(zone 3~4) Sorry for the late response after your prompt one, my last semester of college was a rough one and I don't get online much now that I am out (hopefully....still waiting on the diplomas to be mailed out). Anyways, I should clarify a couple of my statements. Yes, Chester takes a lot of damage in this region my plants are young but the person I got them (I'm in a cold valley and she is on a hill) has had flowers every year that I have been there (said she had no damage at all a few years ago when we had an extremely warm winter). I have dozens of flowers on Triple Crown this year which is comparable to Chester but sadly my Darrow has yet to produce a single flower and I have had it planted longer. Part of this is the effects of erect vs semi-erect habit (Chester gets a little more protection from snow than Darrow does here). Darrow may very well be more hardy in your region than Chester but for me it is not. I'm actually tempted to try some zone 7 trailing brambles (have tayberry/boysenberry/newberry), with mulch and snow cover (if were lucky enough to keep it through the winter like we have the last two years) they could be brought to flower, all ya need is one, if the cross works.... For self-incompatibility I am mostly pulling from memory of a bramble breeding book I rented for a summer and have not physically confirmed this with wild types. But I believe the reds had most of the self-incompatibility bred out of them. Also, since blacks generally only have limited primocane fruiting it seems likely that the ancestry of Niwot's wild black raspberry parent had a cultivated red in it's background or even a wild red somewhere which lead to the self-incompatibility of its sibling release (the first wild purple I remember finding had/has pretty decent primocane fruiting have used it in a fair amount of my crosses). The germination rates I mentioned of 30~50% is with scarification and several months of stratification i peat moss. However, before my last post I had planted some stratified but unscarred open pollinated blackberry seeds, all were under-ripe which may be of importance. Prime Jim and Prime Ark 45 seeds were also froze and frosted numerous times (which keep them from fully ripening). Black Satin had a poor but acceptable level of germination for this discussion, Prime Jim was the worst of the three with only 3 germination out of a couple hundred seeds but Prime Ark 45 had several hundred germination out of one to two thousand seeds perhaps a 10 to 15 percent germination rate. So it can work but genotype may play a big roll in germination rates of scarred seeds. The ripeness and frost/freeze would also play a role. Also for long-term storage seeds would not kept "moist" or be stored in peat moss but I would think that the proper humidity level would be crucial (think they have been stored for 20 yrs).

For some reason I never associated water lilies with Nebraska. I guess I always thought there would not be any that would be hardy enough to survive the winters up there. I think they are beautiful plants. My immediate mental image of a water lily is a pretty white bloom with a cute smiling frog sitting on the pad! I laughed so hard at the nude bicycle ride post. So glad I am not the only one who sometimes did things that were out of the ordinary. You are a wonderful soul and I never get tired of reading your posts. I still say you need to write a book of your life. Mary

I have to agree about the big box stores. I bought two at Lowes and promptly returned one that was rotten through and through. The other one was dead, but I couldn't tell that at first. $10 lesson learned. I found an even better source for all kinds of water plants though, MY MOTHER! My parents have a large (to me anyway) pond that is overgrown with all kinds of plants. I have a teeny tiny pond, so I only needed one plant. And it was FREE! Just had to drive to Louisiana to get it. Sorry for rambling! Glad you found a good source here in Texas!

"kwoods - why do you highly recommend Prairie Nursery over the others?" Linrose, very robust (2nd yr?) plants and a diverse selection at very reasonable prices. Well packed and shipped in biodegradable packing material (excelsior which a put out for the birds to use as nesting material). The shipping is a bit high but the plants are ready to go straight out of the gate. Their seed selections are also excellent and coincide with their plant selections. If you're doing a large planting you can order plants for instant gratification and the same seed to fill in next year(s). "I am nuturing along some C. kentuckiense from SCL that came from seed collected at the single colony found in my state." Very cool! Nice to have the local genotype. I Have some kentuckiense out of flask from SCL that I'm on my fourth(?) year w/. Hopefully first blossoms this spring! "I have many Sarracenia species/hybrids/cultivars that require clean water to prosper." Again, very cool! I use a nearby pond to pump water to my bog where the Sarrs are located. Do you have one of those 100 gal tanks to collect rainwater, on those rare occasions, from the roof? Straight S. rosea is one I don't have that is very nice, good for you. I have been collecting antho-free (no red pigmentation) sarrs the last couple years. I hope they (and you) make it through the drought.