Also, by the looks of it, your holes should have been bigger. Blueberry roots are relatively shallow so you don't have to go real deep, 18 inches probably enough but the diameter of the hole should be at least 2 feet, even more wouldn't hurt. Then mix all your soil up in a wheel barrow or on a tarp and then put it all back in. You can't beat peat moss, blueberries will grow fine in 100% peat but if you mix it with some of your native soil it will help provide some of the micronutrients your plants need and make the peat go further. Compost the plants and the soil around the plants so that the entire environment stays more moist and cool. The way it looks now, the roots are going to get very hot and the super dry sandy soil around the plants will wick water away from the roots........not a good thing. Even grass clippings would be very helpful. RM

I decided I needed to quit procrastinating and just plant her! I set her pot in the area in consideration all day, and decided to go ahead and plant her near Trinity. I hope a 10 foot spacing is enough. Her growth habit just seemed to fit. Mutabilis is in the center of this bed, near the lampost, so Clytemnestra will be viewed with him as well, from certain angles. I did go ahead and plant Louis Philippe in that bed also. I decided not to worry too much about perfect color combinations, as I am adding native grasses, shrubs, wildflowers, etc. in with the roses anyhow. My thinking has changed a great deal, and I consider growth habit, texture and color just as important as flowers now. Slowly, (VERY slowly), it is starting to look like a garden, instead of just a rose collection, and I like that. It attracts more diversity in wildlife, and it is wonderful. Thanks everyone for all the encouragemment about planting Clytemnestra near Trinity. It helped me not second guess myself. Deb, I figured you got really busy in your garden. It's so hot out now that it's hard to get much done, and I know I don't feel like doing much once I go inside. All I'm going to do now is pot up a few roses, give away some duplicates, or those I won't have room for, and do my pine bark (and maybe try out some pine straw mulch). I have a few blueberry bushes and a couple of native plants that I want to get in the ground, but that's it until fall. I'm leaving the rest of the gaps empty until things cool off. Even so, there's probably at least a couple of weeks of work left, but hope to wind it up before the first of July. I've been at this since January! Sandy

'Bob Fincham developed a Gold Weeping Norway spruce called 'Gold Drift' that would look great in the right settings.' I actually have spent a lot of time on Coenosium Gardens website, indulging my love of acid yellow coloration in plants. I have considered the 'Gold Drift' but it would be such a small speciman if I buy it from there- it will take a very long time to get some size on it and I'm tired of my baren yard. Kvolt- I actually am along the valley floor. Right above Gardener Village at pretty much the dead center point of the valley. The two specimans I have been watching this year are also located at the same west coordinate but a little further north. I guess if I really want to try this one, I should go and talk with the person growing those specimans and find out how they are working first hand. Most of the landscape work we do is on the east side and I grew up there with basically the opposite gardening conditions that I have now. I've noticed a lot of Metasequoias there- I wonder if a 'Gold Rush' Metasequoia would be an option for me? I do have very alkaline, clay soil which is the reason I am not attempting any firs that are more than small minis. If I could grow an Abies Concolor 'Candicans' rest assured, I would- but I know that's asking too much. The soil the 'silberperle's' will go in is heavily ammended down 18" with the Utelite Church Blend extremely expensive soil ammendment so the 'Silberperle' shrub MIGHT work. It won't cost me too much to find out but I think I'll still put it at the bottom of the 'to purchase' list.

I live in Northwest Arkansas and I haven't seen any Berkleys around here. Most of Arkansas is rabbiteye and southern highbush country, so if they're not available here, it'll be hard to find them elsewhere in-state (there are a few nurseries a little south of here that I haven't been to). The way I grow mine is similar to Scotokla - I dig a 2 1/2' wide planting hole, about 12" deep in the middle, then fill it with a mix of 50% peat, 50% pine mulch (sometimes I add a small amount of cotton burr compost). I then mark the holes and build over it with a 3' wide raised bed, about 8-10" high in the middle, flat on top with steep sides. I then mulch over it with a heavy layer of pine straw to prevent it from floating off, with a total height of about 12-14" after I've added mulch, etc. The depth is a bit of overkill, about 2' below the crown, but I find the extra depth helps a lot with internal drainage (a major problem on heavy clay) and provides a nice pH buffer zone (native pH is 7.0). I plant my blueberries about 60% in the raised bed, 40% in the top of the planting hole. This hybrid-combination of a planting hole and a raised bed gives me most of the better qualities of each - it doesn't dry out as fast as a traditional raised-bed (much less a container) but has vastly better drainage and maintains a stable pH better than an at-grade planting. It's somewhat expensive & time consuming to plant them like this, but it pays off with a very low mortality rate. I've found that using a soil-less mix is hugely beneficial - people who amend native soils often seem to struggle with growing blueberries. Keith at Backyard Berries gave me the idea for the soilless mix, planting hole and slightly raised bed; my soil is so poorly draining, though, that I adopted the above method for planting using a much larger raised bed. For watering, I recommend putting in a good rain barrel system - I've recently expanded mine to 720 gallons, used mostly for my 29 or so blueberries. I also use a lot of sulphuric acid acidified water to keep the pH right at 5.0. If you plant them right, keep them from overproducing (lots of gardeners try to get too many berries, too soon, to the detriment of the plant), avoid using nitrate fertilizer and manage the water, growing blueberries is pretty easy.