Anyone with experience growing Rudbeckia hirta?

Last year I ordered Rudbeckia hirta seeds (Prairie Sun) and the plants have been growing for about a year now. Recently flower buds started to form and now I have flowers that look like the photo attached. The flowers are quite small (about 1/2" [1.3 cm] long and 1/4" [.6 cm] wide) with pink and yellow centers. The photos I've seen of this type of Rudbeckia show large bright yellow daisy-like flowers with yellow to green centers. Any comments? Should I be patient and wait for these little pink flowers to magically transform themselves into large yellow daisy-like flowers? Has anyone seen a Rudbeckia with flowers like the ones in the photo attached? Right now I am feeling puzzled and well, disappointed and not sure if I should pull the plants up or wait for some magic to happen. I have two plants 3-1/2 - 4-1/2 feet tall.

Hi vitrsna,

I dont now what your picture shows,but definetely no rudbeckia hirta.I grow some of them in my garden here in Germany and they spread evrywhere.
My plant looks like this,if its possible to send you seeds I will do so.



Greetings

plum68

I forgot to say,that Rudbeckia hirta is a perennial,at least in Germany.

Greetings

plum68

Thank you so much for your reply plum68 and for your offer to send seeds. I did look through hundreds of photos on the internet and didn't find anything that looked like what i had been growing so i pulled the plants up this morning. Already i have ordered Rudbeckia seeds from 4 different vendors and hope they arrive soon. I will try again...your plants look lovely. regards, beverly

Hello vitrsna,

youre welcome,now at the moment in bavaria where I live it is ice cold winter,with deep frosting temperatures and thank God a few centimeters of snow to cover the plants in the garden,its the best isolation.
wish you all the best with growing your Rudbeckia,its really a nice plant,even if its growing every where,you don't like to have it.For example some of them are growing where I grow usually veggies.

Greetings
plum68

oh yes, i have gardened in the northern climates and the snow provides a good insulation for the plants. it must be very beautiful where you are and i am a little jealous because you have some time off from gardening during the year. Where I live in Colima, Mexico (zone 10b), the weather is warm all year around...so I garden all year around because I can...this is of course a little bit good and a little bit bad, but it is what it is and the garden is always a fascination for me. now i am going out to sit by the mailbox and wait for my Rudbeckia seeds to arrive. i hope i don't have to sit there for any longer than a week or two :-D
Best wishes, beverly

Hi vitrsna,

now,it looks like this,where I live,I miss gardening a lot at the moment.I have such a lot to
sow.But hopefully in a few weeks,spring is coming.I don't know ,whether you know snowdrops?But there are coming already,they can stand frosty temperatures,it doesn't matter to them.
So,now I hope you don't have to wait to long for the seeds.

Greetings to warm Mexico

plum68

actually there should be more Winter Impressions.


plum68

and still one more,

thank you Plum for sending the beautiful Bavarian winter photos. i can just feel the fresh cold air and hear the crunch of the crispy dry snow...such a spectacular looking place. i have seen photos of snowdrops but i don't think i've seen them in person. are they the first flowers to appear? i lived in Alaska when i was a child and i remember the first things to appear when the snow started to melt were forget-me-nots and wild sweet onions.

if you like, i can send photos of some of the tropical flowers in my garden and maybe a butterfly or two. let me know if you have an interest in seeing them...saludos, beverly

Hallo vitrsna,

oh,Alaska,that must be an icy cold place in winter,at the moment,Europe gets the freezing
cold temperatures from Russia,where I live we have night temperatures of - 20 degree
and day temperatures of - 12 (or even less) degree.Its not really nice at the moment,because its actuallly to cold to go outside.And the garden is deepfrosted.

Please send me some tropical pictures of your garden,than its at least summer on pictures.Thank you.

Greetings plum68

when the snowdrops are flowering I can send you photos.

Greetings Plum! I read news reports about the frigid temperatures in Europe now. OOOh, that is very cold indeed. I hope it warms up very, very soon for you.

Here is the first photo of some plants from my garden. This is a Turnera diffusa, native to Mexico and Central America, and it is beaming sunshine and warmth to you. I grew this plant from seed and it is just a few months old. This is the very first flower and already it has a job to do. I added this nectar rich plant to my garden for the butterflies and also to warm you up.

Now I will go look for more photos to send....

