I have 4yo trees from raintree. Dwarf 4in1 on G-5 rootstock. There are 2 trees. The beginning of May the bees were all over them, bumblebees, worker bees, even carpenter bees! There were hundreds of white flowers. The varieties are lapins, mont, stella, royal anne. The amount of cherries i am seeing now is amazing! These trees are 10 ft high by 5 ft wide. I use snakes to scare the birds away. Sounds like a pollination problem. When the blooms flower its only for a few days, so if you can, keep an eye on them during the sunny afternoon hours. Watch the bee traffic around the flowers. This is the first year i did this and was amazed at what i saw! There are 150 to 200 cherries on these two trees. Hope my dollar store snakes do their job this season! :) Awesome thread and posts!

For the most up to date information on Emerald Ash Borer and how to treat it, see this publication: http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/Publication%20Files/On%20Your%20Street/Urban%20Forestry/AshTree_EAB_Insecticide_Factsheet.pdf (this link is also shown at the bottom of this message in clickable format) which was written by a set of university experts from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. They all have a LOT of expertise over multiple years, and really do know what they are talking about. I treated quite a number of my ash trees last year, with great success. Use a product containing Imidacloprid, and apply it as a soil drench evenly around the tree within 18" of the trunk. The cheapest product I could find that is available to the general public is Dominion 2L, which is a 21.4% concentrate of Imidacloprid. Apply it at the rate of .4 fluid ounces(that is 4/10 fl. oz.) per inch of diameter of the tree you wish to treat. (YES, that is twice the rate on the label, and this rate IS approved for use on Ash trees against Emerald Ash Borers without harm to the environment if applied following the brochure.) Make sure you remove all leaf litter and other organic matter from around the area you will treat. The reason is that this other organic matter will absorb the imidacloprid (bind it up) before the tree can take it up through its root system. You treat ONCE A YEAR sometime around mid to end of April (at my latitude of 40 degrees north -- Columbus, Ohio). The treatment lasts for an entire year. It will NOT prevent mature grubs that formed the previous year from emerging the year of application, but WILL kill the larvae that emerge from their egg-laying during the year of application, which protects the tree that year from their feeding. By the way, a single bottle of Dominion 2L will cost about $26, and there is enough insecticide to treat about 64 cumulative diameter inches of trees (e.g., 3 trees that are 22" in diameter (69" circumference), and that's a pretty big tree to treat for $8 a year!). If your trees are smaller, then it will take less of the product and treat more trees for fewer dollars per application, or a single tree for a much longer time (years). Mix about 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of water per tree with the appropriate fluid ounces of imidacloprid, and pour it SLOWLY AND EVENLY around the very base of the tree where the greatest concentration of roots are. Pour slowly enough that it soaks in and does not run off. Then keep that area moist for the next 2 weeks (DO NOT WATER DAILY!) -- natural rains in the spring should suffice without any extra watering in most cases. ANY QUESTIONS? Please read the bulletin I gave a URL of below for MUCH more information on treatment options for Ash trees. By the way, only mix enough product to use immediately. Tightly cap the rest. Imidacloprid is generally safe for humans and other animals, so you should not have to worry about any cats, dogs, squirrls, etc. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Insecticide Options for Protecting Ash Trees from Emerald Ash Borer

Kristen - you contributed for me but I can include some data from previous years: 2006 Zone 7, Phila., PA (in the city but on the border line of Montco) Closest first on map = 4/9/06 My first = 4/29/06 (same as this year) Days diff = 20 -------------------------- 2005 Zone 7, Phila., PA (in the city but on the border line of Montco) Closest first on map = 4/7/05 My first = 6/5/05 Days diff = 59 My very first hummer experience was back in 2004 during fall migration season and I don't have the exact date handy of that (my very first hummer sighting ever), but it was some time in mid-August 2004. The first sighting in the area that year was 4/7/04. In general, the males tend to come earlier and in 2005, I only had a returning female, who showed up on 6/5/05. But once I got my first 2 juvie males of 2005 and they got a taste of my spot, one of them returned the next year on 4/29/06. The mom returned later on 5/10/06. There were 4 juvie males and at least 3 adult females that summer and one of the 2006 juvie males showed up this year on 4/29/07. One of the females appeared on 5/10/07.

I have been googling and drinking coffee in AC wondering about beaches on the Great Lakes this morning . I don't really know this plant. I sit Inland down south on my computer.It does appear that this woman is trying to do her homework. There are more than one Sea Rocket. One C. edentula is native and One a. maritima is an invasive that is replacing the native. . They look a great deal alike. I think the issue is to be definite about which of the two it is. I think the woman who uprooted the plants has her heart in the right place and if it is the invasive one, she will be the person who is the early identifier for this beach habitat. Taking a herbarium specimen is appropriate if the cause is good. She is acting as a protector. She is the eyes on the ground, acting on her assumptions,. and has obviously has some skin in the game of this habitat and ownership of the process. By the way,all the Cakiles are edible. Young shoots are the best. I did get differing info on the annual/ perennial question. Seems like that might be a question of how cold that beach is come winter. The C. edentula is an invasive in Japan and Australia and other regions of the world. It is a rare threatened plant in Illinois. The beaches are mostly factories and city there.