This topics comes up many times. One of the extensive and still on-going is my friend Konrad's odyssey in the far North. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg050012202514.html?61 There are different sides of the story. One thins I'd like to add is that: do not take too much risk and put yourself in a difficult position. It is a risky business to buy and sell bare root trees. The trees should be fully dormant and the trees should be still in very good condition when they are sold. Trees go dormant from late October and the latest spring shipping season is about late March. So it is normally 5 months. The trees may stay in storage for that long. Some tree farms have excellent coolers, but a lot of them do not. Also, we are talking about several hundreds varieties and tens of thousands of trees. When I purchase trees, particularly bare root trees, I'll try to: 1. Purchase and plant the trees the earliest you can. Fall season is great is you can do it. Then the trees will be the freshest. 2. Try all you can to buy the plants from farms close to you. You can certainly buy from farms in Texas or Florida. But they go dormant late, not hardened in the cold zone, and long transit time. 3. Try all you can to avoid late season purchase. The trees stores in for 5 months are not in their best condition, period. I do not shy away from container trees. Of course there are some disadvantages, but one obvious advantage is that, the trees have a much higher survival rate, or close to 100%. If Lowe's has some nice fruit trees in conditions I like for $10 a pot, I'll grab one or two if I have space for them. I can separate the roots and I can prune the top. I know the tree is good for my zone, grown in my zone and will grow next spring. So I do not need to go through any ordeals like this again. Sellers' warranty is not a cure-all. Buyers should know what you are buying. A lady here (In Praise of England Nursery) purchased some trees from England nursery in KY. That was early in the season and the large trees still have all green leaves. The trees will probably live, but they took so much stress when bare-rooted with all green leaves. Our Mr. Konrad purchased his trees in late May and the trees of course are in horrible condition when that late in the season. Gardening is fun. Try to stay that way....

Alameda Peggy is a repeat bloomer. Look her up on ARE as they have an interesting article about her. Sherry- That's a shame about having to get rid of N.Noisette. How big was yours before you took it out? Yes, I hve seen your Le Vesuve and just adore her. I am really excited about getting her! Interesting though how dense she is. What happened to your Maggie? Did she get too big too? I have 2 young hybrid musks already and already I really like them too early to tell if I love them. Though BB has surprised me on how many blooms I got out of her the first year and so far has started the climb up the arbor very nicely. Also very healthy, oh and the smell! It only took me like a month to make my final decision so I hope I will enjoy them all..I think I will. Now I must start thinking about my fall order! lol :O)~Meghan

OMG! I just ordered some roses tonight, and didn't even see the notice on the homepage about them possibly closing up. Wow! I never would've thought Vintage would go down. Well, I can at least say I did my part to help!! I ordered: COURVOISIER BLUE RIBBON JOHNNY WALKER (to replace my dead one) PINK MASTERPIECE (to replace my faltering one) TYRIUS PICTURE (to replace my dead one)

RE: I have a question about lighting in the basement. We have overhead shop lights in that room as well as a window that lets in some light but not all that much. My thought is to keep the lights on, at least during daylight hours, because plants need light. My husband is of the opinion that since they are now dormant, they don't need the overhead lights until they break dormancy. Any thoughts/comment on that? ordinary overhead shop lights (assuming plants are a more than one or two feet away from the lights) will not have much effect at all because they make very little light. If you measure light intensity outside on a cloudy day in the shade its still much brighter than most indoor artificial light situations. If there is some natural light in there that would be fine. If you want to run the fluorescents go ahead, mimic your daylight schedule wont hurt. Generally fluorescents need to be close to plants, but if you have natural light in the room (and ordinary t12 shoplights) you might block more light than you make. I dont know if there is a definitive answer to the question "do dormant plants need some de minimis amount of light during winter"? I could be wrong. Safe to say they can deal with much less though.