Raintree seems to be sold out of mirabelles, but if you email them, they might know another retail source. They still offer Reine de Mirabelles, which may be a cross between a gage (reineclaude) and a mirabelle, as well as a few gages. RdM needs a pollinizer. My second year RdM tree flowered heavily, but doesn't seem to be setting any fruit. Kirk's Blue was (and is still) flowering at the same time, is listed as a pollinizer, so pollination wasn't the problem. Gages and mirabelles are risky here because of low chill hours, but I'm getting a good fruit set so far on my second year Golden Transparent Gage and Coe's Golden Drop (a greengage seedling), as well as a few sets on Kirk's Blue. My Mirabelle de Nancy and Mirabelle de Metz from Raintree are on their first year, so it's too soon to say if they will produce here or not. One Green World still has some gage trees for sale also, if you like reineclaudes. Rumer Godden wrote a book "Greengage Summer", made into a movie "The Loss of Innocence" starring Susannah York, about a family staying in France at a hotel with a greengage orchard. The adventures happen as the children stuff themselves with gage plums every chance they get. Interesting reading, watching. Here is a link that might be useful: One Green World plums

I've had it for 4 years now and it's not reverted. I have it in part shade and full shade and it's yellow in both places. It needs water. I really love it. Keep it away from your lawn, though. I would NOT, repeat NOT, put it in the front of a bed. It WILL jump into your grass and then you will be sorry you ever saw this plant. Right now, I am having trouble with this plant for the 2nd year in a row. It has become the choice buffet for a particular sawfly larvae. I'm trying to control it, but I've not yet found the right chemical.

Is there a way you can put it in a large container with a decorative trellis, or trained up an obelisk etc? And would you possibly have room to leave the canes up over the winter? Bare roses can look beautiful in winter, especially when they are trained on something attractive (like a copper obelisk or a bent willow tepee (both of which you can make yourself.) The thing is, I don't recommend cutting this completely down each season. Even though Golden Showers can bloom some on new wood, I think you're going to have a tough time of getting much bloom that way in Chicago, and maybe not even enough to justify calling it a climber. Have you thought about a Polyantha rose like The Fairy or Little White Pet? They're beautiful, they're literally covered with dozens or on a mature plant hundreds of blooms at once (much more floriferous than most other roses except maybe some of the once-blooming OGRs), even the foliage is dark and glossy, they're very very disease resistant, they thrive on neglect - and their size is perfect for balconies and containers. They're dwarf but not too dwarf, and they have a nice spreading habit - some, like the Fairy, are more prostrate/weeping, and some are mannerly mini-climbers. Not all of them are hardy in 5b, but some, like the Fairy, is hardy here with no protection. (The Fairy's only drawback is that it has no scent - but some of the other polyanthas are very fragrant also! ...In any case, they're likely to stay enough in bounds so that you don't have to chop 'em when you store your pots for the winter. :) that's my unsolicited $0.02 anyway.

I don't post here a lot, but I do on the Canadian forums. I lurk here :-) I don't grow a lot of tomato varieties but I do grow for quality. This year I have one plant, grown form a seed of the original Gordon Graham tomato. He has the world's record largest tomato according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Through good fortune and a friend, I was able to trade for just a few seeds from Gordon Graham's world record tomato. I got one to germinate, so I have one tomato plant that is a direct child of his original! I do grow other tomatoes but I'm really excited about this one! We had a very bad tomato year last year with lots of BER. This year I planted the tomatoes in my good lasagne "wine" garden, dug in lots of old manure, a little lime and one Tums tablet in each hole. The same friend who gave me the seeds above, told me that a Tums will help supply the calcium the tomatoes need to help prevent BER. So I'm trying it. It's easy and cheap, so I figured "Why not?" We'll see how it goes. Needless to say, I baby that plant! In addition to that one, I am also growing our own heritage Portugal beefheart tomatoes (see link to pic below), San Marzano, Manitoba, Ailsa Craig, and Rev Morrow long keeper. Here is a link that might be useful: