sherry, best thing would be to contact your county's agricultural extension office or the university. They are more familiar with your area and best at recommending and help you out. They would have local information that they know more than us who are not in your area. Besides, the help is free and they would gladly help. That's a good starting point. Then you can clarify some questions in this forum and we will relate to your problems of growing your fruit trees.

Wow Lindac,,, You have finally fullfilled one of my lifelong dreams.. When I was in the Air Force and stationed at Westover AFB in Chicopee a couple friends and I used to go over to S.Hadley and sit on the patio at the Odysee book store, sipping coffee and hoping, praying, sometimes even pleadig for an opportunity to talk to one of the college girls, but sadly they could see from a distance that we were well below their station in life...LOL Correct me if I am wrong, but Mt.Holyoke in S.Hadley, Smith College in Amhearst and Vasser in upstate N.Y. are three of the top girls finishing schools in the world. I don't know this to be a fact, but the last I heard the tuition at Mt.Holyoke is over $50k/semester Now in regards to cursive..there was a time when I had an elegant hand, but sadly that has been lost over the years. My printing is good, but if you really want to see me print, let me put my earphones on and tune in come CW (morse code) on the radio,,that is how we texted before they invented computers and cell phones..and I still enjoy doing it...LOL

I'm not sure *I* am turning out the way I had hoped! LOL. I only have one in that age group, and he's only 12. But I like him so far. I think I'll keep him. I want a growth chart for the emotional/personality stuff. We have check ups with docs and dentists, eye exams, even before we think something is wrong. Even teachers conferences and standardized tests to tell us they are learning the academics they should be learning, or if intervention is needed. So I think it would be very helpful to have check ups with a counselor of some sort. Not therapy exactly, just a set of questions, a test of sorts, to say yep, they are on the right track. To know that self confidence, responsibility, ambition, compassion... those sorts of qualities... are developing normally. It is so important to how kids turn out, but how do I know for sure it's happening along the way at the rate it should be?? I want that sort of check up. I'd rather their personality be straighened out that their teeth. But it's easier to find out their teeth are crooked. It's hard to be objective about the emotional stuff, so I need a chart. I'm only half joking. If there is a chart, I seriously want it!

It certainly looks like my Mrs. Dudley Cross - blooms, leaves, and the way the heavy blooms bend over the stems - I am hoping when mine gets bigger they will do better. Also the color of the new growth is identical. Jackie