Hi everyone! Regardeng BLACKBERRIES, we, on the opposie side of the pool, have the same problems of OVERWINTERING the canes and the flower buds. Admittedly I yet have no own experience as I got interested in blackberries only this fall when discovered the existance of the new thornles and prolific varieties. So I read all that was worth reading in the Russian and US internet, especially the rather high-profile specialised forums of our blackberry enthusiasts.. I discovered that throughout Russia and Kazakhstan which both have areas with very serious frosts blackberry growing in those is nevertheless quite successful. Maybe someone here would benefit from their experience same as e.g. you grow plums of Russian origin such as ptitsin and fofanoff. Apparently Blackberries can bring huge yealds in climates with very low winter temps, even downing to -40C for rather ptolonged periods. The TECHNIQUE below allows overwintering without much problem. Plus some easy principles to follow. 1. All blackberries need to be laid down and covered for the winter, preferably after the first frost when the land is frozen. To ensure that this task is easy and hassle free: 2. Choose thornless varieties only. Those with thorns are said to be hell to lay and cover. 3. In early summer watch for the new canes (primocanes) to emerge. As soon as a shoot reaches 15-20cm carefully bend it 90 degrees and secure with a metal peg. When the cane grows another 40-60cm, secure it parallel to the ground with yet another peg. After it reaches 1 m let it grow as it will but better tie to the lowest string of the trellis Which gets them out of the way. Do not tip the ends as this would increase the leaf mass. Do the bending for all the emerging primocanes. 4. In autumn at the time of first frosts when all the fruiting canes have long been cut down lay the primocanes in lines stretched along one side of the trellis. Peg them to the ground, cover with two layers of 60g/m2 thick white non-woven fabric and secure all sides to the ground with no holes. This is said to help greatly even if serious frosts come before the snow. In milder and wetter climates they also put a plastic film layer on top of the fabric, leaving however the end bits open so there is always air circulation. The advice here is to experiment as all natural circumstaces differ. 5. Take off the cover layers gradually, and completely only after all danger of frost is over. By then the canes are likely to bear some yourg leaves and side shoots, but this is ok. Raise them carefully as the canes of come varieties are brittle, and tie to the trellis. 5. Winer frosts may not be a problem for blackberries, but summers need to be warm or hot. The shorter and milder/cooler the summers, the earlier fruiting varieties should be chosen. 6. Floricane varieties like PA Freedom in cooler and shorter summer climates may very sucessfully fruit if treated in the same way as other primocanes, i.e. as above, in a two-year culture. They would be one of the earliest to perform. If you have any questions do feel free to write me, I will try to help with more information. cathpetro at gmail dot com.

You found some good ones, some mediocre ones and one to definitely avoid. Starting with my personal favs... Northern Red Oak. Huge tree. Fast growing. very desirable. Godd fall color. Big leaves Bur oak. The same but without the fall color and not as fast growing. Amalanchier (aka serviceberry) very nice tree. It is a small tree. I'd recommend it for use with a small grouping of them for massing effect of the flowers, berries and fall foliage. You should note however that these send up suckers big time which means you'll have to get out there 2-3 times a season to cut them unless you want it to turn into a multistemmed colony. Would also make a nice specimen tree for a small front yard. The hawthorns can be variable. The best on the market right now is probably winter king. It's another small tree with a wide-spreading canopy. Freemans maple is a cross between an undesirable species, silver maple and a desireable species, red maple. This hybrid is advantageous for folks out west with alkaline soils that silver maple tolerates but red maple doesn't. If this soil issue is not a concern for you, I would recommend red maple instead. There are countless cultivars like october glory, red sunset and the list goes on and on. There are some issues I have with autumn blaze maples but I won't get into that. Hackberry. On the blah side. Has some issues with pest/disease but tolerant of tough sites. Not the most ornamental of the bunch but wildlife is attracted to the fruit. Norway maple is an exotic maple that has become a pest species in a portion of the country. They are slow growing and usually have poor to fair fall color. They come in all shapes and sizes though. Most look like a dense lollipop. A far better alternative to norway maple is sugar maple. Depending on the use, sugar maple is not a good choice such as for a street tree as they are not as tolerant of road salts and urban stresses. I don't know if that's an issue though. Personally, I'd plant a sugar maple instead and ask your nursery why they are selling an invasive species like norway maple. If you want more of a lollipop with med-fast rate of growth, October Glory Red Maple. Ask for it by name.

Thank you, Maria... at least now we're not all wondering, even though we all pretty much knew that they weren't really hardy to zone 5, and that they aren't really something from Hadeco. Still, it's nice to get factual information straight from the horses mouth, as it were! Once the original copyright or registration runs out on a product, it's ownership and name are up for grabs. I wonder how long the growers that grabbed these were waiting around, drooling for the original patent to expire? Many, many years ago I bought a bunch of bulbs from Breck's... I knew they wouldn't be top-sized bulbs, but I didn't mind waiting a couple of years for them to grow. I must say... I did get my money's worth... they were all beautiful flowers, and by the second year they were in, they really put on a nice show! However... this was years and years ago, when Breck's was more reputable and owned by someone else... I would not place an order with them now and expect their ads to be true... any company that spends that much in advertising and has that glossy and pretty of a catalog isn't putting their profits back into the company or the products they sell. As my experience and learned knowledge of gardening and plants has grown over the years, I know what zones most perennials and bulbs and plants are normally rated for... so, when I pick up a catalog and see a plant listed for a zone I know is not probable, I take it with a grain of salt and note which company the catalog is from... Bumping zones of plants in catalogs has been a sales ploy for a long time... once you have a general understanding of perennial gardening, and you begin to do some cultural reading on the subject, you begin to remember which plants are rated for what zones... The bottom line is... this kind of thing is exactly what you'd expect from a company such as Breck's... and all the other companies of the same caliber will very quickly jump on the bandwagon and offer the same thing, claiming that it will survive in a zone 5 garden... we all know it won't. I suspect most of us knew that already...

Kankakee River report: No ice sheet above the Wilmington IL dam. Last winter the slow flowing sheet was breaking over the dam almost 6" thick. Below the dam not even edge ice. Mallard Ducks, Canada Geese and Mute Swans love the available seaweed along the shores. 3 days ago Bald Eagle caught a nice fish and ate it on a high branch across the river. Folks who have summer homes down river at the Interstate 55 bridge so far have not flooded like they had the past 3 years due to lake effect snow melt in NW IN and NE IL. No annual open air ice hockey tournement this year. No ice on scheduled January day OR on the rescheduled day in Feb. Not even open skating. I have only had snow cover maybe 5 nights this winter. I too worry about too early breaking dormancy. But the hostas always survive. WGN weather (Tom Skilling) reports the hottest winter in 56 years in Chicago. So it has been this warm B4. Only a cycle? Les