Hi, would you be interested in trading a bit of your Scarlet Gilia for some Lemon Beebalm- Monarda citriodora? LMK. Ronnie

I think you're going to need a deer fence to keep them out of your orchard...but planting in front of the fence will look nice and help disguise the fence. From what I've read, you can either do an 8' deer fence, all the way around, or two fences (about 4' apart) that are 4' tall. I don't know if this will work, but it's supposed to, according to some other forums. I've also read that an electric wire or two will work, but not here. We have an electric fence around our horse pasture (seven wires, two hot ones) and the deer jump over, crawl under and even walk through...very carefully. As for the roses, my deer like to chew on the new growth, but I plant them against the house or fence...and I put lots of lavender, other herbs and deer resistant plants in front of them. They still reach though in the fall, and nibble, but an exposed bush will get eaten down, pretty fast. Butterfly bushes are not thorny, but the deer don't care much for the taste. They also ignore (for the most part...babies taste almost everything) coneflowers, cosmos, daisies, lilacs, bee balm, mint, lavender, alyssum, marigolds, pontilia, blueberries, stock, tomatoes, acorn squash, sunflowers, white petunias (don't know why) pansies, violas, columbine, sweet woodruff and the strawberries, if they're growing under other shrubs or herbs they don't like. All deer are probably different, but mine don't pay much attention to these plants...so except for my roses, that's pretty much what I plant, here :)

To take out the location-loaded terms 'native' and 'cultivated', I think what you're trying to ask is, "can hybrids occur between species from different continents"; the answer is yes, provided the species are closely related enough. There are plenty of examples. In Prunus, the hybrid between P. avium (Europe) and P. emarginata (N America) is known, recently named Prunus à pugetensis. I'd doubt that P. serotina could cross with P. avium though, as they are in different sections of the genus (sect. Padus, and sect. Cerasus, respectively). Resin

i thought that the southern magnolia only grew in zone 7 and warmer? how in the heck did it end up on the zone 5/6 boundary up north?!?!? looking at some pictures online, i do think that id of this thing being magnolia grandiflora is correct. can we blame canadian geese for "planting" it? im happy to see it's at least native to the eastern US though. my goodness maybe there is something to global warming! i will have to continue to monitor this plant and see if it survives through our harsh winters. i am really shocked but again after looking through photos online i think it has to be southern magnolia. WOW