Okay....here is a Fiery Skipper butterfly (some people think these are moths, but they are really very small butterflies). This little butterfly is taking nectar from a Cosmos (also native to Mexico). One late afternoon a couple of years ago, as i was sitting on the patio resting and contemplating the progress of the garden, one of these little butterflies came to sit on my arm and we sat there together until the sun started to set...then the butterfly flew away to find a nice leaf to sleep under for the night and i returned to the house. :-D

and...here is a flower from the Passiflora edulis vine. It is either native or naturalized to Mexico. The vine also produces wonderfully delicious golden fruits. This photo was taken right after a warm tropical rain. I wish you could smell this flower...the fragrance is beautiful...a little bit sweet and mostly spicey! aaaah. The vine is host for about 20 different species of butterflies.

I hope the extra cold spell breaks very soon for you Plum...i truly do. te envio saludos muy calidos de Mexico (I am sending to you very warm greetings from Mexico), beverly

Hi virtsna,

thank you so much for the photos,its really summerfeeling looking at this flowers.
The flower at the first picture reminds me,to a flower called "oenothera" I only know
the botanical name and not the english one.Butterflies like them very much and in the morning the flower smells sweet.
The cosmos at the second picture,I also had in my garden,but in Germany its not perennial,
but it seeds everywhere if you leave them.The butterfly looks nice.
I'm really looking forward to the first butterfly flying through the garden,its a yellow one,and when it is flying around,spring has really arrived in Germany,because its the first butterfly at all who flies so early around.
That must be really nice,to have such a passionfruit in the garden,I saw one in New Zealand flowering and the fruit they called "banana passion fruit".The fruit has been eatable,but I didn't like them so much.

greetings

plum68

and the fruit looks like this,actually more as a potatoe,than as a banana.

Hi Plum...What a beautiful flower with such funny looking fruit. yes, they look more like potatoes to me too. We call oenotheras "the Primrose Family" and there are many species...there is even an "oenothera mexicanus" but i haven't seen one yet. Looks like it might be something nice to add to my garden. beverly

hello virtsna,

that would be a nice idea to have some more of the primrose in the garden,its very
important plant for insects and butterflies.
Do you have hummingbirds,flying in your garden?
Are Dahlias a native plant to Mexico?

greetings plum68

hi plum...yes i have hummingbirds all year...a variety of different kinds but i have not learned their names yet. they are difficult to photograph because their wings move so rapidly...i was told a camera with some special attachment or feature is needed to photograph hummingbirds well. the hummingbirds are adorable. they are also territorial so i have to teach them how to share the territory of my garden with the butterflies. one day i had some monarch visitors in the garden. one monarch in particular was sitting on a plant, resting, enjoying the sun and a hummingbird whizzed directly at the monarch and knocked him off the plant. i was astonished...and the butterfly was really astonished! but the butterfly was not injured...just a bit dazed (like "what happened"?). so now when i am in the garden and there are both butterflies and hummingbirds in the garden, i will clap my hands once at the hummingbirds to chase them away and let them know it is shared territory. this actually seems to work and the hummingbirds are less territorial in my garden now.

dahlias do grow wild here and i've been told that black dahlias grow wild here but i do not know if they are native or naturalized. i have not found any yet, i think they are up the mountain at elevations higher than where i live. but i don't know what their season is or when they bloom. i do not have dahlias in my garden but i do love them. so many things to do...so little time so many things to plant...so little space :-D.

are you still suffering from the cold wave there? have things warmed up a little bit? i hope so, beverly

hello virtsna,

to have hummingbirds in the garden,sounds to me like living in a paradise.They must be looking beautiful,like little flying jewels.I've never seen one,only on pictures.
I'm working in germany as a gardener,and we learned that dahlias are native to mexico.
I tell people here in germany,that they have to pull out there dahlias in late autum,because they cant stand frosty degrees,because they come actually from Mexico.

It is still frosty in Germany,still almost -20 degree during night where I live.I'm afraid,
the frosty degrees we have till the end of february.

greetings to warm and sunny Mexico(I really wish to be there at the moment,I'm so fad up with icy cold temperatures and snow)

from frosty germany

Plum68

Hi Plum...if you are working as a gardener, what kinds of things do you do during the winter? You must know a lot about gardening, no wonder your flowers look so beautiful. The rules are all different when gardening in the tropics so i have had to learn a lot during the past 4 years.

You don't have hummingbirds in the summer? if you google "tropical hummingbirds" i'll bet you will find some beautiful photos to cheer you up.

