Hello, I live in Southwestern Nova Scotia Zone 6 and I have many rododendrons,azaleas, Mountain Laurels, etc. all of which were not damaged by Juan or the sometimes heavy snowfall we get and I live beside the water, also get lots of wind. I have some rhodos that are approx 25 yrs. and I moved 4 large ones two years ago, they are doing well. Last winter we did not get much snow. Waiting for tomorrow to see what Earl brings. It rained earlier now (after midnight) it has stopped, crickets churping. Down at the lighthouse earlier, tide going out but the waves were getting rougher. Betty

You bought a jacaranda for Vancouver Island??? I used to live in Northern California and jacarandas were very marginally hardy enough for that climate!! That was USDA zone 9, sunset zone 17. I'd be suspicious of any nursery in Vancouver Island selling jacarandas. Were they really jacarandas and not albizias? are there established jacarandas in the area? Jacarandas are tropical trees. Vancouver Island, while not arctic, is not tropical either. Too cold, winter and summer, for a jacaranda to thrive, I would assume, unless someone can point to established and thriving jacarandas there! WITH the famous lavender trumpet blooms! Albizia (pink pompom flowers) should grow there, and the leaves resemble jacaranda, but albizias are not tropical trees; although still they can be easily killed by a cold winter here. People plant one, and then hope for warm winters while it gets established. Point being, if it really was a jacaranda and not an albizia, then the nursery is selling stuff that's not adapted to the area. Why they'd do that with something so far off base, I just dunno. Might be it was intended as a greenhouse plant only but you bought it to plant outside, either because they didn't make it clear, or you ignored their warnings. I used to work at a nursery here, and we sold bougainvillea as a houseplant. Every time someone brought one up to the register I'd remind them that it's a houseplant here, and I swear, 99% of the time, people were SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you, that just because it was in the houseplant section and labeled as a houseplant that it won't survive the winters here! they'd seen it growing EVERYWHERE in Phoenix after all! Nurseries have to sell what people will buy, after all. Some try harder than others to sell only what will do well in the area, but they can't make you buy what they think will do well if you're determined to get something else. Here the big box store garden centers are all supplied out of Georgia, and constantly bring in things that won't do nearly as well here as in Georgia, or bring things in too early in spring for us, because the decisions are largely being made in a much warmer climate. Probably less of a problem where you are as you're in the warmest climate Canada has! And, some marginal plants will do fine most years if given extra care and attention, like figs. So nurseries sell them because knowledgeable and determined gardeners can make them work. Please note that fruit trees need a specific second cultivar for pollination, not just any ol' cultivar. For each type of fruit, ie cherry or pear or apple, you need to check a pollination chart to see exactly which other cultivars will pollinate it. I don't think Raintree Nursery ships to Canada, but you can still look at their website and research what varieties are likely to do well in your area. This is berry and fruit tree heaven after all if you pick the right ones. You have to pick ones that will ripen fruit in our short cool summers, and with subtropicals like fig trees you also have to pick for cold tolerance. Fruit trees need a few years to get going. Cane berries need a couple of years. Blueberries need a few years. If you're a beginner, stick to common easy stuff and avoid the exotics until you know you can grow the easy stuff. I don't know what your landscaper friend means by 'grafted incorrectly'. If the graft took and the plant is alive and growing, then it was grafted correctly. If the plant is not growing then it may be, as has been mentioned, operator error. Do they bloom? they need to bloom to produce fruit. Do they get pollinated by bees? no pollination, no fruit. Full sun, decent drainage, regular water, all that stuff? Here is a link that might be useful: Raintree Nursery in Morton, WA

pjb, Sometimes you cannot avoid them though. I know someone who was turning on his faucet and got bit. Someone I used to work with was doing laundry inside her home and reached down to get some clothes and got bit, they figure it came through the dog door. I went to turn the lights off in my garage one evening and turned the corner in my hallway and there was one (I didn't get bit). Several species of rattlesnake will give you the chance to retreat but some like the Mojave green are just plain nasty. In the 20 years we've lived here I have dispatched more rattlers than I care to think about. My 4yr old g-son was less than 1/2 ft from one. Luckily it was injesting and couldn't strike. DH was weeding one winter and touched the back of one- thank God it was lethargic from the cold. I went to get a sweater one night (7/4) from DH's truck- stepped down and heard a rattle. I had to wait in the dark until it rattled again and then I jumped the other way. That was a 3' diamondback- it was less than a foot away. BTW, that 2 year old I posted about last month. The child is Dr. Sean Bush's little boy. Dr Bush who lives about 1/2 mile from us is the ponytail venom doctor from the TV channel Animal Planet's "Venom ER" show. Jude saw the snake in their backyard and tried to pick it up. Dr Bush keeps snakes, spiders, scorpians etc in his garage (well contained) and Jude thinking this was one of his daddy's snakes that got loose wanted to help. If you ever got bit Dr Bush is the man you want to take care of you. In fact he is on call if President Bush (no relation) ever gets bit at his ranch in Crawford.

GH yes I have seen some grown in baskets at nurseries but would agree with Andrew - and your own leanings - to leave it in a pot. Adequate water but good drainage. I've had one which is also not magnifica - in the same terra-cotta tub on the porch for... good heavens, 12 years at least since we moved. All day filtered light through the patio cover, afternoon sun but a bit filtered by western trees. I guess I must have potted it on once in all that time. I used a half and half premium poting mix and orchid mix. I treated it like an azalia or tropical rhodo in terms of being initially shallow rooted, so filled the last pot about 1/4 with large river stones first. And put it on pot feet, if you know what I mean. It's spread wider than it's height, and the weight of the stones adds some stability to the tub when it's windy. All I do annually is a little prune of deadwood, top up the soil and I mulch it a couple of times a year as well as fertilizing. It is right now just laden with flowers, so I guess it's happy.