Backyardener, I have had some similar thoughts, and at the risk of hijacking your thread, I would expand your original idea to address some related questions. I live in suburbia where there are many more ornamental pears, cherries, crabapples, and even plums than trees grown for fruit. Like you, I have wondered-- 1. How good is pollination compatibility? 2. How much of a disease and pest reservoir are the ornamentals? Is there anything that can be done about it? 3. How good is grafting compatibility? I have the fantasy of doing some stealth grafting in our common area...

ouiquitt: I purchased my footies from Store Supply Warehouse, of Harrisburg, PA, tel. 1-800-823-8887. Stock number of the ones I purchased is 64106, and I think they cost $3.95 for a box of a nominal 100, which actually contained 125. Shipping costs are the same for one or several boxes. I bought two boxes, which was barely enough. Store Supply may have a website; you can look around and see. I just picked up the phone, gave them my credit card number, and the footies were on my front porch the next day via UPS. You don't give a hint of where you are located, but if you are in a temperate peach growing area there is plenty of time to buy footies for installation next spring. Since your first instinct was to try the Home Orchard Society, I am guessing you are somewhere in the West. If HOS prices are competitive, there would seem to be no emergency to obtain a product that will not be used until next May. The footies I installed last spring, using the single-tie method across the branch or twig (the stapling I initially did was awkward and unnecessary) were responsible for the largest and highest-quality peach harvest I have ever had in over 25 years of trying. Losses from oriental fruit moth damage were near zero, and the peaches colored up nicely in the footies. With the footie tied once around the twig or branch, peaches can be left on the tree to ripen much longer without danger of falling off from weight or wind. But you do have to check them once in a while to ensure they do not become overripe on the tree. And they do not stop bacterial spot on susceptible varieties if you have that disease around, which I do. Golden Jubilee had no bacterial spot at all, but Sugar Giant, a white Zaiger variety, had so much that I threw out half the peaches. For me the lesson was: Don't plant West Coast peach varieties in Northern Virginia. I thought I might be able to recycle and save used footies from year to year, but found that sunlight degrades the material so that it becomes too weak and tears easily. So I threw them all out and will start over with fresh footies next spring, but will probably buy 3 or more boxes. Well worth it. These footies are the cat's whiskers for peach growing. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

The peach this year is doing well, but it did not set any blossoms. I had 2 and one I kept in the cold room (last year it was in a cooler at about 2C. I didn't want to run the large cooler for just one or two plants as I did not have anything else that needed it as well this winter). Not cost effective. The other I packed under sawdust in an outbuilding where it got to -25C. I brought it in potted it up and it leafed out as well as bloomed and then died. I neglected to remember that for many grafted trees it is not only the frost hardiness of the top but also the rootstock that is important. The fact that the top of the tree was loaded with viable green leaf buds tells me the Empress peach is frost tolerant but the rootstock is not. I would not suggest -25C for this peach. The number of flower buds was not as great as the cooler specimen was the year before.

l pinkmountain, don't give up your dreams. I haven't. After three months of stagnating after my husband's passing, I just got the urge to go, go, go. That was our plan together and since he's no longer here, I just figured I'd go for both of us. I bought a little 14 ft. 2016 Jayco Jay Flight SLX. It has a wrap around dinette area that continues into an adjoining couch. They say it sleeps three, but we figured when my niece and her two kids go with me, Drew gets the floor in his late uncle's down sleeping bag. It has a full length closet, a small bathroom with a commode and a shower/shallow tub. The kitchen can be used for canning. It has a small single sink, a small under counter fridge and a two burner propane stovetop. No oven, but it has a microwave and I have a toaster oven. For as small as it is, it has a good amount of storage space and the blessed air-conditioning. It also has an electric awning which I hadn't expected. I figured it would have the crank out type. I went in to Camping World, where we have been customers for many, many years and told the salesman I wanted something small, small and light enough to be towed by my 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I didn't specify anything in particular on the insides except that it had to have a toilet. I don't do traipsing to a bath house at night alone. Oh, and I gave him my very slim budget. I had hoped for something used for less than what I budgeted, but when I saw this one, I loved it. Brought it home yesterday and it tows like a dream - almost like it isn't even there. So easy. Life Goes On is one of the names I'm considering for it. I'm also considering pulling it with my 1996 Ford F15 pick up truck as well. Annie, I would be grateful to park under your cherry trees and fight the birds, but I'm afraid Sig would create a problem with your animals. His favorite thing right now is terrifying the chickens from outside the coop and run. We'll get there and visit with you for sure. And who knows, we might even pick up l pinkmountain on the way and bring her with us - if she could stand my monster spoiled dog.