It is really too bad we cannot "beam" ourselves to other places without having to bother with airplanes and such. we should be able to do this, don't you think? as humans, i don't think we are any where near utilizing our capacity. i remember the winters. at the beginning everything is exciting and winter wonder land but after some months all we want is for spring to come. i remember that in february there were always a few days of what we called "false spring" where the weather would become much warmer for a few days and the cherry trees would start to blossom and then...kerboom, more snow, more cold. what a tease. just remember it won't always be winter.

beverly

Hi virtsna,

during winter I do a lot of cross-country skiing,you know it?
There is not such a lot to do with my garden plants,just let them grow and flowering.
They don't get any fertilizer or other stuff.
We don't have hummingbirds where I live,its far to cold for them,even in summer.

Greetings

plum68

saludos plum...gardening in spring and summer and cross-country skiing in the winter? i don't think i feel sorry for you anymore. you must be in great shape. yes i have done some cross-country skiing some years ago in the pacific northwest of the state of washington in the USA. I started with downhill skiing, but it was boring and i wasn't very good at it...we were forever standing in line for the chair lift, there were so many people, and i was not enjoying it so my husband and i started cross-country skiing. cross-country is so much better...to be out in nature and quiet without so many people around and moving instead of standing in line.. plus it is a good form of transportation when there is snow everywhere. but this was all years ago. i had this idea that you must live high in the alps so i researched Bad Tolz on the internet. you are only at an elevation of 670 meters, your town has a population of about 18,000, you are not so far from munchen, and your town is charming...it looks so, well, bavarian :-D. maybe that is because it is in bavaria? you have spas and a beautiful river. is this correct?

would you be surprised if i told you it has snowed twice here in the last week? it has, really. there are two mountains (volcanos) very close. one of the volcanos is dormant and has an elevation of about 4,340 meters so it does get some snow at the top. the other volcano is active and at an elevation of about 4,000 meters but if any snow lands there it melts immediately because the mountain is hot due to volcanic activity. i live at an elevation of 545 meters, about half way between the active volcano and the pacific ocean. usually there is snow every year on the inactive volcano but not enough for skiing and anyway the snow melts in the day and freezes at night so soon it is more ice than snow. but this happens only on the mountain...where i live the average annual temperature is about 25 degrees C.

when i started gardening in the tropics 4 years ago, i thought i could plant any time of the year because it never gets cold here but what i discovered is that seeds do not germinate well (except for just a couple of kinds) in the months of december and january. the weather is warm enough...the seeds will germinate in november and february, but not in december and january. i found this to be very curious and thought perhaps the seeds have some genetic make-up that causes them not to want to germinate in these two months. i think december and january are the months for living things to rest. what do you think? beverly

greetings Plum...I hope my post above doesn't sound as though i am making light of the severe weather situation throughout europe. i saw on the international news this evening that the temperatures remain severe and have dropped lower in many places and that people are really suffering from these very low temperatures over such an extended period of time. i hope you and your family and loved ones are well and that very soon the situation will improve and snowdrops will begin to pop up. take care, beverly

hi virtsna,

actually I like downhill-skiing,I did it all winter when I was a child.
But at this time now,its far to expensive and dangerous,because its so crowded with people.
Yes,Bad Tölz is a nice little bavarian Town,quite close to Munich and the beautiful river
is called "Isar".
We are sourrunded by what we call "bairische Voralpen" those ones are the alps in front of the higher Mountains up to 3000m.
The highest mountain in Germany is almost 3000m high its called "Zugspitze" its not far from us by car.
What you wrote about cross-country skiing,thats also the reason to me why I do cross-country skiing.Moving,instead of standing still,and you are often almost alone on such a slope(I hope thats the right word in english) and one is surounded by a beautiful landscape,and because one actually moves quite slow,one can take beautiful pictures.
Like those ones I posted here.

What you wrote about germination of seeds that it doesn't work in december and january
I explain it with having to less daylight,because the days are to short during this to month,
I will give you an example.
when we grow plants in greenhouses in our nursery,in december/january,there is nothing growing,we can heat up the greenhouses,but still the certain amount of daylight,which
the plants need for growing is missing.
Maybe its the same with your seeds in Mexico.And of course they need a certain temperature to germinate,its maybe a bit colder where you live in winter isnt it?

The temperatures in Germanygetting better since today,the heavy frosty degrees are gone now,and ist slowly becoming warmer,towards spring.
We even get the next few days "plus" instead of "minus" during the day,not much,but at least 3-4 degree.

