I found some old pics and even a closeup. At least as a seedling it had some pubescence. I'm not completely sure but I think these chestnuts did not have special seed leaves but rather the mature leaves all from the beginning. The american chestnuts I grew this year had special seed leaves that did not look like chestnut at all. This post was edited by Huggorm on Sat, Nov 1, 14 at 17:35

American chestnuts are a bit sweeter than sativa chestnuts. They tend to be smaller too. Incidently, many woodlot owners here are doing what one poster suggested...planting a couple dozen of mollissima in their woods and letting nature introgress them. I don't know how many genes for full resistance, but even if it's 2 or 3 pairs, the squirrels plant so many that some are bound to get the right combinations. It helps to get a more timber type Chinese parent . We are lucky here to have some Wolfville seedlot trees where over half the seedlings have good forest form. The rest, grin, want to be bushes. The bush type soon gets overtopped in the woods and doesn't stay in the breeding pool. My oldest trees are 6 years old, so I have no seednuts to offer yet. Jocelyn

@Nordica you DO realize you just necroposted on a 9 year old thread. The fact that you did that in order to promote theft certainly doesn't make it any more palatable. Does anybody know the current situation at The American Chestnut Foundation? I noticed they have totally changed their donor scheme. Seems WAY more expensive now as well as oddly tiered. $300 for 4 seeds or $1000 for 12 - really? At least they seem to have stopped promising people that they're going to have blight resistant trees any day now. Though the total lack of any timetable at all is even more off-putting. I had a friend (much older) way back in the 90s who was growing increasingly miffed with TACF because he had been waiting for years and they kept promising blight resistant trees were right around the corner. He actually grew rather angry as he neared the end of his life. I mean, *I* knew that there weren't likely to be any blight resistant trees for the public at large for probably at least another 50 years (I'd still guess several decades at least, if ever, but can't tell from what little they actually say on their website any more). But the way they were acting like it would be ANY DAY now, I could understand how someone not horticulturally educated could get het up as the years roll by and there's still nothing viable on the horizon, though they (used to) keep telling you it is. I'm as sure as I can be that they used to offer seedlings, at least. No way am I giving them $300 for 4 seeds that might or might not even germinate. I once was considering getting some seedlings (as I recall you had to buy a "membership" and then get on a waiting list for something that was 99% NOT going to end up with much, if any, resistance) but fell ill and have since moved off my rural property. I MIGHT give them $75 for a seedling with SOME chance at resistance, even fully well expecting it to grow for about 5 years or so and then succumb to the blight anyway (which is what you should expect). Trees have LONG generations and I fully well understand that the particular method of back crossing they are using means they need to make a lot of crosses and plant a lot of trees as widely dispersed (geographically) as possible to find just one success. But seeds? Not interested in "seeds" at all. I'm still not quite as old as my now-long-departed older friend who went to his grave still without an American Chestnut on his property, but I'm getting close. Close enough I don't want to mess with trying to grow a tree from seed, especially a tree that I should expect to fall to the blight within the span of the lifetime of a middlin' successful TV show. LOL! EDIT: FOUND it! They used to offer 5 seedlings @ $35 plus a $25 "membership fee" if you weren't already a member. That's $12 apiece. Now they want $75 apiece (or more) for just the seeds and apparently you can't get seedlings at all. I'm definitely out on this "deal". Somebody new must be in charge over there.

Ooo..russian sage! I would love some of that! I just posted in the invites thread, then noticed that little "echanges" link. Oops. I am looking for Rosa Rugosa. Not too fussy about color (red, pink, white, whatever) but prefer a repeat bloomer. Otherwise, anything with "lake" or other nautical words in the name-I am starting a theme garden (see thread linked below for list of plants I've come up with to look for so far). anything cottage garden-y or from my list on my theme garden thread I have (nothing exotic, I'm really just starting a garden back up where one was MANY years ago-we just bought the house this past fall): Japanese Quince-red (I know everyone here probably knows this but-its has thorns and spreads via root sucker, so plant with that in mind) glad bulbs I didn't get planted white wild violet rose of sharon seedlings (color unknown, these are volunteers from some very old parent plants on our property) deep purple spiderwort small green hosta with red in the stems (name unknown) possibly some large green hosta if I can split them in time day lily (colors unknown) poppy seed heads lily of the valley Here is a link that might be useful: theme garden plant list thread