Thank you for visiting, and for your nice comments citytransplant and fpgoa. I'm in the NW, Warren County. With all of the rain we've been having, the garden is crazy-green and lush!

I hate to be a bumper but...any news famartin? All of mine recovered completely; by late summer you have had no idea anything had happened to them. Am increasingly concerned about this winter as the "polar vortices" seem never to have retreated this year. OTOH, NOAA CPC is not calling for a colder than normal winter. So maybe there's a ray of hope. The northern tier of states getting snow covered so early does not bode well though...and apparently the Great Lakes never really warmed up to normal temp. levels this summer.

Hi, The only place I've seen persimmon growing in NJ was in Strawbridge Park along Rt 38 in Moorestown, NJ. It may well have been planted there, though. I'm not super familiar with it - I suspect it's around in south Jersey but I haven't seen it. I might not recognize it at a casual glance, though. I've never seen it in north Jersey at all. Where's the Ridgefield Nature Trail, anyway? I am familiar with with Pawpaw and I don't think it grows in NJ at all - I've never seen it here. It's very common in Ohio where I grew up. Same with Pin Cherry - it sounds like it's commoner in the mountains of Pennsylvania but I've never seen it here. I was a volunteer on the Metroflora project for the Brooklyn Botanic garden in the late 90s, so I'm pretty familiar with the woody plants in the Bergen county area; and I don't believe I saw any of these three there. In fact, I got curious and dug out the 'Woody Plant Workbook' from the metroflora project - it has maps showing a dot in each quadrat where the (woody) plants were found. Persimmon is show as occuring on Staten Island and in Middlesex and Monmouth counties, but not farther north except for one or two places. Asimina triloba is only listed in 3 locations - 2 on Staten Island ond one in Monmouth County. At that point I suspect that people were either looking at planted specimens or mistaking Umbrella Magnolia for Pawpaw - they look rather similar. I know the BBG made a pretty good effort to check on IDs, but they had a lot of volunteers at that point and they weren't all real knowledgable. Prunus pennsylvanica is listed for 9 scattered sites over the entire area - like I said, I believe this is more common farther west. FWIW, if you're not familiar with it, the BBG Metroflora Project is a census of all the plants growing within a 50 mile radius of NYC. They broke the area up into 964 5x5km blocks; the book I mentioned has maps with a dot in each block where the plant was found. It doesn't really have enough info to specifically locate the plant, but it would give you an idea. It's fun to look at, anyway. Sorry I can't be more help. WW Here is a link that might be useful: Brooklyn Botanic Garden Metroflora Project

It's best to keep yuccas out of extra moist locations. I've seen people have then in moist soil that is also irrigated, and I guess they can tolerate that, but a Yucca such as Y. Rostrata would probably prefer a well-drained soil that is more sand than regular soil. If you have time, drive up north of Asbury Park, NJ, and I think the street is Ocean, but it may have another name. It's the street closest to the ocean where you pass all of hte fancy houses. If you are going north from Asbury, look to your right. There is one house in either Interlaken or Deal that has two large Yucca Rostrata plants (I think it's Y Rostrata, at least), and they are absolutely amazing. Proof that you can grow a "palm-looking" plant on the NJ shore with much success.