Hey Melikeeatplants. I know i can root them. I had really good success with my hardy kiwi where i just stuck a bunch of them ( different varieties in different pots ) and ran some drip irrigation to the pots and most of them rooted. I was just wondering if tomuri is a good choice for saanichton and if it will be hardy enough for Atlanta zone 7. But i already purchased sime saanichton and vincent females and some matua male. I already have in the ground some fuzzy i purchased about 3 years ago when i knew nothing about Kiwis. They were advetised as hardy and in fact are fuzzy , They were sold as male and female and even that i cant trust , i cant wait to see them flower. And since i dont know what are they. I will graft into them some Hayward scions from my friend in the spring. The citrus , yes i build a 14x16 ft thermal pane glass greenhouse with a solex roof. But you dont have to go that far. Just some double layer polyethilene will do just fine. I did heat the greenhouse for maybe 2 or 3 weeks only to keep the temp over 32f. You got my email up on my other post you can contact me and come to see it anytime

The fuzzy thing is a fuzzy kiwi, actinidia deliciosa. I prefer fuzzy kiwis, they produce more, larger, and tastier fruit, and fruit sooner. They should be hardy in your zone. The problem with it being unknown is it could be a male. Also the deliciosa and the arguta may not pollinate each other since the bloom may not overlap. Willis is not a highly rated nursery so its not surprising that so many died. Avoid them. You need to remove all that grass competition and put down some mulch to minimize weeds. It makes a big difference for small young plants. Don't over-fertilize, once kiwis get going they grow like crazy. In the first few years use a cup of 10-10-10 per plant, or similar. I use a handful of organic 5-5-5 on each of my plants. In terms of varieties, I like Ken's Red a lot. You already have that one. Make sure you get two males if you have that many kiwis, if one dies you don't want to miss fruit for 4-5 years waiting for the new male to get going. Arguta can take many years to fruit, my Myers Cordifolia has not fruited in 10 years. Kens Red took eight years for me. I would recommend getting a Saanichton fuzzy and a fuzzy male, and keep your other fuzzy and it can either be another female or a backup male. Saanichton has been my most reliable fuzzy kiwi, every year I get many fruits. Harvest them in November and put them in the fridge until February. Scott

I have two favorite butterfly field guides. Well, I have ALOT of field guides but these are my faves :) Butterflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to the Butterflies of The East by Jeffrey Glassberg (Check carefully, he has guides for other regions also.) Good photos, interesting and informative narrative. I watch with binoculars, but also net some butterflies...not what Glassberg recommends. I wouldn't get too worried about netting around your house unless you know you are in good habitat for a rare species. When I go out to known KBB sites I do not have a net along. At other places I do carry a net and sometimes catch and usually release after close examination of a butterfly (or more often a skipper) in a jar. I don't know if I'll ever feel confident with skipper IDs whether netted or not. Another guide I like is Michigan Butterflies and Skippers by Mogens C. Nielsen. This is a good book if you want one with only the butterflies and skippers found in Michigan. It includes migrants and strays, some recorded only once ever. I would not have it as my first or only butterfly guide but I love the county by county range maps. Mo requires excellent photos or actual specimens to record a species in a county. "Dead and spread" is his mantra. Kinda different from Glassberg :) Both authors have done alot to bring butterfly watching and identifying to the non-university people. About your seeds...I wouldn't get too concerned unless I knew the seeds were illegally collected from the wild. Perhaps ask the collecter where they are from. I'm no expert on the legal stuff but I know many species are legally available. Also, many are rare and protected in one state but common in other areas. Also, in Michigan people confuse the protection given by the Christmas Greens Act with protection given under the Endangered Species Act. The first is to protect "showy" plants from overcollection. The second is to protect and preserve rare species. Most spring wildflowers fall under the first catagory and are collectable with written permission on private land. Some state listed plants and animals are at the edge of their range and have always struggled to hold on there. In more suitable areas they are doing fine. I'm not sure they deserve special protection in the marginal areas....ie. In Michigan Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies are listed as is it's host plant, Virginia Snakeroot. They are common in states to the south and are almost never found to the north. I would not collect them, but I would not put super special efforts into protecting either of them. And if they suddenly begin to increase in number, I would credit it to warmer winters, not protection under the Endangered Species law. Guess this is a long post that really doesn't answer the plant question well :( Enjoy learning about butterflies. I started not too many years ago on my own and now have had invites to help with surveys of critical habitat. Very fun. Lots of non scientists are truly butterfly experts. A friend of mine studies life cycles just for fun. A university expert saw her work and is working with her to get various parts published in a scientific journal because he feels it is important for his collegues to know about it. He raves about her work and knowledge....all self taught.

"I know that there are other factors that contribute to poor fruit set in heat stress, but perhaps this cross pollination technique will have a non-negligible effect .... Maybe some cultivars will be more amenable to this process than others? Anybody?" Definitely will have a non-negligible effect for the pollen, but as for fruit set, the issue will likely be 10 times more viability than zero may still be near zero if the rest of the plumbing isn't working. If it is the ovule that will not be receptive, then pollen won't help. Recognizing the differences among varieties is probably the way to go since each has its own particular physiology of what's going wrong. Varieties like Cherokee Purple hold together pretty well as do most Cherry Tomatoes. A combination approach will work best, but I tried a lot of things last summer including all kinds of manual + cross pollination and got about 10-15% set. I tried to give the pollen from the best setting (10-15% LOL) to the one that didn't at all. My biggest problem was not necessarily with the pollen, but rather the blossoms dropped off before they matured, and there is nothing I could do about that except play with shade, shade cloth and water to lower my plants' temperatures, day and night. The flower stem (pedicel) just begins yellowing before I get the chance and it is all over before it even starts. But your conditions and set failure will be very environmentally specific. Where high heat and humidity and night temp may be my problem, you may have high day and drying temperatures at times, etc., so focusing only on pollen viability would not be enough here, I can say that. PC