Tracydr: I also started some Aji Dulce, and I think saying they are a "booger" to germinate is a nice way of putting it! They are also painfully slow growing, certainly the furthest behind in my garden. I'm real curious about how they will taste, though! For the OP: if your containers are black/dark, you could get some cheap white paint and paint the outsides of the containers white. (Even just some white acrylic craft paint will work.) That will help reduce the temperture in the soil a bit. Also, like the burlap idea, you could get some shade cloth to put up to cool your concrete yard. In comes in percentage of shade it produces, and 30% seems to not prevent growth or fruit ripening on my small fruit plants. I get mine from Grower's Supply/Farmtek cheap by buying remnants of about the size I want. Cheers! Here is a link that might be useful: Shade Cloth Remnants

Typically, people who are doing research and development will hire someone to run focus groups or do it in house. Since you're planning to make money with this information, how much are you going to pay folks for their answers? (I'm not really soliciting money. I'm just pointing out the presumptuous and self serving nature of the request with my incredible lack of charm and tact that I hold so dear)

Thanks for the excellent advice everyone. I had read somewhere about the seed mother being the the most likely parent to pass on the variegation, and was hoping to have the newer variegated plant be the "mother". But you mention the time it takes for seed to ripen and I realize that means a few things. It will likely be late winter or early spring before i have seed, if it is viable. And thats only if I disbud, and then only if both plants will flower at the same time, and thats if I like the flower type of my first plant. And of course the cross has to take and survive until maturity. And so on. So I think I have decided to make myself a drink (thankfully not on call tonight), maybe play some Marvin Gaye, and attempt to facilitate a little self-pollination in my newer plant. Just kidding. I suppose, given the timescales involved, if I am successful by this time next year I may be waiting on seeds from offspring crosses from that plant. Perhaps. I'm far too new to this to begin trying to create a certain type of plant in my opinion. That might lead to frustration. Instead I'd rather make a cross and see what interesting things pop up and then meddle with genetics from there. That being said, maybe it is better to purchase some seeds and do some learning on seeds and seedlings that i have not invested what will amount to a great deal of time and possibly emotion. I have really only seen plants for sale and only a few mentions of seeds for sale. Can anyone recommend a reputable place or internet site to buy some seeds? Thanks, I know this is now far off topic from the first post and I appreciate the time you have all taken to help me. Kerry

Actually, that was the side I didn't do anything to other than cut a few of the larger berry bushes at the bottom of the hill. That birch is in rough shape and without staking it up and waiting several years, it won't survive. I would just assume take it down since it's not really in a great location anyway. I hate to do it since they are becoming relatively scarce due to disease and insects. This picture http://minus.com/lbx4OfKnwRF4xc shows what are definitely blackberry/raspberry bushes. I wouldn't mind having them, in fact I would welcome having a ton more, just not here. Being on the slope they will not be easy to get to when the mature and have fruit. If there was a way to transplant them or something I would love to hear it. I had tried it in the past, but the only way I have ever seen them grow was by accident and negligence. Based on the size of a few of the lower bushes, I would bet they may produce a limited amount of fruit. The smaller ones at the top of the hill however are definitely not mature enough from my experience. Going off on a tangent... I loved having berry bushes growing up and we had a large sandy area on my parent's property that they grew like crazy in. They eventually began to die off and my dad chopped them all down. The began to come back by the time I went to college, but it took a while to get any amount of fruit from them. My last year at college I rented a small cottage on a back road that had the biggest patch of black raspberries I had ever seen. I started picking as soon as they began to ripen and then ever couple days for the next 3 weeks. I stopped for lack of room in the freezer for 1gal ziplock bags. I made at least a dozen pint jars of jam and a few quarts. I gave a bunch away but i'm hoarding the last few of the "good" batch for myself. :) So in other words, I would love to have berry bushes, just not where they are. A lot of what you see on the ground on the left side (looking from the house) is debris and not much in the way of live plants other than some weeds. Obviously it is still very early here and not much has come up yet though. The tree shown in the background of this picture http://minus.com/lbwhVJrx76OE9d appears to be planted from what is left of the mulch/preparation around the base. This shot http://minus.com/lvFny84VUSjeW shows a rock swail that comes down from what is left of the last owners fish pond sort of thing. There is a reddish low lying plant growing on either side that I failed to get a close up picture of. It appears that it will look nice later in the spring but needs some weeding and/or mulching. I will take your advice and try posting some pictures on the "name that plant" forum. In the meantime, would I benefit from getting some sort of tall meadow grass mix to put down in a few weeks? *whoops, I wrote a book