"Steve Coyle" wrote in message
m...
Howdy folks,
In response to some different comments in this thread.
The problem with Oleanders is an incurable ( at the moment,
according to A&M pathology lab )disease has moved into the Austin area
centered around the Steck neighborhood that is killing them off and
will likely spread. If you do an advanced google search on "Skip
Richter oleander disease" his PDF file article pops up with all the
details.
Skips view, that I agree with is that there is no sense in spending
time and money to increase the host population of this plant in
Austin. Talking to the folks at Green Grow, there was a big debate
about including the plant in this list given the problems, but since
color was so hard to get with deer resistant plants they included it
anyway.

The kindergarden trip to the Zilker botanical gardens went well.We
had one partially soaked kid, which isn't too bad out of thirty. We
saw a black and yellow banded snake which, if we got it straight, it's
"Red and yellow, fine fellow, red and black get back, jack" or maybe
the other way around, but we kept our distance. The purifying wall
basin spigot was clogged up in the Japanese garden, I was sorry to
see. In the Roses just about everything had shut down except for the
Caldwell Pinks, one of my favorite Roses. There was also a massive
amount of black spot everywhere which surprised me, but I've never
been crazy about their choices in that garden.

Aaaack! Steve! It's the other way around: "Red on yellow, kill a fellow,
red on black, friend of Jack". See:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/expltx/jrnat/compare.htm . I believe the other
one in the photo is a king snake. Anyway, just tell the little darlin's to
leave 'em alone. (Any idea how many snakebites involve males between
15-30...and usually alcohol? ;-))

Harvested my first "crop" last night: a double-handful of wild dewberries
off my place! Just enough to top a big ol' bowl of Bluebell...

Dale