Greetings plum68

Hello Plum...happy to hear you are having some relief from the severe cold and that you are finally on the plus side of 0.

It has been raining here for the last 3 days or so which is very unusual for February. We may have one or two rainy days but usually it will rain and clear up. This rain is being a problem for me because January and February are usually the months i have for doing repairs on the walls and painting, etc. and now everything is too wet. Most of the repairs in the butterfly garden i do myself because there is so much wild life in the form of caterpillars (butterfly larva) etc and new plants coming up. I know where all the little life forms are, so i can do repairs and paint without damaging the butterfly larva. The workmen will just walk all over them and scrape paint and make dust that will clog up their little breathing holes...so i only let them do certain areas where the patio is. They think i am very funny but they are respectful. In the front of the house where there is no butterfly garden, they do all of the work. Right now there are many caterpillars and also i have plants coming up and i need to do the work while the plants and caterpillars are still small.

It does get a little cooler in December and January, especially at night. During those months the temperatures range from 16 - 31 degrees C, night time temperatures and daytime temperatures, respectively. So that would be still warm enough for germination wouldn't it? Also, the average hours of sunshine plus twilight during December and January is between 10.5 hours to 11.1 hours...may 9.5 hours average of sunshine. Shouldn't that be enough for germination? In May and June average daylight is 12.4 - 13.9 hours. I wonder if that is enough of a change to make a difference in germination? There are not such dramatic changes in annual daylight hours and temperatures here as there are in more northern climates. February is generally the best month for planting.

With all the rain i should be cleaning my house but instead i wrote a story/article and sent it to a "Butterfly Gardening" magazine. They liked the article/story and are going to publish it in the Spring issue along with photos of my garden, so this has been more fun than cleaning the house.

Your English is really very good. Have you lived in an English-speaking country? Or have you studied English in school for some years? I think you must have started learning at an early age. I have a neighbor who is Mexicano and learned English watching cartoons on TV, and his English is really entertaining. My Spanish is far from fluent and most likely it is pretty funny too. I studied French in school for several years and took just one year of Russian, but that's all that i have in terms of languages.

I just received my first order of rudbeckia and i am wanting very much to get them started. I have three more varieties en route. The seeds that i have received so far are both dwarfs "hirta Toto" and "Rustic". It looks like we are going to have a few more days of rain so i will have to be patient. Saludos, Beverly

hi virtsna,

what you wrote about the germination of seeds in your posting,its really not a big difference
between temperatures and hours of daylight and so on.I have then no idea,why the seeds don't germinate in december and january.
Yes,I used to live and work in scotland,for about 1,5 years,but its ages ago.But if somebody learned a language propperly,one never will loose it,even after such a long time.
When I came back to germany,I almost couldn't speak german anymore,I was so used to speak english.
To have especially a butterfly garden(maybe you have some more butterfly fotos to show)
sounds very nice.I do a lot for them in my german garden,growing wild plants,like primroses and "buddleia davidii"(i only know the botanical name).The nicest butterfly we have,where I live is called a "swallow tail",but its very rare seen in the gardens.Last year in early summer one came and flew around,but only short and only once last year.
When I cleaned up my balcony for wintertime in november(during summer,there are a
lot of Tomatoe pots standing right close to the house,I found abutterfly larva,prepared for overwintering.So I put this larva in one of the pots,looking whats coming out this spring.

Thats nice,that you got the rudbeckia seeds,this photo I showed you,its actually not rudbeckia hirta,Im afraid,sorry.Rudbeckia hirta is an annual plant,at least in germany,
but its looking very simular to this one I posted.This one I posted is also Rudbeckia but its called "Goldsturm" it is perennial in Germany.
So,I hope you can sow soon your rudbeckia seeds.
Where I live it became warmer but since yesterday its snowing like mad, I'm shure we have soon 40 cm of fluffy white snow.
Spring is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo far away.

