No, they're easier than almost anything to grow if you buy good nursery stock that hasn't been damaged and keep it from getting damaged. If I can do it, anybody can, didn't know the first thing about it, but mixed in some fertilizer and planted them carefully (for me), and watered faithfully the first year, then never had to water again. I am getting up in years and was advised not to plant any more, if they don't succumb to something, likely to outlive me, sobering, don't know why the heck not, even if I don't use all the cherries or can/freeze them, people stop and ask for some and I don't care if the birds get them all. Those trees gave us many happy memories for me and my kids. Had a neighbor who used to come and love to pick them for half and pit them for me, grew up on a farm, gave him something to look forward to. So few want to clutter up their fancy yards with things like that now. I don't know why; they aren't messy and are pretty when they blossom and fruit. Just my 2 cents. NS is extremely hardy, was specially developed in Minnesota. For newly planted trees, that deep freeze killed a lot of things, saved most of my plants through that, very unusual that year B4 last. Mulberries don't compare to cherries imo. Never had a mulberry pie. I do happen to like them a lot, just pick off the tree and gobble as many down as I can reach, they grow wild here, but cherries are much more versatile to bake with, probably can better, too, I wasn't good at making jelly or jam. I'd grow black raspberries which I'm crazy for (JB's like them, too), but it isn't practical in my smallish yard, could squeeze some in somewhere if I wanted to fight with the canes. They grow wild here, too, if you can find some that got enough sun and water. The red are good, too, most people prefer them. But environmental conditions have changed drastically in the 30 plus years since I started my first ones, temps are not quite as extreme as they were then here generally plus new insects and blights, etc., have moved in. The Japanese Beetles got loose on the mulberries in the park, and it was awful, horrible, chains of the icky things I was told. At least I was able to keep them off those trees I replaced and they only ate the youngest leaves, that damage wouldn't have killed them unless they completely defoliated them which could happen. I think I just had a bit of bad luck, bought them impulsively at a big box store, they were cheap, and I was so determined once I made up my mind to haul and plant them (not so easy for me now), I didn't check them over very well, not much to choose from that night in the dark. I didn't want to spend the money it now costs at the good nurseries. Now it has ended up costing me a lot more but I feel good about it for now. I decided it's best but may not always be true, to buy your better plants from a good nursery in your area. It doesn't always pay to buy cheap or mail order (which I do a lot of now). I've had good luck with little stuff at big box stores, but I think a lot of inferior stock may get palmed off on them and then sold to unwary customers especially impulsive ones like me, but you can get lucky, too; it's a crap shoot. Lowe's had some NS that looked pretty good after I bought those Montmorency and planted them, what do I know? They were too heavy for me to deal with, too large, too big a hole to dig, make that two holes, I always like two for cross pollination but they say it really isn't necessary. All you need to do is have a reasonably sunny spot, 6 hours or so, average soil (mine's clay after the first 10 or so inches), plant them right, and water well the first year. The worst that happened to one of mine was my son years ago got goofy with his land cruiser in the yard and clipped the one really bad, injured it, surprised it lasted as long as it did, I was so mad at him. Plus not being careful with the lawn mower, a nick in them opens them up to the above canker or other malady. I think it was gall or a virus that got the one finally, looked out the window late one summer, and it had turned completely brown; the other I was never sure what happened with it. But 30+ years is pretty darn good for dwarf trees like that. Standards aren't worth the hassle imo. By all means if you want cherries and have room for them, I certainly encourage you to try them. Try to find a good fit for what will work best for you in your zone, not neccessarily what is the most talked about here. Sorry I rambled on so about it, must be a nuisance to plow through my posts for some.

Hi Kate, I do not think you find much written about it. Vintage Gardens carries it however. It was given to me by a grower who tends to have more than few roses that are not normally grown/sold. It has been just a delight in the garden. Good luck with your new project! Hi Jeri, I really do not know what is involved. I did ask a grower once about imported some teas and was told to forget it. I think I know someone else who has imported recently, so will put a bug in the ear about Jeri Jennings, it is certainly worth a try!

Andrea, I'm not sure what site/roses you are looking at, but David Austin doesn't breed patio roses or minatures or dwarf polyanthas. If you check near the back of a DA catalog, you will see that DA also carries a few roses that he did not breed, although right off hand I don't remember any of the smaller ones you listed--but my memory isn't always as sharp as it should be. : ) As I remember it, his catalog has a couple pages of Old Roses that are NOT DA roses and a couple pages of modern roses which include hybrid teas--but no DA roses in that section. On the other hand, I have several small polyanthas (The Fairy is a classic and dependable sweetheart) that I really like and I grow about a dozen miniatures --love their cute little blooms! So go with the patios, etc., if that is what you really like. Good luck. Kate

The flip side of those comments for those of us in cold climates is that even Austins may not grow as big for us when we have winter dieback. The winter dieback is an important issue in zone 5, since if you have good snow cover you might not get much and they would gradually get big like they would in a warmer climate. For me, 90% of my roses are pruned back to no higher than 12" (if I'm lucky) or all the way to the ground (for a majority of them). For roses in that situation, virtually none of them get so tangled above ground that I can't plant them 18" apart. In fact I admit to putting HTs and floris in anywhere where there's enough room to put a shovel. That means any given 12" space in my yard is triggering another rose planted there. Yes, it's totally not the way roses are supposed to be planted, but in my yard it works. The Austins in my yard that would not play nicely 18" or less from another rose are the ones that get either very wide or very floppy. I've got around 60 Austins and the ones that come to mind that wouldn't share space well would be Teasing Georgia (big bushy floppy rose if unsupported, big if supported), The Generous Gardener (not very big when dying to the ground but wide floppy canes), and maybe Scepter'd Isle (tall and upright but very winter hardy and bushy and has a lot of loose canes around the base). Queen of Sweden and Carding Mill get tall, but they're pretty narrow and I haven't had problems planting pretty close to them. I've left climbers off this list - partly because I have yet to have a climbing Austin actually climb (like the one-cane 4' wonder A Shropshire Lad) - but this spacing limit also might apply to Brother Cadfael or James Galway (ask me in two years and we'll see). Oh, Crown Princess Margareta definitely climbs for me with the limpest canes I've ever seen on a rose, but it never blooms. I have mine wound around a 3' high narrow pillar support and I freely plant other roses around the base of the support. The other issues I can think of that would limit the wisdom of planting roses too close together even in a cold zone where they don't get big, would be blackspot/fungal diseases and soil quality. I talked about the rose canes above ground not being concerned about being too close to each other, but you also have to consider the roots below ground. If you have sandy or otherwise not very fertile soil, your roots are going to be competing with each other and you want to give each one maximum benefit. I have the luxury of great loamy soil so I can push my limits that way. The other issue of blackspot means that canes growing into each other won't have enough air circulation to fight the disease, so you'd want to keep clear spaces around the rose. I don't get that much blackspot relatively speaking so again I can cheat on spacing. In your case lkayetwvz5, you're on the east coast so that sets off blackspot warning lights to my mind. On that grounds alone I wouldn't plant on anything like 18" centers, and put instead annuals or low growing perennials with shallow roots around roses to fill in. If you also have crappy soil at high elevations, then you doubly want to avoid spacing things too close. Until you know how roses perform in your yard, I wouldn't plant closely even if neither of these conditions apply. It's way easier to keep from planting roses closely than to have to move them when you goofed. Warm zone gardeners have plenty of those kinds of horror stories, particularly where the Austins are concerned. There's an obvious reason why DA roses recommends planting multiple roses on narrow centers. Instant gratification in the short run for gardeners, and more rose sales for DA roses when the too-close plantings die out. I'll bet you that the closely planted roses in the jaw-dropping DA gardens in England need frequent replacement, but they serve the purpose of thinking all of our DA roses should look that good. Well, Diane's do, but for the rest of us mortals... Cynthia