Rayrose: Generally agree with the comments of TCStoehr and Al, and if I were you would rethink your variety choices. The ripening time of an apple has nothing to do with its bloom time and pollination, but your sales person from Johnson Nursery doesn't seem to know that either. It is sometimes a mistake to focus fruit tree orders on only one nursery, since you are limited by the particular varieties they sell. If you want a crisp, sweet apple, Fuji is an excellent choice, but I have both Red Delicious and Freedom here, and would never plant them again. There are lots of RD strains, but they are not particularly flavorful in general, and not very good keepers. Freedom is a very poor quality apple, unless you want to make pies or blend it in cider. It is tart when slightly underripe, and gets mealy fast after that. I also have a Goldrush, which is excellent in every respect, so that one is a winner. In Southern Carolina you can easily grow very long-season apples like Fuji, but I would suggest you also look at Pink Lady, which may be even better than Fuji, if you can find one. I would also suggest you consider planting Gala as an earlier apple to eat while you are waiting for the others to ripen. Gala has double the flavor of Red Delicious, keeps pretty well for an early apple, and meets your crisp and juicy requirements. It will be worth your while to wait and shop around a little more, since planting an orchard is a long-term thing, and you want to get it right the first time if you possibly can. The advice of one person from one nursery is a good start, but don't rely on just that. If you have two apple varieties, or there are any other apple or crab trees in the neighborhood, pollination will not be a problem for you at all. Gala, BTW, is an excellent pollinator. Once they start bearing, apple trees normally set so many fruits that you have to thin them anyway to improve size and quality. If you plant hard, late apples like Fuji, Goldrush, and Pink Lady (or even Granny Smith), and you have a spare refrigerator, you can keep apples into February and March in good condition. That becomes important when the trees start to produce, since you can't eat them all at once. Sorry I can't comment on your plum and pear choices, since I don't grow any of the varieties you have named. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

First-off, impressive as ALWAYS, Kiwifruit! I should have thought to drop you an email. Btw, I think you said you were looking into picking-up a certain book (forgot the subject matter) a few months back that I should drop you an email for your review of it - maybe that wasn't you? I didn't know that chokeberries, pears, and mountain ash could cross with serviceberries (just knew that serviceberries chould be used as rootstock for them). What I gather from what you've written, even if hybridization occurred between the various native hawthorns, various native blueberries, between pear-serviceberry-[some]chokeberries, etc. these would likely be infertile donkies. I guess that apple orchards have made it impossible to know if your average crab apple (such as Malus coronaria) doesn't have some Malus x domestica in their lineage since they hybridize, or would the union between M. coronaria nad M. x domestica result in a sterile hybrid? Kiwifruit, I don't want to do embryonic rescue, since I don't want any native/non-native hybrids. As for sterile hybrids, I can deal with that; i.e. say if my Sorbus americana (American mountain ash) hybridized with my pears - at least the offspring would be sterile and I will not risk diluting the gene-pool of my native Aronia spp. and Sorbus americana plants. I don't mind non-natives crossing with non-natives, such as with pear types, as I will not be breeding non-natives, just having them for fruit. You say that different chromosome numbers and sterile hybrids would be the biggest problem - well, I would not mind sterile hybrids that are easily identifiable as hybrids (since they will not be mistaken for a distinctive native, but rather a hybridization between native/non-native), but I don't know what is meant by different chromosomes counts? John & theloud, Well, although I will be doing controlled (amateur-level breeding), I wouldn't exclude the benefit of having random chance seedlings pop-up in the woods and meadow should the fruits be superior. So, in this case, I would highly prefer to KNOW that there is not ANY realistic chance that native/non-native hybridization has occurred. theloud, Although Fragaria virginiana is a parent of the common garden strawberry, that doesn't mean that this was a natural union, etc. Thanks, Steve

My Catalina usually starts to bloom on Feb, 20-22. My Flavor Queen usually started to bloom on Feb, 8-10 and it was pretty much done by that time and I guess it was the reason why I had no fruit. Will Flavor Grenade and Catalina bloom at the same time? What pluot (pluots) blooms at the end of February to match my Catalina?

I have better luck grafting to a tree or rootstock that's rooted in the ground than grafting to a bare root rootstock. I've bought rootstocks and apple scions from Fedco in Maine. They sell rootstocks. apple and plum scions and also trees. other choices are Trees of Antiquity, Maple Valley Orchards, Eve's Cidery, Queener Farm, and Summerland Varieties if you're in Canada. Another possibility is to find an apple tree in your community blooming at the same time as your tree and ask the property owner to take a cutting. This may not be quite the appropriate time to graft; but I think it may work. And then you could try both methods. The biggest problem with buying scions is they charge 4 to 5 times for shipping as the price of a scion. Another problem is that you get hooked on trying different varieties. You should graft all of the pieces of scions you have to ensure success. From an 8 to 12" scion you can easily graft 2 or 3 times.