greetings plum

Saludos Plum…yes, I call this the “tropical December and January germination mystery” (at least on the northern side of the equator). There a few very dedicated plants native to Mexico that will germinate during this time, but the germination period is about twice as long as normal.
I almost always use botanical names, not because I am a snob but because if one is communicating with people in different countries and different regions, the botanical names are the only way people can know if they are all talking about the same plant. There are so many different common names used for the same plant. I grow buddleia davidii here too. It is not a tropical plant and grows as an annual, does not make seeds (I grow it in a pot). But it is a good nectar plant and more importantly it is a safe place for many of the butterfly larva (caterpillars, familiarly in english) to pupate because the predators do not know this plant and so do not expect to find prey on it. As far as I know, buddleia is a good nectar plant but does not host caterpillars. If you want the butterflies to come to your garden, you will want host plants.
Germany has many butterflies and the Old World Swallowtail is very beautiful. These butterflies have a strong migration pattern so maybe they will not stay long in your garden, but the females might lay eggs if you have a host plant, also the males may stop briefly looking for females. The females lay eggs on and the caterpillars eat the leaves of plants of the Umbelliferae family. There are some nice photos here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_machaon. If you google “Butterflies of Germany” or the German language equivalent, you will find information regarding what butterflies you can attract to your garden and what host plants you will need.
If you would like to send me a photo of your pupating butterfly larva, maybe I can tell you what kind of butterfly it is…or maybe you want it to be a surprise…then again you might be away from the house and it will disappear without your knowing what it was…
Oh yes, some rudbeckia goldstrum seeds are being sent to me…this is the one I am the most excited about! I would very much like a perennial rudbeckia. Every new plant is an experiment for me because sometimes plants noted as being annuals are really perennials in the tropic zones so I never really know but always collect seeds just in case they drop dead. And by the way, if there are tropical seeds you would like, I would be pleased to send them to you. Every new plant is also an experiment because if the butterflies don’t use it for food or to lay eggs on, usually I will not continue to grow it because of the limited space that I have. Sometimes, though I will have an affection for a plant and keep it anyway.
Yes I do have some butterfly photos to send you and will send some next time. Now I need to go scrape paint.
Ooooh 40 cm of snow (especially the white fluffy kind) is going to be spectacularly beautiful, oh my! Do you use snow shoes? Well, I’m going out to scrape paint, oh boy :-( Regards, Beverly

hi virtsna,

are you ready with painting?

snow is finely slowly melting,I'm soooooooo happy,no fluffy snow anymore.I sometimes use snow shoes for going in the mountains,but more often I go crosscountry-Skiing.
At the moment one needs to be very carefully if one goes mountaineering with skis or snow shoes or even walking,because of avalanches.We have a avalanche-level from 1-5
level 1 says its very safe and secure and actually nothing happening if you go skiing beside an unprepared slope,level 5 says you almost better stay at home and keep away from mountains,because its awful dangerous.
We are at the moment at level 4,underneath and above where the forest ends.It can happen at the moment that you go for a nice winterwalk trough the forest and suddenly there is an avalanche coming.

I agree with,what you wrote about using botanical names.It won't make sense not to use them.
In Europe budleia davidii is sold as a shrub.The butterflys love the flowers,but I've never seen larva or pupets on it.
I grow wild carrots in my garden,its also an umbelliferae,but I've never seen a swallow tail
at it.

Today I started sowing inside,daylilies and hellebores,outside its of course still far to cold at least for the daylilies.Hellebores need frosty degrees (-4/-6) for to start germination.Now there are a few days inside,and then go outside in the garden put the pots I sowed them in in the soil,to start slowly germination.I hope it works.

Thank you so much, for sending me tropical seeds,it would be very nice to have some.
But,is it allowed to send seeds from Mexico to Germany and the other way round?
This seeds you will be sending me,are there working in germany?Because of our different climate?I'm very interested in bulbs,such as Crinum (do you call it Hook-lily)?there must be a lot of mexican natives.
and Nerine and so on.But its to expensive to send bulbs I'm afraid,and probably not allowed.
If you would like to have seeds of "Crinum giganteum" and "Pankratium maritimum" or any other seeds just let me know.
just let me know.

