HI there, I am still looking for trades. Peonies have to be traded in the fall, this is the wrong time of year to dig on them. I do have a few different Brugmansias. What is the name of the orange Brug you have ? I'm set for tomatoes , as I have around 600 planted in the greenhouse, but would be interested in your Alpine Strawberries and Red Raspberries, and the Queen Elizabeth Rose bush for my mother. Send me an email and I can send you a list of the Brugs I have, etc.

Hi Cadence, Here's a video on division. In regards to total height, I'll use my Nigra as an example. We bought 15 gallon specimens of Nigra in 2008. There were approx. 5 culms (stalks of bamboo) in each pot. Each culm was around 4-6' tall. We planted the bamboo. Nothing happened for a year. Then in the spring of 2009 we got a bunch of new shoots coming up next to the old culms. The new shoots grew to approx. 10-12' high and stopped. Nothing happened for another year. In 2010 we got a bunch of new culms coming up. They all died. I think it was a really cold winter that never really turned into spring that did it. We didn't have much of a spring or summer last year, it was just cold the whole time. But who knows... :) Currently we have the original culms (still 4-6' tall), the 2009 culms (still 10-12' tall) and we are getting tons of new shoots that have grown several feet in the past week. Some are nearly as tall as the second year growth and there's no sign of them stopping. I don't know if this year's growth will reach the maximum I'm told to expect in my area (20-25'... even though max height is around 30-35') but I think they'll probably make it to around 18' this year at least. Once the new culms come out and are fully established I can go in and cut out some of the smaller stuff. Oh... and the original growth of 4-6' also had culms a little bigger around than a pencil. It's fully black. The second year growth still isn't entirely black (spotted green/black) and it's about as big around as a man's thumb. The growth that is coming out now is about twice as big around as the second year growth and is probably as big around as they will get. I hope this helps explain what is expected. The cool thing about bamboo is that it doesn't keep growing once it reaches max height potential. So, unlike other plants that you have to keep trimming back (hedges,etc), once your bamboo reaches the height you want it at you can cut it to that height and it will stay like that for the rest of it's life span. All you'd need to do is cut off new culms to that height once they finish growing. Here is a link that might be useful: Bamboo Division

They're just babies, not enough heft to the stem to stand up to weather yet. They should be fine next year. If they're smooshed into the soil, staking won't hurt, but probably not necessary because they'll be going dormant soon in your zone. Karen

K. I cut off the sucker. It was actually part of a trunk. All the other branches looked more like suckers... Hopefully I did the right thing. It was only two little branches, so it would be weird if the other parts were the sucker I think. It would make the sucker the actual tree and that would be strange I think. Hopefully I didn't do damage :( I was able to take pictures of the other trees with my cell phone! Ok, so here we have what I am almost positive is a lemon tree: https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747330872321811346 This is the tree that had one lemon last year, though I never tasted the fruit- but it looked like a lemon. This tree also has very bad leaf curl. Here is a pic: https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747330975224339442 I think this was from being really thirsty last summer. I water deeply about once a week, but it doesn't seem to get much new growth and the leaves don't change. Should I do something else? Next pic: https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747330981373239506 I don't know if this is lemon or lime and the shape of the tree is terrible. Is there anything I can do to fix it and get it to look more like a shade tree eventually? Here is a pic of it's baby fruit as well: https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747330979421196178 Next pic: https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747330997258299090 I don't know what this tree is. Here is the fruit pic: https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747331006607107522 Same question about shaping the tree from above. This next tree is only about 3 feet tall, it has horrible thorns like the first tree I told you all about. I'm not sure if I should dig it up and plant shadier trees or if it's worth preserving. I love fresh fruit. https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747331013173657138 This is another mystery citrus tree. I have ever seen fruit on it. https://picasaweb.google.com/heather.leigh.green/May27201202#5747331020964139874 Same question about the shape. Thank you for your help!!! I am very overwhelmed. I haven't even began to tell you about the ash trees and the apple tree... but this is the citrus forum :)