I looked up Loch Ness, it's not supposed to have [pink flowers. (excerpt) "Blackberry plant--Loch Ness cultivar Document Type and Number:United States Patent PP06782 Abstract:This cultivar was formed by crossing two unnamed selections bred at the Scottish Crop Research Institute. The new cultivar is noted for its high yield of large, slightly glossy black fruit and its sturdy, erect or semi-erect thornfree stems... Inventors:Jennings, Derek L. (Dundee, GB6)... Description:SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The original plant of the new variety was selected from a family of seedlings resulting from a cross made in 1978 at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), Dundee, United Kingdom, between two unnamed blackberry selections of complex parentage, both of which were bred at the SCRI. The pedigree of the LOCH NESS cultivar of the present invention is summarized as follows: ##STR1## The new cultivar is notable for its large fruit size, hardiness, high yield and earliness of ripening. Its performance has been evaluated at the Scottish Crop Research Institute; the National Fruit Trials at Faversham, England; and in British Columbia, Canada... Description of Fruiting Laterals, Flowers and Fruit White flowers and fruits are well presented on flexible fruiting laterals of medium length (typically approximately one foot in length but are influenced by growing conditions). The fruits are blunt-conical in configuration and large. When fully ripe they are a deep black and slightly glossy with little or no downiness. The flavor is typical of blackberries with slight acidity. The season of ripening depends on the environment, but starts relatively early for a blackberry of this type and extends over a long period. General Description Fruiting laterals: Usually approximately one foot in length. Flower: Medium size with white petals."

No. I look at this plant every day. It's like other milkweed flowering stems where you have one main stem and then it branches to several stems where the flowers bloom, except instead of flowers, it's seed pods - like 5 seed pods opening at different times on the one main stem. And they have Milkweed Bugs just waiting for that pod to open! The seeds are flat brown (like a flattened dried up black-eyed pea) and attached to a silky white blow-away "parachute"... to help carry them for growing. Each pod holds no less than 50 seeds. Now, the seed pod may start out looking like a teeny tiny cauliflower (if I recall), but it's nothing that produces nectar as there is nothing that comes to it - Monarchs/bees/hummers/flies flutter around my flowering milkweed all day. I will try to get a pic when I can. Monarch Watch was at our local botanical garden last weekend and I talked to a few of the workers and no one could help. Maybe I need to go back to the nursery where they were purchased! And I agree, Orange Butterfly Weed is pretty! I wish I had some!!! The leaves of this one are identical to the Swamp Milkweed (with the light pink flowers).

Yes buford, it probably is a Lady Banks, I have one of those and it would be too big for the area I want this one, I am also hoping for a repeat bloomer. GGG, I have Jean's no Spray list and noticed that there are only a few climbers on it. Although I guess a "rambler" would probably be okay as well for the fence. I thought the Lavender Simplicity is fairly new, isn't it? (so it wouldn't be on the list.) The carpet roses that failed for you--was it blackspot or something else? BTW the yellow rose that I received from you at a trade in 2005 is doing nicely. I remember you told me it would get quite large eventually, do recall the one I mean? You don't know the name do you? You said the original came from someone named Henrietta maybe? The blooms are beautiful.

I still think it was you but don't remember that much if kids were there. Wife black straight hair? Last Saturday at the Devonian gardens we talked about prunus Siberica and thought it to be a rather minor deviation of prunus Manchirica. Even though Siberica is likely to carry over the pink I still have one reserved thought that Robert Purvis knows of about Siberica. That it is an incredibly slow grower and is dwarf. Robert used to live in Alaska and in Idaho still does nothing but apricot in one of his collections in Washington. Gabe Botar was at the gardens who is another person knowing a great deal about apricot. He had scions of a prolific dwarf apricot with small good tasting fruits that he produced from crossed parents. Good stuff because slow growing and dwarf is always great for extreme cold or unprotected sites. For example flowering under the snow would delay bloom and escape the damaging spring frosts. If Clair Lammers (formerly from Edmonton) from Alaska ever grew Gabes apricot he would at least had fruits from this where all other his Manchurica experiments failed. My grandfather may have been around as a retired forester at the time those were planted and lived very close by. Only a remote possibility exists. I came across the trees a few years ago because I wanted to visit my childhood memories of the wading pool that still there in that place and not that anybody told me. Who ever planted them it seems very possible it was done from self pollinated Goldcot seeds similar the way you collected from the pink tree the seeds for another generation.