I doubt that Sungold and Moongold need specific pollination from each other. The other, inedible apricot mentioned above seems to have served as a suitable pollen source. I think the marketing hype came from a time when Sungold and Moongold were often sold together for cross-pollination because they were among the few really hardy commercial apricots. Concerning Chinese and Montrose: These should be hardy in most of Zone 5. Don't know about Zone 4. Both are sweet pit varieties, with Montrose ripening after Chinese. LE Cooke wholesaler offers both. If I were in Zone 5, I might take a gamble on Canadian White Blenheim (also sweet pit) and OrangeRed, parent of Robada, which has a very high chill requirement. It's a favorite in Europe. CWB and OrangeRed both require cross-pollination with a different variety.

Thanks for the heads up nhardy, Cummins must have had an order change or was waiting for a fall count, as a whole bunch of those weren't listed as of a week ago. Bob Purvis had told me he had sent cold hardy cultivar scionwood to them, but I wasn't expecting trees to be available for another season. I am ordering some other stuff from them this season. Wish I had known these were in their beds...but I already put in an order for some Manchurian rootstock and scionwood from another source (Bob Purvis)...gonna try to build a tomcot and a hargrand. The more I research, the more I think the krymsk may be more dwarfing than I want for these trees anyhow. I am seeing numbers of 50-60%. I am going to try a few plums on K1 and perhaps even a peach...the cornell test plots found it to markedly improve winter hardiness on peaches over a severe test winter they had back in '05. The same effect was noticed with american plum seedling rootstock, and I have read theories that these rootstocks are shutting down growth earlier in the fall and allowing the tree to harden off more effectively. Anybody with experience with the k1 I would be glad to hear. I have read several posts from fruitnut that he has not been too keen on it...especialy not for anything but plums and pluot.

From the time of that first posting I planted 6 Nanking cherries (including one of that Giant Nanking). I also added Hansen's bush cherry. So what have I learned in the past 5 years? Well, I'm down to one nanking cherry, which will be pulled and chopped this spring for kindling. Two of the bushes bore fruit from the second year, the others would bloom, but no fruit. The fruit was ok, but neither of the two which fruited did so prolifically. I was lucky to get 6-10 'cherries' each summer. I started replacing them 2 years ago, first with a real cherries. I also added red currants 5 years ago. I started with 2 of these and added (by self rooting cuttings) another 5-6 reds. I also added pink and white currants. Last year I added clove currants and a black (which I allowed to die after my dog dug it for the third time). I am adding another black this year, but this time one HIGHLY rated for flavor. My Manchurian apricot has grown about 6 inches in the past 4 years and I'm frequently shocked it is still alive as it really hasn't ever done anything. Dmitriy50....there is a big hardy kiwi farm in Pa. How's that for exotic? ~Chills

Casino is made by a company in grand forks bc. It's not nearly as hardy as capilano here for me. I've had issues with my casino perhaps I got a crappy tree or roots. The two trees in Calgary the Riley ones make nice fruit especially the one that flowers pink. If you guys don't want to drive down yourselfs I will send you some as much as you want in mail it's not far for me to drive but hours for you guys. Not very hard for me to do for fellow hobbiest. It grows just as hardy as capilano. I've never tasted capilano but the fruit looks a big better off your Edmonton tree in pics nicer orange apricot. Hopefully I get capilano fruits. Im not entirely sure what capilano trees I have grafted I'd love if somebody up in Edmonton would cut some for me and send me a bit of it this spring.