Thanks Scott & Frozen_North- Sure enough, you were right. I'm glad I posted before pruning! The trees completely hooked yesterday, even more than what you see in the pictures, but then they stood right back up last night. I never knew that was possible! And, this happened in the morning where it wasnÂt all that warm couldnÂt have been more than 80 degrees at the time. Interesting. And, obviously IÂm very happy that it wasnÂt FB. Thanks again! Hi TheAceOfSpades- Actually, that grass on my 4 month old lawn isn't scorched. It's a disease called 'Red Thread' which is on just about every lawn around here. It's caused when you have way too much rain... more nitrogen rich fertilizer helps. Believe it or not, it was worse about a month ago, but since adding some N, the RT is starting to disappear. Yep, my central leaders are long and whippy. (Actually, I just kinda happy that my new babies are doing well!) I had thought about pruning them back, but then I followed another recent thread which basically said Âlet the tree grow as much as possible in the first season, and only head it back for the start of the open vase during the dormant season.' So, this winter, IÂll top them at 40" or so to start my vase. Knowing that, do you still think I need to pinch back those central leaders? Actually, IÂm embarrassed to admit that I never pinch, and I only prune. (IÂve always claimed to be a newbie!) When you pinch, are you simply crushing the tissue between your fingers? And then the excess droops and dies/falls off? Or are you using your fingernails to cut like a pair of pruners? IÂve tried Googling this before and IÂve never got a satisfactory answer. (I feel like I should have asked this question 4 years ago, but pruning has always worked fine for me.) Thanks guys, -Glenn

Here's my favorite. My mother loved this poem and I read it after her funeral. It also left an impression on my children when recited at a guinea pig funeral after we listened to Samuel Barber's 'Adagio". Not a dry eye in the house. THE MELANCHOLY days have come, the saddest of the year, Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sere; Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread; The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, 5 And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day. Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood? Alas! they all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers Are lying in their lowly beds with the fair and good of ours. 10 The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain Calls not from out the gloomy earth the lovely ones again. The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, And the brier-rose and the orchis died amid the summer glow; But on the hill the goldenrod, and the aster in the wood, 15 And the yellow sunflower by the brook in autumn beauty stood, Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the plague on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen. And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come, To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home; 20 When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still, And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill, The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore, And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more. And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died, 25 The fair meek blossom that grew up and faded by my side. In the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forests cast the leaf, And we wept that one so lovely should have a life so brief: Yet not unmeet it was that one, like that young friend of ours, So gentle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers. William Cullen Bryant, 1832

Thank you, ma'am. I will try not to get too far off topic. Enjoyed watching the Siberian Tiger Nature program! The dahlias have all been cut to the ground. There are veggie beds dug out that can take the stems & leaves but, right now, that dahlia debris can stay in place. It will protect the roots if the Weather Service is wrong about frost. Except that 1 dahlia bed that was left exposed! If the WS changes its story - I'd better get out there and either dig those roots or cover them with a tarp! It would be good if the roots don't have to go down to the basement just yet. The weather is warming and there is finally some rain in our forecast. The basement room where the roots will spend the winter isn't very cool yet and it is a long way until spring. I have taken up the celery root but only because I am not sure how much cold it can take. The carrots are still out there along side the parsnips. But, I trust those things in the cold a lot more than the dahlias. I bet that dahlias can be a little tricky at higher elevations where the temperature swings are more extreme. Steve

It does feel good doesn't it! I'm benched this season. Too pregnant to squat and dig. And have to watch the heat or it gets me. It's driving me crazy...all I can do is water. I actually did get outside today and tried to clear a spot so I can get the DH to dig a hole for these plants that have been sitting in pots for-ev-er. We moved to this house in February and I haven't been able to do a thing to it yet!