Just came up on all the postings about Hardy Chicago fig not being true to name. I purchased a Hardy Chicago fig from a nursry about 4 to 5 years back. No longer remember the name of the nursery. I planted the fig on the south side of our house in the V where the chimnney is. So it should have more then enough heat. But every year 90% of the figs never ripen. Around the first week of November we get maybe two or three ripe figs. All the rest are then killed by the frost. It's a shame that some wholesalers out there do not care whether or not they are selling a true item or not. I had been wondering what was wrong with the tree. Then when it did not ripen all the crop this last summer, I stated to think it had been labeled wrong. To make matters worst I ahve been giving out cutings to other fig lovers, who now also are thinking they have a Hardy Chicago. I'm going to dig the whole thing up, and replace it with soemthing like Violetta, as soon as I can find a true source of Violetta. Or a fig that is hardy as Violeta and ripens like Violetta in July. I have read that Violetta is hardy to minus 5 degrees and ripens in July. From all the research I have done in the last two years on hardy figs, Violetta appears to be the most cold hardy fig and the earliest to ripen, that I have been able to identify. I'm in a zone 6 in Connecticut. So from what I have read about the real Hardy Chicago, I do not have the true Hardy Chicago. Does any one have any information on a fig called Northland. Such as how hardy it is and when it's main crop ripens? Bob Harper

The Pocket of Pigeon Mountain in Georgia would not be a long drive for you. It's considered by many to be the finest wildflower site in Georgia based on the diversity and concentration of spring wildflowers. An early trip (third week of March) should give you a display of masses of bluebells and celandine poppies. This site has large populations of Trillium decumbens and flexipies and lots more. If you go once you will want to return at a different time to see the ones you miss blooming. It's an easy day hike. You can spend two to four hours or explore further on some adjacent trails. Check out this link: http://www.gnps.org/POCKET1.HTM Here's directions:From downtown LaFayette, Ga., which is on US 27 BUSINESS (Main St.), go a few blocks south and turn west on GA 193 for 8 miles to Davis Crossroads (there's a little store on the right with this name), where GA 341 comes in from the right. At this junction turn left onto Hog Jowl Road and go 2.6 miles, passing Mt. Herman Baptist Church. At the top of the next hill, turn left onto Pocket Rd. and drive 1.2 miles until the road ends. Park in the Pocket Trailhead parking lot on the left. There was a sign at the Pocket Road/Hog Jowl Road intersection but last spring it was damaged and I don't know if it's been fixed.

I'm going to see if I can manage to clip back some of the polyantha to free up the little (well, not so little) wildflower without stressing it, and maybe get some more photos of both the bloom and the leaf. It does seem to grow in upright single stalks like the wooly ironweed, and the blossom is showy enough to be seen from quite a distance. The suggestions for the grasses are terrific. I keep running into the quandary of what can take all the conditions in my trouble spot. Heavy clay, really hot in the summer and soggy in the winter, and then there's the wind. Sigh. I think the grasses might be the perfect choice. I had originally wanted to put in a nice clump of gaillardia, but I'm sure not having any success with it. I had sort of had a color theme in mind, with the gaillardia paired with the orange Mexican honeysuckle (Montezuma) that is clinging to life on the fence behind it. The red-orange-gold Pinata rose is sited not too far away and I thought it might be an interesting combination if I could put some other things in there to soften it a little. Sounds like the grasses might be the perfect thing I don't know why I've had such poor luck in growing echinacea in the past. I've never been able to get it to do much of anything. It wants to stay small and sparse and not at all like the lovely photos I've seen of it in big clumps. I'm sure it was a matter of where I planted it, and the fact that it often got left out when I was busy caring for a really big garden. I might try again. I might also have my mother see if she can find starts or seeds of her big Gloriosa daisies. They seem to tolerate just about anything, and they're big and showy, if I can just keep them from seeding and taking over the place as they are wont to do. At one time I was fiddling with improving or reproducing some of the particular ones that grew wild on her property, and it would be fun to do that again. Do you have any idea of whether they might grow here? Pat

Chimaphila likes humusy acid soil in deciduous shade. I've got some growing in my front yard (which is actually better described as the large area between the house and the country road out front -- "yard" makes it sound much more tamed and tended than it is) under a high canopy of oaks and a lower layer of dogwood. Like some other wildlings, pipsissewa can be puzzlingly difficult to grow on purpose. I suspect that it requires, in addition to the soil described above, the right mycorrhizae in the soil (beneficial fungi that most plants benefit from and some plants absolutely require to uptake nutrition from the soil). If you want to try it in your yard, be sure to get a bunch of dirt from the plant's location in the wild and dig it in to the location in your garden where you site the plant. You'll be inoculating the area with the right mycorrhizae by doing this. And I probably don't need to say this, but, if anyone is contemplating doing so, please be extremely careful and thoughtful about collecting wild plants. Many types of woodland plants are becoming scarce due to collection. This is particularly true on the Cumberland Plateau and in E TN. Sherry, that's beautiful country around there. When I win the Powerball I wanna buy a big chunk of land in that neck of the woods. Brandon, I can't recollect when I learned about pipsissewa. My aunt and uncle had 70 acres of woods in VA when I was a kid, and I remember it there, along with Mitchella (partridgeberry) and Lycopodium (ground cedar or prince's/princess pine). I've always had an overwhelming need to know what the names of things were, so I expect I looked it up back then or asked my aunt, who was a nature lover. These days I'm the propagator at a native plant nursery, which has made me familiar with the latin names of scads of plants. Marty