I'm not an expert, but as I understand it you want another Actinidia arguta to pollinate Issai. Arctic Beauty is a Actinidia kolomikta if I'm not mistaken. So, I'm not sure that would work. I ordered a male Actinidia arguta from Forest Farm (wow what a beautiful plants they have btw). I'm trying to do the same thing as you Glenn. I just planted both my Issai and the male arguta a month or so ago. If nothing else they are going to look fantastic growing up the lattice they are on. Hope this helps...

What's ironic is that a few weeks ago I dug up a volunteer kiwi seedling and put it in a pot because we needed both male and female (and didn't even know which it was) and because we knew it would grow like a monster. So now I have this seedling, with an unknown (so far) father, and again of uncertain sex. We're in a particularly good region for growing fuzzy kiwi--the main distinction relative to the big commercial areas is that temps are not as extreme--fewer days above 90 and (I think) less frost. So unless they intentionally pollinated it with the much less commonly grown A. arguta, I think there's a high chance the father is A. deliciosa. Any guesses whether that would give us a huge vine? I'm not familiar with what A. arguta looks like, but so far the seedling is awfully vigorous. It was a cheap purchase--I got it for $3.40. Of course the difference is really insignificant between that and a $20 plant if you factor in years of labor (pruning, etc.), water and all of that over many years. I've asked the nursery what they can tell me about it. I'm not going to make an issue about it because they are a great nursery with great prices. I wasn't expecting to find Issai there (they said online they stopped producing it) so it was a pleasant surprise. I was actually pretty exited about essentially replacing my single-sex volunteer seedling with something that would take up a lot less space and would be self fertile (sort of--I know all of the problems with this). It's a beautiful plant, but I'm not too excited about playing the game of figuring out whether it will take over the yard and if it is parthenocarpic or potentially compatible with the other seeding. It would be nice to actually try the real Issai, in spite of its faults. We don't have the room for two (larger?) A. arguta. If someone is willing to send me a cutting of the real Issai to try that would be great. I could pay postage and/or exchange it for a cutting of this plant when it gets big enough (it's in a 4" pot, 12" tall, just starting to vine--fast!). Perhaps the nursery will be able to tell me who the father is. If he's A. deliciosa it would be interesting to know how it compares in terms of size and hardiness and whether it's parthenocarpic (although people surely know how this cross behaves by now). Anyway, I can be reached here: looking4plants@yahoo.com (I don't normally use this account except for occasional plant-related stuff)

Here's a photo of my Aristolochia gigantea plant--currently blooming. Two flowers are open, with 2 closed buds: The flowers are about 8 inches; I believe they would be a bit bigger under ideal conditions. Here's the correct link to the picture of the A. trilobata mother plant. Again, it's neither my plant nor my picture. http://www.alsgh.com/serveimage.php?key=94

scratch the bark, easiest way to see if they've died or not. I would suspect that they might throw shoots from below ground if the tops have all died, but can't say for sure. I can tell you that my own kiwi's (also Actinidia Arguta, but not Issai) have not yet started putting out new growth (which is a good thing as winter has not had its last shock if history is any indication). did you leave them exposed in their pots or did you bury the pots in either the ground or in mulch? The rule of thumb is an exposed unprotected potted plant experiences winter as though it were roughly 1-2 zones colder than the plants in the ground. For you that would mean roughly zone 3 which would likely be very damaging to the kiwi's, but they are tough and the roots might be fine. ~Chills