(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).

I think I agree with John - and my one calycanthus is too little to have flowered yet, so I don't have that to wish for, yet - but it will be almost impossible to keep weeds, including new calycanthus, from sprouting. I have had relatively good luck with laying down cardboard or 4-6 sheets of newspaper, and mulching over that 4-6 in. of shredded wood mulch. BUT, it wasn't much of a hill, and I planted shrubs or established plants in it, not seeds. Can you use the above ideas for winter-sowing and bottom-less boxes to start seeds for the initial spreading of the "wildflowers", and then transplant individual plantlets from the 'bunches', come spring? As John said, you will have job security - no-one else would want it! And, you do, I know have to show willing to follow her desires, and and have something to show for your efforts come the spring. You would almost have to use a Bobcat to even make a token clearing out of the hill, and it will make an awful mess! I would think doing it by hand would take a couple of weeks..., and also make a mess, half of which would probably wash down the hill into the lake, and get the HOA mad at them, even if you put up silt fences.... Opting for the best of bad choices, if it were me, I would try for the "spotty" smaller swathes of flowers, and not for the massive sweep that the client may have had in her mind's eye.... If for no other reason, that it ain't gonna happen, unless you go for all-out chemical warfare, and mess up the lake and do major damage to YOUR sensibilities! Not to mention what it might do to your license, if you used the heavy guns near water, and it came out.... I think the herbicide for near water works, just not quite as well or as quickly as Round-Up. Anyway, good luck, and let us know what you are able to persuade your client into.

Gary, If you're online and see this, do you know why the sweet potato industry failed here in Oklahoma? Soil? Rainfall? Nematodes? I'm just curious because they seem insanely easy to grow here in my part of OK, especially down closer to Thackerville where the soils are mostly sandy and everyone used to grow melons commercially. I have such heavy clay that I can't grow a large number of sweet potatoes, but I do have one band of sandy soil that I generally reserve for sweet potatos. There are several of your varieties I want to try, if you have any of them left after you supply the trial with slips....and, if you don't, I'll order them from you next year. I'll e-mail you about a sweet potato order in a few days. For the rest of this week, I HAVE TO focus on potting up my small tomato plants. They are getting too crowded in the starter flat and are muttering things and plotting behind my back everytime I walk out of the plant room. If I don't get them potted up soon, I will have a rebellion on my hand. : ) And, everyone--I said I'd start a thread with a list of heirloom tomato sources/resources here in OK, and I will do it tomorrow. I promise. Today, my best-laid plans derailed when a neighbor stopped by to visit and you know I just had to catch up on all the local news, and it was mostly happy news and we just couldn't stop talking. Dawn

Welcome. Sure you can post good and bad experiences with various vendors. We welcome the comments good and bad. It helps everyone else out there to make their decisions on where to purchase their seeds. I have only purchased seed from one vender online. It was pepper joe's. At first I was quite happy with the service, however, when I realized the seed he sent me was not what I ordered or what he said he had sent me, I changed my mind and would no longer recommend his services. Upon notifying him of the issue, he simply said "oh well, sometimes you get a cross or mislabeled seed". I understand that but when I pay for seeds, I expect to get what is advertised. I never saw any disclaimers about getting mislabeled seeds. I would have at least expected him to offer to replace the seed but I didn't even get that. I would not have accepted anyway. I will simply refrain from doing business with him any longer and will continue to post negative comments about his services just as I had posted positive comments before I found out he sent me the wrong seed. You will hear good and bad about nearly every vendor but some seem to consistently get good reviews. And I am sure others will give you their input on some of those. One general word of advice. Be extremely careful of ordering off ebay. Bruce