would love 1 each of first four listed. but only have a noid iris that hasnt bloomed yet , but i have other things, i will message you my list.

Fruitnut, I have 2 methods and I'm sharing my trade secrets here (what the hell- I'm 6 months from 60 and hope to retire in 25 years anyway). I start some plants straight in the ground, planting them way too close in a fenced off area. Planting them close makes maintenance per plant much less expensive given that it's all done by hand (don't ask). For apples in my climate it takes about 3 years to size them up to about 1.5" diameter- at least when planted this close. I carefully dig up these BR and put them in short 20 gallon pots (wide and shallow) in a mix of 1 part peat, 1 composted wood chips or stable waste ( almost pure humus with some carbo lumps) and 1 sand, plus a little wood ash. They limp the first season but I sell them the next for around $180 per. At this point they are bearing, 12' tall and well branched and the foliage is back to mormal. Other trees I transfer to Carl Whitcomb grow bags in real soil and let them grow about another 3 years and sell them for $250 per, or less to contractors. The grow bags I use are his last edition because they allow more root out of the bag and I can grow them without any irrigation at all- even through drought. Irrigation would reduce production by about a year, I'm sure, but in my operation only my potted plants get any and they are set in the soil as well. I always take some trees in the grow bags, remove the bags and put them into 25 Gallon pots with the soil intact but surrounded by my potting mix which allows me to sell some larger trees during the growing season. Surprisingly the soil surrounded by potting mix works very well and you might want to try that method for your trees as the soil gives you much more bang per square inch and costs less. Repotting would require only replacing the artificial soil on the edge of the soil ball. It makes things real heavy though, and my soil is not too fine so I don't know how it would work with a more clay soil but I bet it would work just fine. I'm sure my prices seem outrageous by your regional standards but I'm less than an hour from NYC and here it's more than competitive- it's the best deal around- because I have scores of varieties and they're actually properly shaped for fruit production. They also plug in better than the competitions BB'd trees, especially the ones I have in pots.

Oooo, that's good to hear! I am hoping it is not a dwarf. I just never know about the Home Depot plants. I once bought a "hardy hibiscus" (as the label said) which turned out to be a tropical variety which died after summer was over. :( Anyway, sorry for the ratty pic.. I wasn't able to get out to the tree that day so just took a quick pic out the window (the blur is from the screen). But I will try to get a good close-up soon with needle count, etc. If this is a Pinus Strobus, aren't they supposed to grow a couple feet a year? This little guy was about 3.5 ft when planted in September and it has grown maybe 4-5 inches. It actually looks good compared to when I bought it! It was a clearance sale and I felt sorry for it (heehee) because it had some brown needles and was so small. You wouldn't believe the so-called rootball! When we went to put it in the ground, it literally fell apart in the burlap, there was no ball! -- just bare roots sticking out in loose soil! So we staked it, and amazingly it has held up to some pretty heavy winds and snow here! So I think it will make it. It does look lonely now, but hopefully will become a nice specimen. Knowing how large these get, I wanted to give it lots of room. It is in our front yard (to eventually block a new home that just popped up across the road). But we will be adding more conifers nearby it this spring to keep it company! ;) Do you really think they sheared it? How can you tell? And if so, will this affect it's growth at all? I want to keep it nice and full if possible, so is there some shearing/pruning that I should do to it?

I no longer have those. I now have some others though if you are interested please email me. I do not have them listed. TY Deb estrail1rider@yahoo.com Here is a link that might be useful: DavesGarden