The point has been well made here about not only the taste, but also the surviability of various fruit varieties in different locales. For ex, you CAN grow an Apricot near Atlanta, but would rarely ever get any blossoms to survive the late frosts. There are so many variables that impact flavor and survivability. If you try GA apples, then a Carolina apple, then a VA apple you will see the differnce both in flavor and in how long they will store. Some of the old regional varities such as the original Winesap are delicious, but many, such as the Ben Davis, taste like sawdust and were grown primarily because they were hard as a rock and could stand up to the earlier, longer shipping methods. Too, the climate changes as do pest problems...hence GA and South Carolina having really fallen in the number of peach orchards. Rootstocks that will succeed in one part of the country would never live in the heat, humidity, and soils of the south. Mosty fruits rioen in accordardance with the climate, hence California North Coast Grapes always making far better Zinfandels than any you will find in the SE. Pears are notorious for fireblight in the south, which is why you so often see the rock hard Keiffer. Other than the Warren pear, few will thrive here despite the best of efforts. In NC, Lee Calhoun is an excellent resource, as is Jim Lawson IN Ball Ground GA. There are others. Just because an apple is an old variety, doesn't mean it is superior, but there are many old U.S. AND European Varieties. One beautifully printed guide is the classic...Apples of NY. The fun is in the discovery and the occasional failure. I discovered scrumpy and real hard cider in the west country of England, Perry in Normandy, and Kreik in Belgium. BUT, also lost an entire orchard of hand grafted trees due to my absence another year when a little beatle in NC destroyed everything. Here in GA, dug up some six year old dwarfs only to discover that there were no roots thanks to the GA clay and resident pests. If you want successful fruit trees in the south, you do need to spray.

Frank, I got it from the same ultimate source, Dave Wilson Nursery. I got it through Bay Laurel Nursery, one of the other nurseries selling DW trees online. I owe another installment on the fruits. Wickson - this little apple has been excellent. It needs to hang until the background turns yellow. It keeps a long time. The taste is more like a stone fruit: sweet/sour like a plum and the aroma of peaches and apricots. Yum!! Myers Royal Limbertwig - A very nice apple on the sweet side with good aroma as well. It has the pendulant branch habit of many limbertwigs. Rambour d'Hiver - a large French apple which is pretty obscure these days. It is actually not that different from many American apples, e.g. Stayman Winesap comes to mind. Not a strong aromatic favor but a very good sweet/sour balance plus an exceptionally good crunch. Gold Rush - not too many apples this year but they are all excellent - hard, flavorful, with this unusual anise/spicy flavor. A truly great gourmet apple. The quality of the fruit has been very good. The tree did well except it gets cedar apple rust - not sure why this tree touted for such disease resitance is a CAR magnet. Most of my White Winter Pearmain dropped to early, I think the tree lacked water (it sits on a raised area). But, a couple hung on and they are really excellent apples -- something like a Mutsu but quite a bit more concentrated in aromatic flavors. My Geneva 3 hardy kiwis are coming in now, tons of 'em. They are ripening unevenly which makes harvest difficult. I don't like them until they have started to shrivel, they are too acidic before then. Fully ripened they are very good, a bit better than a good Hayward. I had a big harvest of quince and made various compotes, jelllies, etc. I don't know how big a fan I am of them, it takes a lot of quince to make jelly and I feel like I am just flavoring sugar. My wife made a baked quince recipe which was very good. If nothing else the quince will be handy as pectin for other jellies and jams. Scott

Don't check in often, but Viburnum questions draw me like a moth to a flame... esh has some good advice - supported by Dirr is OK. I'd add to what was said: MUST OVERLAP IN BLOOM TIME. All the choice plants in the world don't help each other with cross-pollination if their blooming doesn't coincide. I have all those species mentioned above; I think annebert may like 'Conoy' best for appearance and compact size, if those are values or concerns. I'd look at 'Chesapeake' and 'Eskimo' as possible pollination partners, as well. These are both choice plants for mid-Atlantic states. As noted above, Viburnum x rhytidophylloides offers 'Alleghany' and 'Willowwood' among others. These are very large coarse plants; give them 15-20' to spread their wings. Viburnum rhytidophyllum is a fine plant, albeit large. I dare say you should never confuse it with Viburnum x pragense. Prague will have quite glossy and much smaller leaves than Viburnum rhytidophyllum, and will have much less of a leathery leaf. The underside of Prague's leaves will also be highly tomentose, to the point of silveriness. annebert: If you live anywhere near the US National Arboretum, it would be well worth your time for a visit and a "one stop shop" review of many species of viburnums. I had the recent fortune of a brief sojourn to Washington DC the first weekend in May, and it was a glorious time to tour around with many species (as well as other mundane taxa) in bloom. Additionally, if you live closer to Philly, go to the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College campus, or one of the DuPont estates where extensive collections are planted. July will be a great month to observe the extent of fruit set possible, when great pairings make that possible.

Actually POPCORN is flowering now. It always gets my attention in flowqer because of the huge white flower clusters. Since my other viburnums were all selected for fruit production they look good flowering but not as showey as POPCORN. Shoshoni started flowering heavily as it added afew more years, it just needed to grow up some. Shasta always flowers heavily now and both set fruit for me each year. Shasta is about 7 feet and Shoshoni about 5 feet tall. I don't know about wide because if they get too wide, I just prune back some branches. Over all, I am very glad that I planted all three of them and here they stay.