edie: In the future, do not, rpt. not, prune your little apple tree in the late dormant period. By pruning now, you may have ensured that your tree will not bloom much, if at all, this season and maybe the next. The little "nubs" you pruned off may have been fruiting wood. Your pruning will result in rapid vegetative growth of multiple shoots at the pruned points, which will delay fruiting and require even more pruning next time around. Instead, prune your apple tree in late summer, say late July or even into August. Yes, I mean when there are leaves on the tree. Prune it, leaves and all. This will result in attenuation of the tree's vigorous growth, and encourage the formation of fruiting spurs that will grow in later in the same summer season that you prune. I hear what you are saying about your tree not matching any of the illustrations of the perfectly pruned trees in books and on websites. Very few of our trees want to look like that, but we can guide them in that direction. As for the stripped bark, it may cause no problems, but you can take another cut lower down on an uninjured part of of the branch. Get a shaper pruning shears (Felco is the best) or sharpen the one you have. And rotate the pruner a little on larger branches as you squccze to help obtain a clean cut. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

mmqc-2: I'm a grower and I can tell you for a fact that Many, Many perennials will flower the first year. What ridge top says is true for a plant planted in the ground. It is true that a perennial needs a few year to get established. But that does not mean it will not flower the first year. We grow most of our varieties, 99%, from seed. Our planting schedule always has a target date. This year it's April 29th. Our goal is to have our first year flowering perennials to be in bloom by that date. We schedule our sow dates according to our "weeks to flower" schedule. I'm doing this from memory as I don't have my data readily available. As an example Shastas are about a 23 week to flower. Mind you this is greenhouse conditions. We start shastas in November to meet the Apr. 29th deadline. From memory here's your list: Gallardia Yes will flower 1st year Rudbeckia Yes will flower 1st year Shastas Yes will flower 1st year Hollyhocks Yes will flower 1st year Hybiscus Yes will flower 1st year Asclepias Never grown sry Yarrow Yes will flower 1st year Delphinium Yes will flower 1st year Knautia Yes but not much. Needs to over winter to get established. We would sow in June the previous year. Dianthus Some Yes Some need to be over-wintered Poppies Yes Echinacea You betcha Scabiosa Sry haven't grown Coreopsis Yep, Yep Very well Joe Pye Weed Haven't grown. P.S. Many annuals need much more time then 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date to be large enough to flower. Sapsalilagosis (sp from memory) Vincas, Geraniums, Impatiens, Pansy, Petunias. Out of the 150 varieties we grow our last sow date (except for veggies) is 12 weeks before our target date.

Malna, thanks for that link. It will be very useful. Dave, you helped clear some things up. Thank you very much. NCHFP on their Baked Beans recipe is very unclear and I think it is an especially bad one for those new to canning to use. Recipe with parts truncated: âÂÂAn average of 5 pounds of beans is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 3ü pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints" an average of þ pounds per quart.â âÂÂPrepare molasses sauce as follows" Mix 4 cups water or cooking liquid from beans, 3 tablespoons dark molasses, 1 tablespoon vinegarâ¦..â âÂÂProcedure: Soak and boil beans as followsâ¦.â âÂÂPlace seven þ-inch pieces of pork, ham, or bacon in an earthenware crock, a large casserole, or a pan. Add beans and enough molasses sauce to cover beans.â Processing times there calls for pints 65 minutes & quarts 75 minutes. Nowhere does it state the weight or amount of the beans that the water, spices and seven pieces of meat are flavoring. 7 pieces of meat wouldnâÂÂt do much to flavor the 4 pounds of beans I processed. Both BBB and Bernadine calls for 2 lbs. beans, a similar list of procedures, sugars and spices and 1/2 lb. salt pork. Process times for those two are: Pints - 80 minutes and quarts 95 minutes. This is what I used with bacon instead of salt pork.

Well the room is morphing into something else. Son likes this cheap "O" jazz mirrored mural, its sorta cool and cheesy at the same time. The furniture was looking a little too mature so I think the mural adds some 20yr old youth and it ties in the black and light gray carpet to the room. It will be spaced and placed behind the sofa and take up a big area. He has a long narrow room that's now limited on space due to the big a$$ chair, difficult having any symmetry so thinking of two matching small bench/stool/ottoman type seating across from chair. I did a layout to scale and sm bench/stools are the only way to get extra seating without blocking the TV viewing. Of course I am now hung up on seating again. I found a sight online called m!dnight velvet; don't know anything about them except they have some low cost slightly unusual stuff. Son doesn't have much room for more side tables (see large coffee table in above post) so we are thinking of the sm head or the tufted ceramic stool/tables below to use as a table and possibly doubling as extra seating (but not sure). The rooms accent colors will need to change as well but we are waiting for the mirror mural for inspiration. Right now we are thinking a purple/blue accent but that could change. Also think we need texture but not sure how to add that unless it's just in some pillows or I come up with another idea for stools/tables/bench. We also decided against black curtains in the living area, might be too much black with the black carpet and black in mirror mural so we bought these pale gold ones from sm@rtbargins. The window is across the room from the big a$$ chair so I was thinking it would look better to have a similar color on the window to balance it out a bit. I'm trying to buy all the furniture from craigslist to stay in my $1,200 budget (not including accessories) but still need a 48" round used dining set. I'm so sick sick sick of looking on CL but have too to keep the cost down. If I see one more ad that says "designer" I'm going to flip a lid! Of course it's designer, someone designed it!!! And don't get me started on "custom" ads. P.S, I'm sorry about these pictures but I'm having trouble with my cable or photobucket and also my overloaded brain so please forgive as I will figure it out later. P.S.S, thank you my friend for helping me look for canvas art, I feel really bad I didn't post the cheesy mural earlier ( but I REALLY thank you all for help and kind words!!! http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/e88f54b5.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/4d8bbec8-1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/b7267bed-1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/48ca1471.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c9fd2ac2.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c8a527cd.jpg" target="_blank">http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af170/jterrilynn/c420cee8.jpg" target="_blank">