Sunnibel, I had incorrectly assumed you were where 90% of the people in the state live, in the DC/Baltimore corridor. I am in Baltimore. If you like doing outdoor activities there is a lot to do in western Maryland and its worth a 2-hour drive if you make it a whole day. Re: varieties, if you are not putting in many trees then my main advice is to make sure you are growing varieties that are suited to the mid-Atlantic. I have discarded at least 50 apple varieties which were not working out in spite of their great descriptions. Once you have narrowed down the choices you can post your list here to get feedback. I recently started writing down my overall favorites, here is the current list: Freyburg Gold Rush Kidds Orange Red Wickson Crab (but, cracks every other year) Nonpareil Rubinette Bonne Hotture Abbondanza Chestnut Crab Golden Russet (American) Hawaii Swayzie Newtown Pippin Pomme Gris Reine des Reinettes Ashmead's Kernel Mother Rusty Coat White Winter Pearmain Golden Nugget Akane (but is highly bug-prone) Maigold Ribston Pippin Myers Royal Limbertwig Pink Lady I am a big fan of russets and big-tasting apples so my favorites are skewed in that direction. The Golden Russet and Ashmeads Kernel have not fruited in my orchard but I have heard enough good things from local growers on them. A few of these guys have only fruited a couple times for me, most I have several years experience with. Scott

1. Another idea would be to make an air freshener. Make a pounch with two circles of nylon mesh, slightly larger (1/2"-1") than the rings are in diameter. Whipstitch the two circles together - leaving a space to add a scented herb. Fill the pouch with dried lavender or other scented herb and whip-stich the two circles together. Lay the pouch between two rings, with the pouches edges hanging over the edges of the rims. Glue the two rings together, (insides facing)making sure there is enough glue to glue the pouch in place, as well. When glue is dry, trim the edges of the pouch and decorate the rims with ribbon and silk flowers and add a ribbon for hanging, or as desired. To simplify, small, cloth drawstring bags can be purchased, filled and assembled as directed. Hope this makes sense. 2. I made the following item this year only I used an embroidery hoop, instead of a canning ring, but this would work. Makes cute little halloween decorations. Spray the canning rim black. Add a piece of black ribbon for a hanger and some silk flowers that have been spritzed with a touch of black paint and glue these to the rim. When dry, lay a small piece of a doily, either paper or cloth, flat and evenly lining the inside of the rim. White glue or other stiffener may be added to stiffen the doily. When dry, glue a rubber spider on the center of this lace 'web', or edge of the rim. Cute decor for a window, small space or an office space.

Bonny, Try and take them to a Kinko's or other pro copying shop and ask for color copies of the newspapers, the other important things like the license I would spray both sides with the archivial mist, and then they should be okay. Love Penny

FWIW, I know I represented myself as some big expert on Heritage. In truth, I have planted exactly five such plants! But they were and are in all respects simply some fairly decent river birches. The way the bark gets to looking-well described by Embo I thought-is right-on. As far as withstanding environmental stresses better by reason of being single-stem versus clump-I have no idea. Now for an interesting fun fact with wisconsitom: I have a woods, much of which is "cedar swamp". Now that term has an immediate meaning up in these parts but I have become aware that few if any here will know what I'm referring to, let alone having ever seen such a forest. Simply put, the "cedar" in this case is northern white cedar, aka arborvitae, aka Thuja occidentalis. Yes, this plant actually exists as a wild forest tree. Now for the fun part: Few other species occur in cedar swamps, simply because the Thujas come up so thickly that they tend to completely dominate the site. They also have MUCH greater tolerance to saturated soil than do most other tree species. But they are not the only trees there. In particular, paper birch is a frequent associate in this woods type. So, for whatever reason, there are numerous examples deep in there where a cedar and a paper birch have come up together. By together, I mean they are literally hugging each other all the way to the top. It would be one thing if we found one example of this, but no, it's replicated perhaps a dozen times in there! A cedar tree and a birch tree growing, clasping and twining around each other. Also of note-some of the cedar in there are probably 80 ft. tall. That would not be tall for say, a white pine-which is the other species common in this woods-but for this tree, that's notable. And many of the paper birch are also of uncommonly large size. Now let me tell you a bit about this site: yes, it is low and wet, yes it is too low and wet to have been cleared for farming, but there is evidence that cows were allowed to graze in there until perhaps twenty years ago or so. And it is very cool in there, and full of springs. We go up there with our snow shoes in the dead of winter and there is water gurggling out of the ground. Magical place, full of old-growth characteristcs-trees which have tipped yet go right on growing, even though the main trunk is now horizontal and it is the branches that have become individual "trees", each one growing straight skyward, stuff like that. Birch trees on stilts"...that is, they started out as a seedling growing on a rotted stump, the stump eventually rotted away, and now there's a birch tree standing up-way up-on its roots. I really do need to start sending in photos! This woods is a tree-lover's heaven.