- shrimp plant really looks like shrimp. - haworthia 'star window' has translucent window-like leaves that are fascinating. - haworthia 'zebra' is another really cool haworthia - aeonium schwarzkopf is a beautiful, striking purple color - lamb's ear is soft and cuddly - many kalanchoe varieties are quite hairy and strange-looking. - and then there's horsetail plant. its a very tall, strange, almost reed-appearing plant, but it is extremely aggressive, and once it flowers (which doesn't look like a flower, but more a swelling at the tip), it sends out spores and it is never to be gotten rid of. i have found my favorite strange plants by going to places that sell succulents and just browsing for what looks unusual.

Yes, spiderlings tend to cluster when they first hatch from eggs. They'll slowly start to spread out and go their own way. Mum's probably dead and dad was probably eaten by mum while they were a 'twinkle in his eyes'.

Most likely a woodchuck. The young of the year are going off on their own at this season. They are diurnal so if you keep an eye on the burrow you should eventually get a look at it. I've been told that they are fairly easy to live trap, using apples or cantaloupe for bait, but I've never tried it myself. A suitable trap will cost you about fifty dollars. But watch and wait a bit and see if the animal does more damage.

My scary story involves being a Florida gardening neophyte and not realizing that everything I planted was going to either get huge or run everywhere! Bamboo that was supposed to be Golden Goddess, but it isn't. When first planted and second photo from a couple years ago--bamboo stalks are even larger now. I planted this clerodendron from a tiny pot from a garden club sale. Now it has spread itself all around, 30 feet from its original plant. I am chopping down suckers everywhere. I planted a blue clockvine on a trellis. It got huge and died back in the frost, leaving ugly black leaves and bare stems, so I dug it up and threw it on the side of the lot. Now it covers all the scrub growth for quite a distance. I love the Dombeya seminole I planted, but now it covers up everything else--under its spreading branches are three roses, a bird of paradise, two pineapple plants, and several crinum lilies. But it's just starting to bloom, so how can I prune it now??? To the right of the Dombeya is a Carolina jessamine--climbing into the gutters. How was I to know it would get so BIG? I have several other examples, including a fern a neighbor gave me that is spreading everywhere, a Calliandra powderpuff that got huge and has to be put back every year or the neighbor's yard disappears under it, a coral honeysuckle that got so thick it collapsed the trellis it is growing on .... Marcia