margh: Do not be discouraged by the fact that your father was not successful with everything he tried. There could be many reasons for the failures, most of which could probably be corrected. I planted my first fruit trees here in Great Falls in the spring of 1977, and now have an orchard of over 65 fruit trees of every description; many mature and some newly planted. I also grow blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries in fairly extensive plantings, and one Concord grape. I grow 28 varieties of apples alone, some sweet, some sweet/tart, and some tart for cider blending. This is a fine climate for growing apples, and lots of other things. The principal requirements are a sunny area with adequate space, and the willingness to do a little of what could be called work by some, and recreational fruitgrowing by others. Fruit trees do require a higher level of care than purely decorative species like Japanese Maple (although I have those too) to be attractive and productive. If you live in Northern Virginia, you can't be too far away, and if you want to pay a visit here you are welcome to do so at any time. I can supply you with free Triple Crown blackberry plants from tiproots that could still transplant well this spring. TC is the best blackberry I have come across, but it does require trellising or other support. You can e-mail at Don.Yellman@webformation.com or use the telephone. I am in the book. My location is about 7 miles west of Tyson's Corner off Route 7, not far from the old Colvin Mill. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Surely one of the weedy buckthorns, and therefore something that should be removed from your place. Repeatedly asked about on the internet.

For food, you may like to try growing blueberries. They grow very large in the South. I do not know what "SLN" is, but I recommend buying plants here. If you live in North Georgia try Johnson's fruit. They are not cheap, but they are good and you will have good plants that will grow and feed you well. Nanking Cherry (I have bought some on eBay very inexpensively as tiny plants, they grow fairly quickly). Elderberry Aronia: try Viking, it's 6' tall where as nero is only 4' tall Serviceberry mulberry are good however they are weedy as all get out and you could end up with a forest that you and your neighbors do not want. Chicksaw and American plums will do you very well Flowering quince shrubs - they can get to 10' tall and will fruit Goumi Hazelnuts Washington and Cockspur Hawthorn (although my washington hawthorn died very quickly as bugs LOVED it) pineapple guava (depending on where you live) Pomegranite (depending on where you live) If you are in the N. GA mountains I think you could probably do very fine with currant bushes too GGG

Holly? We have some that get a few hours of dappled light. Dozens of migrating cedar waxwings swarm in here for a day and take every holly berry..usually sometime in March. The hollies on the north side get no dappled or direct sun, and bear much less fruit. We had dozens of Robins in the little Prairiefire crabapple about 10 days ago. They stripped it of all its berries. No worms to be found if the ground is frozen. It grows in part sun, part dappled light. ~Bunnycat