I am coming out of lurkdom here because I attended Jason's rose class last year and saved the handout. Here is why his roses are so compact: "The pruning of Old Garden Roses is far different from that of the modern hybrid tea. Removal of all dead canes and clippings no more than 1/3 of the remaining bush is a good rule to use. This encourages full foliage, and heavy bloom without destroying the vigor and natural form of the plant....varieties which are everblooming can be lightly trimmed or 'tip-pruned' several times a year to encourage the new growth on which they flower. Once-blooming varieties should be pruned after they bloom." My notes: "Hard prune after first bloom. This is when Japanese beetles come and this way you avoid being troubled by them." "Climbers cut side branches 6-8". Side branches trim 8-12" Don't reduce # of canes." "Shrub roses reduce height 1/2 to 1/3 and make dome shape. Don't thin." I was at Petals from the Past yesterday and inspected his roses and they were beginning to bloom and were a mannerly size. I remember he had some growing up poles and he demonstrated to the class how he would prune them in the spring so they would grow up the pole in a demure way. I hope this helps and does not confuse anyone. Petals does have a web site and they are very wonderful about answering emails too :-) Sharon

NIP is an extremely popular houseplant and will typically do quite well inside the average home. II find it very difficult to believe that you found a lot of websites claiming it to be difficult to grow inside...because it isn't! If your home became exceedingly dry over the winter, that would pose a problem for your plants as well as you. Humidifiers can make life a bit better for all. Also be sure that the plant is situated away from drafts and heat vents. However, if lack of humidity was the real problem, I think that the needles would drop fairly quickly. I'll suggest that your little plant might be infested with the primary pest of NIPs, spider mites. They are probably the number one reason for the browning of the needles. So, have you seen any signs of spider mites? Another possibility is that it wasn't watered properly (too much, too little), or over fertilized. As with all containerized plants, we have to find the right balance of light, water, and other factors. If I were you, I'd do all that I could to raise the humidity in the room where the NIP is. Misting does nothing to help with this problem, other than keeping the dust off (a good thing) and perhaps helping control mites, if they are present.

So I'm guessing they 7a is not hardy enough? And sam, yes I see it but I don't see one in my current weeping cherry. Well I don't quite remember if my prunus mume was double flowering or single flowering(I'll have to look next spring). And it barely fruits yet. It is about 18 feet tall now and last year we got like 2-3 fruits and this year none. Maybe because we didn't prune it at all. And the fruit is called ume in Japan and is very very bitter and astringent and isn't meant to be eaten raw. It's often consumed as umeboshi(pickled plums) or mixing the fruit in sake(Japanese alcohol). The fruit is no more than like 2 inches big and is green and fuzzy. I don't really have a pic of the full tree but you can see the trunk and some of its leaves in the previous thread I posted. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4105676/is-my-japanese-plum-tree-dying

Some very sad stories due to trees. Near us two boys were sitting under at tree at their high school and were struck by lightning when it wasn't storming here. It can strike from very far away sometimes. I didn't used to take it seriously, but after hearing too many stories like these, I do now. They try to teach here, when you hear the roar, go indoors. (Thunder is the roar). We had a tree fall across the driveway due to a heavy snow load, leaving a 12 ft. trunk standing alone. It was still anchored in very well, so I let it stay for about 3 years thinking of woodpeckers and whatever other wildlife might use it, but I had it removed this spring because I didn't want the rest of it falling over the driveway someday, possibly at a bad time. nhl, your situation is so distressing to me. What are the consequences of removing the tree illegally? Would it be a fine? You were already going to be on the hook to buy five new trees. Would a qualified tree company do it, or will they refuse without permission? Being so close to your house you need someone who knows what they're doing. Besides all the current trouble for you, it's making it impossible if you ever want to sell your house, having to disclose problems like flooding and so on. I bet you wish lightning would hit that tree and kill it so you could finally get permission to take it down.