sex.. pollen.. ovary.. etc ... [hows that for a start... lol] many plants do not come true from seed... and are in fact sterile .. and i suspect that is what you are finding ... food crops are selectively bred for a huge crop .. for processing and sale ... there is no inherent need for them to consider germination of the following generations ... as its a one and done system .. and in fact ... the growers dont want them to seed... rather relying on planting fresh seed with the genes they want the following season ... so it does not surprise me.. that bird food seed would fail on some level ... soooo ... if you are going large.. and want a crop.. you select a cultivar that will provide such.. and you plant the same cultivar next season.. and do not rely on the seed yours produce in fall ... be the farmer.. buy the seed for the product you want ... and do it again in the future ... it is akin to alyssum in my yard ... no matter what fancy color you buy.. if you do get seedlings the next year .... 99% will be white ... its all in the genetics ... or the regression of the genetics ken

It's not a graft, I damaged it when it was young . . . . . I won't say how. That Table Mountain Pine near Blacksburg is spectacular, I wish I had it growing on my property. There is a very old Virginia Pine growing in Cherokee County, Georgia, north of Atlanta, that has been named "Ancient Wonder". I can't find a picture of it on the internet but there is one in the book "Landscaping with Conifers and Ginkgo for the Southeast". It is a beautiful tree estimated to be around 150 years old, you can read more about it at the link below. Thanks for uploading those pictures. Jim Here is a link that might be useful: Saving a Rare Tree

yep yep. They are tasty. I just went up to my parents farm and dug up 6 of the healthiest looking plants from along the road. There were literally hundreds in this 10'x20' area. They've been there longer than I've been alive I am going to try and propagate indoors over winter and plant in a raised bed built against the back of my house this spring. My mom did the same thing when I was about 10y/0, but ended up tilling them under after a couple of years. While they were prolific reproducers and producers of the best berries you'll ever eat the fruits are extremely small,about dime sized or smaller, and it takes forever to pick a meaningful amount. They're much better as a ground cover that produces tasty treats. If only they could produce a strawberry plant with large fruits and that good of taste.

ThunderBoltBee, They are amazing! Turkeys; they're not just a side dish for cornbread dressing and cranberry sauce! LOL I don't use any millet mixes in my bird feeders because I have to battle the non-native English House Sparrows (HoSP) tooth, beak, and nail. Millets attract them like magnets. I have a Purple Martin colony (April-August), nesting tree swallows, chickadees, nuthatches, nearby bluebirds, and various other cavity nesters that the HoSP love to kill. They will go box to box breaking eggs and killing chicks to clear "their" territory of other cavity nesters. I trap all them all breeding season and have managed to clear my native birds' immediate nesting territories of these pests. While the HoSP will eat black oil sunflower seed, if they're starved to it, it's not their favorite food so I offer only BOSS. All the native songbirds, and native cavity nesters (insectivores excluded) love it best. I use different types of feeders, making it easier for the native birds to pick the one they are most comfortable using, but all the feeders hold the same BOSS. I also offer suet blocks; I usually make my own. During the coldest part of the winter I offer shelled peanuts in a special feeder that only allows them to pull out one peanut at a time. That cuts down on waste, too. Of course, the doves (and turkeys) and other birds love to glean from the ground, too. And my turkey flock - they are real turkeys. I bought 50 lbs. of cracked corn last winter. They wouldn't touch it. I even did tests. A big pile of corn near a smaller pile of BOSS. The cleaned up the BOSS and turned their beaks up at the corn. Wes finally took it out to a field and dumped it for the deer. It was gone the next morning! From now until deep snow time the turkeys will have to glean under the feeders and be content with a quart or so of "extra" BOSS on the ground. Once they are in distress I'll start with the two-gallon bucket a day limit. One reason I think they are so spoiled is that I am surrounded by thousands of acres of sunflowers, wheat, soybeans, etc. There are corn fields, too, but they love to hang out in the other crops. I guess they think the corn is for the deer and raccoons!