Ok, Jon! OK OK OK. I'm not grumpy, seriously. Just confused here. Just sayin'. I'm in need of routine. What you do is outrageously kind and you have my deepest respect. To think that I thought I may have something to donate to our food bank here---it's laughable now. I'll keep trying, because I'm more stubborn than grumpy, but I definitely need something to work with. I ripped out half of my backyard, including lawn. I moved TEN yards of compost and garden soil from my driveway around the back gate and around another corner and distributed all of this into 14 raised 4x8 beds. And then I moved more of the soil into my used-to-be flower beds so I could plant rambling items there, like winter squash. I'm a tough chick but smallish. But I was serious, man. I've planted 9 fruit trees and have 5 potted figs, a lemon tree, 12 blueberry plants, 4 grapes, six thornless blackberries and a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting. None of this includes the vegetables, asparagus bed, sweet potato patch (purple of course), and the Partridge in the Pear Tree. I compost, I collect my rabbit's 'berries' and distribute them, I chop leaves from my yard and chip mulch from my prunings. I have 7 ducks and a chicken. I have 3 boys who have no interest in this but I still do it. Oh, I also live in the 'burbs in a normal house on less than a quarter acre and I am absolutely NOT allowed to touch the front yard but imagine their suprise when I secretly plant the six artichoke plants I have been nursing from seed since December of last year. I WANT SOME TOMATOES, YA KNOW? A couple squash, a bean, whatever... :) Whine. Whine. Whine. Angie

Well, I didn't prune the two older ones (Bartlett Pear and Honeycrisp) any more than I did last year, which is to say, lightly-to-moderately pruned and they flowered fine last year... and I BARELY pruned the two younger apple trees, since they did not have much growth to begin with.... I just can't imagine how I would have pruned off every single branch with flowering capability on 4 different trees, unless I really pruned them super heavily, which I didn't. The Honeycrisp apple got the most pruning this year, but I followed various tutorials and felt I was actually probably not taking enough off. But I am new to this so I guess I could be wrong! In any case, the other 3 only got very lightly pruned. And, no, no flower buds ever showed up at all. I have to get my yard ready for a delivery of 10 tons of gravel thats on its way, but I'll try to take some photos later on so you can see how much I pruned.

One year later ... reviving this thread. Does anyone have proof that a Bradford pear will pollinate a fruiting pear tree? Why I ask is that one of my two pear trees died last year and I replaced it this winter so obviously will not have flowers this year (or next?). However, the older pear tree had one or two flowers last year (while the sick one had none), yet I got one super delicious fruit off the good tree. How did it get pollinated? It is possible that one of my neighbors has a fruiting pear tree so that could be the pollen source, but I'm sure the breezes and bees in this neighborhood are loaded with pollen from the ubiquitous Bradford pear trees. The older pear tree now has many blossoms which will probably open this weekend. So... you pear experts out there.... should I make an effort to obtain a few blossoms from another fruiting pear to improve my chances of getting any fruit or should I take my chances with the "wild" pollen? Thanks, Ron, (Dallas GA, Zone 7b)

Jennifer Guilin --from you--it was quite productive,thin fleshed and quite hot.I tried this last year and none germinated. Antonia P. Rhomedia-- this pepper with the unlikely name came from a non-pepper person.I first thought it might be Antohi Romanian because of similarities in name. This pepper was green rather than pale when immature and the shape was different- thick flesh ( like a bell) juicy, sweet, and tasty. Tuste Blanco-- is a Zapotec Indian pepper- C. annuum, tough skin, moderate heat,fairly productive CAP 469-AB-- was sent to me as C. praetermissum even though the seed bank lists it as capsicum species. I had two plants CAP 469-AB 2 turned out to be a C. annuum, large,bland pepper with no heat. The other plant was a praetermissum which I brought in but the aphids became too much and I chucked it before the pods ripened so no pod picks. Here are the flowers CAP 469-AB 2 CAP 469-AB 1 St Helena Is Acorn is also from you-looks like I didn't get a picture of the ripe pods-they turned yellow and then red, fairly prolific, slow building but very hot. John