greenmulberry...get ready to be disappointed when you see those trees. They are gonna be small, but don't be discouraged no matter what anyone here says. There are however a lot better places to get trees from, no doubt. The biggest, prettiest and best fruit tree I have, came from Arborday and at the time cost I think $6.98. It has provided my family with beauty in the yard and probably over 140 lbs. of spectacular ( truly something special) fruit in just 3 years fruiting. It is a Methley plum. I also have a Montmorency cherry that produces fruit every year and it's good too...I don't net it so the birds like it more than we do, but that's ok. My wife made a great cobbler this year...the birds got the rest. Arborday's trees take more time and come with greater risk and they are not as good as other better nurseries at getting things right, but they are WAY cheaper. They get some people growing who may otherwise would not have. If a really good nursery could duplicate their advertising campaign...they'd really have something going. This post was edited by Appleseed70 on Thu, Nov 20, 14 at 2:55

Michelle, Congrats on a great thread. It is very rare to have a thread attain 100 responses and you clearly will go way over that. Another first for Camelot in SW VA Fritillary (sp.) I couldn't get close enough to determine what species. BTW, This beats my earliest Fritillary ever by 3 days. mike

ali, what about putting an arbor in and growing a honeysuckle up it? From the edge and in from the driveway to the tree, I'd edge out the grass from that area and curve slightly to the end of the concrete pad in front of your home, the patio area. All the way to the end. Let's give you some curb appeal ;) Put the middle of the arbor in front of the edge of the concrete pad where the car is sitting, about 3 feet in. From the middle of the arbor to the drive and then going up your house, you could create a path that would curve over to the sidewalk and to the front door. For right now, using newspapers and a 5 gallon bucket filled with water, cover up all grass with layers of newspapers you've plunged into the water. Lay them down, overlapping as you go. I typically use about 10 layers of paper. The more, the better. If you can create your path first, either using stepping stones or gravel, lay down something like visqueen and lay the stepping stones or the gravel over to create the path. Remove the grass where the path will be so that nobody trips over stepping stones or gravel. Take out a V shape where you're going into the lawn from driveway to tree and up and over to the end of your home. Remove the dirt and the grass from the V, so that you've got a drop off of sorts and lay your wet newspaper to curve down into the area where the dirt is. Cover the area up with mulch or mushroom compost if you can get your hands on some, except for the path area. By next year, the newspaper will start to decompose and the grass will be dead, but it adds to the organic matter of newspaper and the dead grass. Worm heaven. From now and thru winter, study up on various perennials and possibly a few shrubs that produce berries for our other feathered friends. Next year, push back the mulch or mushroom compost and dig holes to plant. There should be enough room to the right of the path up to your front door, to add in a shrub. Then the other shrubs could go in front of the poles, under planted and going out to the edge with perennials. I prefer natives. They're adapted to our weather, our soil, they make up our ecosystem. Find a list of native plants for your area, and research those plants as to what hummingbirds like and also which ones make seed that other birds will like to eat on. The native plants won't require dead heading, don't need pruned or cut back so they look better....I just prefer them over all. Now an iris in there isn't going to hurt anything ;)...or a peony....both left by the previous owner that I decided to leave and a friend of mine from TN also gave me a beautiful iris that is sentimental to me. But again, those 2 are easy plants. Hummingbirds will love to sit and rest a spell on shrubs you provide and give you a closer look at their beauty. Too much?? Where do you live? Zone 5, but where? lovefornature, you're doing a wonderful job! It's people like you who join GW that make it an enjoyable site to visit. If you like butterflies and are interested in attracting some of them to come to your yard, you could plant a Aristolochia tomentosa or Aristolochia durior. Another plant I love that I don't know draws anything in, but blooms in late summer, is Clematis virginiana. Another neat native clematis is Clematis glaucophylla. I also answered the e-mail you sent, I hope you got it.

Here in the UK we have a chain of Wilko stores. They have Perennials out on display in mid-January; Dahlias, Dicentra, Lillies etc. We try to keep them in the coldest room indoors (the shed is not frost-proof) for as long as possible, but the Dicentra's are already sprouting when we buy them. The packet says 'plant from March to June' but, within that time, they can start to rot before they even get into the ground. We start the Dicentra and Lillies off in pots outdoors. As for the Dahlias, one has sprouted in the pack already, but it's far too wet to plant it in the open ground. Again, pots protected against excessive rain would be the best option.