Depending on where you ordered from, many nurseries are happy to send replacements if you contact them explaining that it died....or at least send you a refund if the plant's no longer in season to have in stock. I had a couple of ordered plants die last spring and got replacements from both companies after contacting them. ;)

It will be interesting to see what kind of fruit they produce (larger size of fuzzy with hardiness of issai would be awesome!!) We moved last summer and the location I put my issai's proved to be not a good one. It turned out to be a very wet area and this spring they were not looking to good. I potted the plants to relocate them later (not thinking they would survive) but they slowly came back and new shoots emerged from the base. I have about 20 flower buds just blooming right now but unfortunately no male currently blooming. On a side note, my Arctic Beauty male (also planted in the wet zone) suffered major rot at the base and the bark peeled right off. I noticed the previous years growth still looked okay so I clipped several 8" pieces of those branches and stuck them in a pot after dipping them in rooting hormone and covered with plastic. They all broke out in bud and started growing new vines and actually bloomed flowers all without any roots forming whatsoever on the cuttings!! I've added to my collection now with Meader(f) and Dumbarton's Oaks(f) to go along with my Anna and Issai. Have you had any experience with the 'A. Jumbo' variety???

I got a pair of fuzzy kiwis last year and they had to live in pots for a year because I didn't have anything for them to grow on, but I finally got my trellis built and so I planted them about a month ago. The male is growing like gangbusters, he's got lots of thick new shoots that are growing fast and covered in large leaves. But the female only has two skimpy shoots, one that is growing slowly and another that is hardly growing at all, and the largest leaves are half the size of the leaves on the male. I'm starting to get antsy and thinking of heading back to the nursery and buying a new female to replace the old one. Since it takes so long for kiwis to fruit I really don't want the female to off to a slow start. Should I go ahead and replace it, or should I give it some more time to grow?

Let me start by saying I live near Florida's panhandle where it seldom gets below freezing more than a week or two each year. I've recently bought kiwi purchased from Lowe's for a second time.. The first time, the kiwi grew quickly and had fruit after the 3rd year.. The vines are very robust and will quickly consume a trellis or fence area and after about 5 years they actually got to the point that they were too large and in the way so I had to remove them. I never bothered separating the vines, but made sure the majority of them had room to run. A couple of sturdy poles with wire, rope or clothes line placed 15 to 20 ft apart makes a satisfactory home for the vines. Our soil here isn't the best (mostly clay) so I kept the young plants watered well until they were established and let Mother Nature take care of the watering after that. They are a hardy and fast growing vine in the summer so give some thought to where you plant them. I recently bought more plants and planted them where they won't be in the way this time.