Iowajer: You do not need Orbit or Bumper or much of anything else to successfully grow tart cherries in Iowa. I am from Iowa so know the climate, and believe me Virginia is worse for just about every insect and disease. Yet I have grown tart cherries for 35 years with no problems -- except for the following: The normal lifespan of a tart cherry tree like Northstar or Meteor is about 20 years, give or take 5 years, but it is not age alone that kills them. It is the bacterial disease that develops with age that does it. I have had 2 Northstars, 2 Meteors, and 1 large Montmorency, all planted in 1979. The Northstars were finished before 20 years, one Meteor lasted 22 years, the Montmorency about the same, and the last Meteor was removed more recently at the ripe age of around 25 years. All of them were victims of bacterial disease and nothing else. All of the symptoms you describe can be attributed to one or another of the signs of bacterial disease. In advanced stages, the disease, which develops cankers on the limbs, eventually kills those limbs which should be cut off promptly. In the meantime, cherries become smaller, and often rot on the tree, though the trees will continue to produce. Leaves begin to look punky. At 15 years of age, and showing the symptoms you describe, your tree may have about 5 years of useful life left. None of the cocktail of chemicals you applied to your tree would have much, if any effect on bacterial disease, even expensive products like Orbit, and most particularly the useless combo sprays sold by Bonide. The best tactic against bacterial disease is to delay its onset, and that is done with one or two thorough dormant sprays of a copper product like Kocide that has some real copper strength. You should begin dormant spraying with copper while the trees are young, well before any evident signs of disease appear, just as you would with any stone fruit tree. With foresight, you may be able to hold off this disease for an additional 5-10 years, and you should apply dormant copper to your existing tree as well, although you are conducting a rearguard action that cannot cure the disease at this stage. Rather than putting a lot of money into expensive chemicals that will do your tree no good, I suggest you put the bucks into a new Northstar or Meteor tree that will be ready to take over when your existing tree checks out, as it surely will do. I planted a new Meteor 5 years ago when the handwriting was on the wall, and a new Montmorency this spring. The new Meteor is covered with fruit and ready this season to take over from the last old tree I removed. Both my climate and yours, BTW, are ideally suited to growing tart cherries. Some years I have had so many that I made 20 gallons of wine from pure juice. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

A long time ago, I used to live where it is warm. I was born in south Georgia and lived there until I was a teenager. Then my parents decided on a radically different lifestyle of living off the land, up in the woods of New Hampshire. What a lifechanging, eyeopening experience that was, to be at that critical age and having to bathe in the brook and use an outhouse because we had no plumbing. And 36 yrs. later I am still not acclimated to the cold winters! We cleared the land, put in gardens, berry bushes and fruit trees and raised livestock, and were quite self-sufficient. I was quite the lonely teen and spent most of my 'rebellious' years gardening. Plants and animals just naturally became my solace, and as I went off on my own and got married I set out to transform my little acre of woods here into my personal paradise. My yard is still where I seek solace and peace. It is tough growing roses up here in zone 4, and contending with the short summers, japanese beetles and soil that is thick with granite rocks, but I can grow gallicas, albas and all those favorites of mine that I once coveted in the pages of glossy books. I doubt I will ever move from here, even though its so cold. We have the mountains, the lakes, the purest crystal clear brooks, and fall foliage that dazzles. Besides, I could never leave here without my beloved roses....and who wants to dig up close to 400 rosebushes? Celeste

While I certainly agree with paigect that "A Well Tended Garden" is a fabulous book on my way to the dentist needing a book that would allow my mind to drift away to a better place I grabbed Jill Billingtons "Architectural Foliage" from my book case. This book printed in the 1990s is a design book that the non-pro can really embrace. Unlike most books written on this topic she includes specific plant choices and groupings with her discussion of plant shape, form and texture. In a chapter titled "Prima Donnas" she discusses what I have called WOW plants and breaks down those plants into the following categories; Large Leaves, Exotics, Small Trees, Ferns, Spikes and Prickles, Hostas, Bamboos, Grasses, Silver-Greys, and Climbers. She concluded this chapter with the following; "The planting around the prima donnas should be non-competitive and retiring. There is a need for sensitively related foliage patterns which will act as a subordinate background. Should other of these stiking prima donna plants be seen within the same view there must be a linking theme, for example some exotic shapes like palms, bamboos, grasses and fatsia will all look well together. On the whole these plants are better treated as specimens where attention focuses upon them. Other plants can provide a backcloth like yew, portugues laurel, viburnums and so forth, or act as relatively anonymous fillers such as spiraea, ribes, or day lilies.

A story about Wow factor: Over 25 years ago, we were house hunting and found a house that wowed us with its beautiful atrium and exquisite decorating. We came close to buying it. Fortunately, sanity set in and we realized that it wouldn't work for our family at all. The family room wasn't connected to the kitchen - family room, living room and dining room were along the back of the house while the kitchen was on the side next to the dining room. No keeping an eye (or even an ear) on the kids in the back yard or family room while cooking. There was 400 square feet of lovely parquet hallway around the atrium. 400 square feet to pay for and clean up to have a hallway? We thought of building and met with architects. We thought, talked and made a list of everything important to us in a house plan to guide the house plans. (I guess that's kind of like the Sweeby test.) When we thought about the list, we realized that everything on the list was in an ugly duckling house that we'd been shown. It had terrible wallpaper, carpet (including avocado green shag), drapes, etc. But the floor plan and overall construction was perfect. The yard was great. Lots of windows. The kitchen family room overlooked the backyard and pool. About $20 K took care of the flooring, window coverings and walls. It took us 20 years to get around to replacing the kitchen counter tile and only just now are we replacing the big faux stone hearth in the family room. Once one got past the bad decorating, I guess it did have some wow features. Entry patio with pond (which really became wow when we got it functioning for koi). Clear cedar ceiling and fireplace in the living room. But the main thing was that it worked for us. For me, words like inviting, warm and comfort are more important in my house than wow. Something can be Wow! but not livable at all - not that the livable can't also be Wow! - just that Wow doesn't have to be livable.