This toad is the first line of defense against any creatures that may want to feast on this batch of recently sowed Brugmansia seeds.He has a confident "don't mess with me" look that is certain to scare unwanted visitors away.  My toad population appears to be rebounding this year so hopefully they will help me keep the snails under control this summer. 

While working in my Brugmansia jungle yesterday I found several ghost seed pods like this one.  I hate when this happens!In our hot and steamy Florida summers, when seeds pods ripen they must be harvested quickly or you'll end up with a pod skeleton and Brugmansia seeds scattered all over the ground.  This can happen in just a couple of weeks.  However, when pods ripen in the winter and spring, the pods would just dry and could hang on the plant with seeds intact for months. 

After planting seeds from about 40 immature brugmansia seed pods I'm excited to report that about 1/3 already have seeds sprouting!  I'm sure more crosses will sprout in the next week or two.  This is way cool because I had some important crosses I was afraid I might have lost in the freeze.  There are at least 30 more seeds pods that were damaged in the freeze that I plan to plant next weekend. My guess is that I have about the same number that did not get damaged that are still growing on ...