I dont think you want to fall fertilize, usually you dont want a flush of growth before winter. Someone advise when the best time to fertilize and why please? 75% petal fall. I dont agree with spraying pesticides while bees are still interested. Usually a storm knocks the flowers off here before it even gets to 75% petal fall. If you dont want to use imidan, spectracide trizide once and done labled for fruit, has worked well for us in pc alley. Its cheap also, and is almost odorless unlike imidan. I stopped spraying on 1 tree june 20th , the others july 12th. Just to see what I can get away with. Seems like im in the clear. I think my schedule here next year looks like this: Green tip to pink oil and immunox ,100 % petal fall (imidan immunox + captan) and 3 cover sprays(also imidan immunox + captan). I am channeling harvestman.. "OK, I don't know where you live and your spray issues are going to be greatly affected by your location but here's my spray schedule for the scores of orchards I manage around SE NY. No dormant oil- do an oil spray somewhere between the point where emerging shoots are 1/2" and the flower clusters begin to show pink. Mix Nova (myclobutinol =immunox) at highest legal rate with 1 to 2% oil. If it's closer to pink use 1%.( Remember oil and captan are not compatible.) Don't spray again until petal fall when petals have mostly gone from latest flowering varieties and bees have lost interest. Than spray Imidan + Nova + Captan mixed together at highest legal rates. Repeat in 10 to 14 days. Where I manage orchards, the space between earliest flowering Japanese plums and latest flowering apples is only 2 weeks or so which usually allows me to wait until the latest flowering trees are ready to begin spraying anything. Plum curculio seems to time its appearence conveniently to the rythm of the last flowering varieties. This may not be true where you are. Sometimes it leaves me with plums too far along to spray oil by the time I do the apples and Euro plums sometimes get mites because of this- so you may need to spray oil on different trees at different times. If you can't find or bear using Imidan- an organiphosphate that is restricted in a few states, you best use Sevin instead but add an extra spray and apply at about 7 day intervals. (OR spectracide trizide once and done labled for fruit 10-14 days) All this is based on plum curculio being your primary insect problem which is the case most areas east of the Mis. River. These sprays will also absolutely control scab, CAR and Mildew as well as most of the crop fatal insects. Apple fly maggot is an exception, but I haven't had much of a problem with this pest in the orchards I manage. This pest can be controlled with a lot of fake apples smeared with tangle trap. If you don't want to use synthetic chemicals, you will probably have quite a battle on your hands. You'll probably have to do at least 4 applications of Surround about a week apart. Stone fruit will require the addition of another fungicide application or 2 (Indar) starting 2 or 3 weeks after final insecticide spray. Because I manage so many orchards so far apart I have to resort to a spray schedule that is based on expectations rather than actual monitoring. You may be able to reduce insecticide sprays with monitoring but PC are quick and sly. Other problems may occur later in the season and you will in time learn to monitor and react to the pitfalls. Good luck, Alan Haigh- The Home Orchard Co.

I am going try some clematis!I have an old television antennea tower in my yard, and I finally got my DH to help move it to a permanent spot. In the last week I put down the start of a new flower bed around it. And I covered it on 3 sides with some fencing. Should be ready to plant by spring!! I have wanted clematis for ages and ages. I have another area I just prepared too, in this area I will put some morning glories. I might put some of the MG around the tower too. I know it will take a few years for the clematis to fill in. I am also going to plant more annuals. The bed I have now is full of perennials. So the new beds (yes with an "s") I plan to leave open spaces so I can put in the annuals. Jenny P

I received a number of MG seedlings at a swap in the spring and I am just loving them. I have grown MG for a long time. I was getting a little bored with the tried and true. I am so happy with the ones I have this year. I had Blue Jet..which is a beauty. Large blossoms of pastel blue with a darker blue marking inside. The description would not have interested me in the blooms, but I look forward to going out and seeing them in the morning not sure why. The Blue Jet was slow starting but now is blooming abundantly. I had Milky Way that was just ok. White, small blossoms with rose markings. But one of the most specatcular ones I grew was a Japanese MG, that had a variegated leaf that was not shaped like a heart but was elongated and shaped differently and had frilly maroonish/rose very different color blossom. I am so sorry to say I don't know the name of it. But I think I can find out, because I know who sowed the seed. I used a permanent marker on scotch tape and it wore right off. I will try to find that out for you.

Do you want me to send it now? It may be too cold? Or spring? Bob, I thought of you yesterday because my husband broke a small branch off my calamondin and I thought you may want to try to graft it since you had been considering that variety. The branch may be too thin though. I do have ripe fruit now though that I could send you so you can try them. Not good for eating out of hand, but I LOVE to squeeze one into a glass of water (cold or hot) and drink it. I leave it in there all day and the rind flavors the water, but it is not too overwhelming.