Rich, I take all of my pictures in high resolution then use the free program Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) to resize my pictures and save them as a reduced version (usually 640x480 size which results in files of about 140 KB. This is the perfect computer screen size. Then I upload these to my photobucket account and cut and paste the tags into my email. Hope this helps. Adam: We live in Wilmington NC and I am lucky to have a well so irrigation has not been a problem. The back of the house has a raised, very large patio --was cement aggregate that I have laboriously handpainted to look like brick (see separate album on that adventure!) Finished it finally last week too. It is such a large area, it was just too visible and the painted bricks help it to stay down viaually. We have been here for 8 years and I started the garden from scratch 7 years ago, but since I throw everything I have at each new adventure, I tend to overdo things as you can see. Thank you for all the kind words about my garden, etc. (you can tell I love it can't you?) The vine around the porch (both front and back) is Confederate Jasmine an evergreen for us with the most intoxicating scent when in bloom during May. I do have lab lab on the white garden screen in some of the photos. Love Daffodils, do not enter any just love having them. Thanks for all the comments on my photography too, if you take enough pictures, you are bound to get some good ones and with digital photography I take thousands! Instant gratification and no film to buy/develop. I am on my third camera now. I have so many more great photos, not all of them are on the photo site. I love to make CD slide shows with music and send them to my sister in Massachusetts (New Bedford) since she is not able to visit and can tour the garden too. Glad to share it with you. Pauline

I have a Minnie Royal/ Royal Lee pair in a raised bed that went in earlier this year. Fingers crossed. There is actually a commercial variety of low chill cherries that I would LOVE to get my hands on but they sell only to commercial growers. They are known as the "little darlings," Royal Edie and Royal Helen. They fruit later than Minnie/Lee. I have not tasted any of these myself. I'm hoping to have five or six raised beds with 4 in 1 hole. I'm still collecting the trees, but by January should have everything. 4 "Royal" low chill cherries (Minnie/Lee, Edie/Helen) 4 Interspecifics, most likely: Flavor King Pluot Flavor Grenade Pluot Emerald Drop Plu-ot Bella Gold Pea-cot-um A single Weeping Santa Rosa 4 Plums and friends: Sweet Treat Plu-erry Burgandy, Mariposa & Catalina Plum 4 Nectarines and friends: Spice Zee Necta-plum Snow Queen, Panamint, and Double Delight Nectarines 4 Peaches Considering Sugar Giant, OHenry Mid Pride Eva's Pride (Any input here?) Maybe a avacado hole... Maybe an apricot /aprium hole...

That is a tragic story, indeed! I have done this very procedure many times, so have courage. You can go about this two primary ways: the first is simply to repot the entire tree; the second is to cut off the healthy top and root it, and also repot and hope the trunk and rootmass survive. I think it is imperative that you use a free-draining potting mix. I use bark, perlite, lava rock, and just a little potting mix as a binder/moisture retentive ingredient. And when I say "a little potting mix," I mean less than 10% of the overall mix. If you can't mix your own, I recommend a fine-grade Orchid Mix, to which you will probably add some coarse Perlite. Repot keeping the roots moist at all times, thoroughly water and saturate the new mix when done, and place the tree in outdoor shade if available - no direct sun. Keep the mix uniformly moist with light waterings for at least a week after repotting. You can either repot the tree first, and the cut the top off....or you can cut the top off and repot the tree all at once. It's a bit of a gamble, as I don't know the vitality of the tree, but I have confidence from repeated experience that the top will root (if it is healthy as you describe). I place the cut top in a vase/jar of water, and I wait for white root primordia to appear. As soon as they appear, I transfer the cutting into a container of the same moist, free-draining mix, and I keep it moist while the cutting continues to root. I use #1 nursery containers.

You should be able to find single trunked specimens in Huntsville. After all, that's what is used, more often than not, in the landscapes in the area. Seriously, drive around the City and you'll see thousands of Crape standards. (I'm from Huntsville.) By ALL means, visit the locally owned garden centers/nurseries to ask for what you are looking for. The big box outlets won't help you, unless they already have some already in stock. You may need to look for larger trees to find one already trained to a single trunk. Those available in the smaller container sized will most likely be untrained shrub-form. I totally disagree that single trunked specimens are unpleasing. One needs to fit the form to the site. I like both options equally well, but like to see them matched to the location. And I've never found it particularly difficult to maintain a single trunk, as long as you keep up with it when the tree is still young. It doesn't take all that long for them to cease with all of that suckering.