Hmmmm, it so happens I am trying to germinate Chionanthus virginicus seeds collected in early September from a Fringe tree in front of a local school. The front entrance is flanked by male and female specimens that look pretty old and perhaps past their prime, but the blooms and berries were still really nice. They are late to leaf out and bloom in June in our area. Apparently the seeds require warm-cold-warm stratification cycle to germinate, which I am trying to do in 1 year. When (if) they germinate, they will no doubt take many years to bloom, but it's something to do out of curiosity. If I wanted instant gratification, though, I would just go to the nursery and buy a blooming specimen. :) Parent tree -

Pairings that prove to be unsuccessful later are in fact rather prevalent, in addition to the mismatched stem diameters asked about there is delayed graft incompatibility, where the unions fail sometimes many years afterward - resulting in a lot of wasted time. In the case of black and English walnuts turning out not to be compatible in orchard plantings - right about the time useful production of nuts was commencing, 10-12 years after planting - a lot of time was not the only thing that was wasted. I've had three different grafted Japanese apricots reach a nice size and then enter a decline, during which time the cherry plum root-stocks attempt to replace them with a thicket of sprouts of their own. I suspect this is delayed graft incompatibility, and might account for much of the fact that there is only a small number of these trees to be seen here even though it appears that for decades at least one local garden center or another has stocked them at any given time. This post was edited by bboy on Wed, May 1, 13 at 14:32

Julie, I didn't transplant it. Instead, I did a lot of thinning and cutting back. It had a quite airy appearance last year, but had a lot of growth this year so I will be pruning back again. Now to determine when to do it. I know it should be after the first frost and may extend that to later in the fall or early spring. Didn't transplant because it's planted on a sloped bed which is difficult to work on. I pull my 'little old lady' routine when that happens. I am little. I am old. Works for me. Rosie

If you want to protect the tree from snow load and wind, make a teepee-like structure and cover it with burlap, leaving an opening at the top. As for the virginiana vs. chinense, what did the labels say? I would not attempt to replant a tree that has struggled at this point in the year. Make sure you keep it well watered right up to the onset of hard freezes. The vast majority of nursery stock today is containerized. The great weight and much more expensive labor and shipping costs of balled and burlapped plants has severely limited that option for most growers. Encircling roots and pot bound plants are realities, but, by and large, properly treated and planted container plants establish more easily over more of the year than the old b&b or bare root stock. The prevelance of poorly cared for plants, especially at the big box stores, is much more of a "crime" than anything perpetrated by the container industry.