greetings Andrea

Hi Andrea. I am as far away from finishing my walls as you are away from spring. First I have to scrape, then repair some parts with a cement mixture and then I can paint. Right now is a little bit hilarious because there are 4 or 5 different types of caterpillars pupating. When they start pupating, they stop eating and generally will leave their host plant and wander around looking for just the right place to make a chrysalis, so right now I have to look where I am putting my feet so I don’t step on one. They will be all settled in a day or two and until them my work is slow. When I return to the house, I look at the bottom of my shoes just to make sure there is not a squashed caterpillar there. So far, so good. This has happened to me once and I felt terrible for a week.
Is your house in the path of potential avalanches? I recently saw a news item of a snowboarder coming down a mountain in Colorado with an avalanche following and engulfing him. He had an airbag (I don’t know if that is the same thing cars are equipped with or if it is special snow equipment). He activated the airbag which lifted him up above the snow enough so that he would not be buried and he not only survived, but continued snowboarding down the mountain on top of the avalanche. Here is a utube video (just in case you want to see more snow :-):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGKpqloIOE
I imagine you are happy to start planting things. :-D
I don’t know all the rules about sending seeds, but I have received seeds from England and France and if they can send me seeds, I suppose I could send some to you. I know that Australia is very strict about seeds coming into the country. I would send them in a small mailer via international mail…this is the best way, not registered and with no return receipt. Delivery services such as DHL, UPS, etc will not accept a package with seeds in it from Mexico or to Mexico, but international mail works great. I think you are right about bulbs, I don’t think you can receive them from here but you might be able to accept them from other places in Europe. I have no bulb plants. I know absolutely nothing about growing bulbs which is funny because tulips are one of my favorite flowers.
I am thinking of sending small quantities. These seem to pass quite well. Very large quantities would probably be subject to inspection.
What I have to send at present are: Asclepias curassavica. Ruellia, Cosmos sulphureus & bipinnatus, Tithonia Rotundiflolia. These are all native or introduced to Mexico and would be annuals in your garden. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rates agricultural zones from 1 to 11 with 1 being the coldest climate and 11 being in the warmest. I am in zone 10b. I know people in Michigan, USA , zone 6(it gets very cold in winter with lots of snow) and they can grow all of the above in the summer. I am not familiar enough with your climate to know what might work. But you can look these up on the internet and decide if any of them will work for you. If you would like any or all of the above seeds, let me know and I will put them in the mail to you. You can contact me via D-mail at the Dave’s Garden site so you don’t have to provide information on the public forum.
At this time, I have an overabundance of seeds for my garden. I have been ordering since late December, and I wouldn’t know what to do with more seeds. I’m all set for this year. I am not sure that rudbeckia goldstrum is going to work well for me. It is described as a perennial from zones 3-9 and I am 10b, but I am going to try them anyway. R. hirta may be a perennial here. It is native to Mexico. I would like to find a perennial rudbeckia that will do well in my climate and has the approval of the butterflies. I am working on having flowers year round, because I have butterflies year round. The rainy season (between July to mid-October) knocks all the blossoms off the lantana and sometimes knocks over the tithonia. So far the asclepias c. is the only one that successfully blooms all year, but sometimes I need to cut it back after many broods of butterflies have been eating the leaves.
Here is a photo of a heliconian long-wings (or zebra heliconian, or zebra long-wings) on a tithonia blossom. It is one of my favorite butterflies and is the state butterfly of the state of Florida in the USA. It is fairly large and very common here but not a butterfly you would see where you live. Warm wishes, beverly

Hi virtsna,

spring is finely coming,snow is melting the next few days,because we get + degrees during night and during day.I'm so happy.
Thank you for this video,its quite scaring is'nt it?Thank god we are not in the path of an avalanche and I actually haven't seen one coming down.But I'm not keen on seeing one coming down,you can imagine.
The avalanche airbag is something different to a car airbag,but I can't tell you what kind the difference is.
If you traded seeds with Great Britain and France,that really shouldn't be a problem,to trade seeds with Germany.
Would be nice to have some cosmos /bippinatus/sulphureus and some of the Tithonia,I love the Tithonias.If there are any seeds you would like to have,such as matricaria,centaurea(blue)etc.than let me know.

Thank you for the butterfly picture,its a really nice one.
Thats a pitty that we don't have such nice ones in Germany (I like them so much)but it would be far to cold for them in Germany.

Now I wish you all the best with the house and that its soon finished.

greetings Andrea

How does it work here with writing D-mails?

Hi Plum. I would be happy to send tithonia and cosmos seeds. These are two of my favorite plants.

If you look at the top of this page (or any page practically), you will see two lines of options. The first line starts out with "Home, My Tools, Communities, etc....." and the second line starts with "My Info"...there is an option called "Mail", select that one. Then at the left of the page select "Compose Mail" then you will be given the option to indicate to whom you wish to send a D-Mail and you will write "vitrsna" and you then will be able to write a D-Mail to me. When I next visit davesgarden, I will see a message that I have D-Mail and I will select the "Mail" option and see your message there. I just sent you a D-Mail so you will see how this works. In my D-mail to you, I also included my personal email address in case you prefer to use that. Hope this makes sense, let me know if you have questions. Saludos, Beverly

Here is a medium sized butterfly commonly called "Banded Peacock"...it is very common here.