I've overwintered flowering cabbages for more than one year -- I think the longest I ever kept one individual plant alive is five years. Here in Michigan, there are several keys to doing this. 1) The first is winter protection -- as you state, here in the North, it is unusual for brassicas to survive the winter. I did it by treating the plant with fungicide (I dump Bordeaux powder in the crown), surrounding with a styrofoam box (I get them from my sister's work, they are used to ship temperature sensitive culture media -- she works in a hospital lab), and then dump about a foot of leaves on top of the box. Remove the leaves and box in late March. 2) Prevent the plant from going to seed. When spring comes, the plant wants to bloom. If you can prevent it from setting seed, it will live on. As soon as you see yellow, if not earlier, CUT OFF all flower stalks. You will need to do this for about 2 months. 3) Apply a high-nitrogen fertilizer, something like a 28-3-3 lawn fertilizer. This encourages vegetative growth. 4) When the daylength starts to decline, about the 3rd week in July, cut the plant back hard, to about 4 inches above ground. Many shoots will begin to grow -- when large enough, remove all but one (ok to leave 2 or 3 for a "bunch" look). What I've found is that the plants want to go reproductive and bloom in the spring and early summer with the long days. Once we get to about August, they stop growing reproductive type growth, and revert back to vegetative growth only. It's really NOT worth all of this effort, except just to show that it can be done -- an interesting experiment, I guess.

christie_sw_mo - I had a single American holly and it berried fine, but I am not sure why. Could have been a wild male in the woods as I was not in/near a neighborhood. There were some male Clarissa hollies on the property but those should not logically pollinate it. I am crazy about hollies for birds, but it sounds like they are just one of those bad luck plants for you. I've never seen a bird eat a nandina berry. Been some discussions on the subject here, and I have not heard of anyone that has had birds eat the berries either. No clue why that plant has a rep for bird berries. There were some on this property - okay a thousand of them on this property - but I pulled them up to replace them with other known successful plants. Nandina is a major problem in south Georgia forests so I decided to forgo them completely, make room for serviceberry. One thing that has become very clear to me with the moving from established garden to re-building is to plant hedgerows, hedgerows and more hedgerows. It's a major difference in the bird populations to have thickets and safe places. Birds have been nesting here, but only cavity nesters, and the second the babies fledge the parents take them off property to cover. Very few warblers around and no ground nesters except visitors. I have always heard that the vibunum dentatum berries get eaten quickly - will have to find out how that goes. The viburnum trilobum I have is the cuttings you sent so of course they won't berry, but the dentatum should if pollinated. The Aronia arbutifolia is one I want to watch as well - I have cuttings and purchased a potted plant, but it's just getting leaves. Very late to leaf out - is this normal? By the way, goumi (Eleagnus multiflora) was always a great bird food source. Grew it for ten years, nevera single seedling. It does not germinate easily and cuttings are difficult, so apparently not invasive. I've heard of others rooting cuttings so maybe it's my area, but it's a non-native I will grow. The cuttings are doing beautifully so far. I baby them and hope I can get them to make it. It's an outstanding collection for my personal hedgerow (thank you thank you thank you) in the making. Maybe I'll get to a point where I can grow enough to share. Been working on a system for potting and moving after they root. I've had people stop by and ask for advice on their own yards and I'd looove to be able to supply some of these plants you can't find in local nurseries. These are regular people, not gardeners, who just want some landscaping and birds and they aren't going to be ordering online like we are. I have a lot to learn, particularly about native plant ID, but can share what I do know. Some neighborhood kids knocked on my door and asked to "see the baby birds" as I had mentioned to one of their Mothers that I had birds in my boxes - and the kids were impressed with "how many animals I had in my yard". Apparently they told their parents. For me it was totally out of the blue and I was delighted. I did not relize there was a native plant exchange here - I need to head over and beg cuttings. :D dragonfly_wings - I had two mulberry trees before and they were my waxwing magnets. Hundreds of waxwings descended during migration, what a beautiful sight. Great plant and I want another, but one tree seeded all to heck and back. The other was an old tree, totally different leaf and I believe native. It was there long before I was. Both were red mulberry and distinctly different as mulberry tends to be. I had no problems with seeding on the second but can't figure out what exactly the genus of tree it is that I didn't have problems with. I loved it and really want another but it's gone on the back burner due to the fact that I am not positive which to get. If I see one on the side of the road similar to the one I like, I'll be hopping out of the car and knocking on doors and making a nuisance of myself. And I am shy!!!!!! But for that plant, I'll do it.

Hey Amberley, Scrappy, & Bmorepanic (& anyone else in this MD/VA/DC)...we have around 30" here in Western Howard County. Drifts are quite a bit higher...the one we measured was 36" high! My DH just started slowly snow blowing our driveway. We have a fairly long drive, so it's going to take awhile...he figures it will take him at least 2 days to do it all! Our dogs refuse to budge from the porch...we have to push them off to "do their duty" on the snow rather than the porch! My DD tried throwing Ruby (the female) into one of the drifts...but she stayed on top and daintily walked down & off the drift! Heavy snow! But, we have a fire going and I just made hot chocolate for the kids (they just came in from playing out there-13 & 15 years old and still playing in the snow, I love it!), so we're doing great! I also made a big pot of chili for tomorrow and now I'm making pineapple casserole (me) + Roman Holiday (DH & kids) for tonight's dinner! Amberley, it sounds like you're making good progress b/w the demoing and the snow shoveling!

Thanks, everyone! valzone5, I'll be sure to give you a report once they're finished and we know how they hold up. Maple is fairly hard wood, so I'm expecting that they'll be pretty durable. teacats, yes, he's working very hard, and amazingly also working on the Arts & Crafts settee for our LR at the same time! But he really enjoys woodworking, and fortunately he has a pretty good shop out back, except for some special tasks where he has to use the community college machines. auntjen, thanks! We got that tile at Restore and I've been squirreling it away for 4 years. Maybe we'll get to that job this summer, too! magothyrivergirl, yes, I'm very proud of his work! I'm not sure what finish we'll use; I assumed it would be polyurethane of some type, but I'll mention the Waterlux to my husband. After going to all the work of doing this we should finish it in a manner that best protects it, so I appreciate the tip.