios - Remember the old saying if you play with fire you're going to get burned LOL I learned the hard way LOL can you say burlap fabric LOL On Feb. 22 you will see why Orange County is known as the land of fruits and honey LOL and of course La Habra the home of Hass Avocado....Palm Springs: the Wind Capital of the West?? LOL Only kidding with you Bro, here is a nice article about the mango farms in coachella valley http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-marketwatch-20100813,0,5060129.story Market Watch: Coachella desert's Valencia Pride and Keitt mangoes have arrived Customers have been wondering for weeks when they'd show up, and now Wong Farms' desert mangoes, among the most exotic and eagerly sought fruits grown in California, are back at the Wednesday Santa Monica farmers market. Juicy, sweet and aromatic, they're expensive and tricky to obtain, but worth it for diehard mango lovers. By David Karp, Special to the Los Angeles Times August 13, 2010......

Sorry Alana! I'm stealing box #9. Current Standings Player #1 (Lisa) has Box # 3 (Denise's stolen from Karen) Player #2 (Mariann) has Box #12 (Lainey's stolen from Carmen) Player #3 (Denise) has Box # 2 (Mariann's stolen from Karen) Player #5 (Tracy) has Box #14 (Frozen-Alana's box stolen from Sue) Player #6 (Karen) has Box # 9 (Pat's stolen from Alana) Player #7 (Sue) has Box #5 (Tracy's, stolen from Lisa-frozen) Player #8 (Shirley) has box #10 (Carmen's, stolen from Barb) Player #9 (Pat) has Box #8 (Frozen-Shirley's) Player #10 (Carmen) has #1 (Lisa's, stolen from Karen) Player #11 (Becky) has Box #13 (Margaret's, stolen from Mariann) Player #12 (Lainey) has box #7 (Sue's) Player #13 (Margaret) has box #6 (Karen's stolen from Denise) Player #14 (Alana) has # Updated Number of Possessions Lisa- box 9, 5, 3 Mariann- box 12, 13, 3, 12 Denise- box 5, 12, 2, 5, 6, 2 Tracy- box 12, 14, 12, 14, 4, 8, 14 (frozen) Karen- box 3, 1, 3, 2, 9 Sue- box 3, 8, 14, 5, 8, 14, 5, 3, 5 (frozen) Shirley- box 10 Pat- box 8, 4, 8, 14, 8 (frozen) Carmen- box 12, 14, 12, 5, 1 Becky- box 13 Lainey- box 7 Margaret- box 8, 2, 6 Alana-box 3, 9 Alana's turn. Alana, have fun with your family gathering!