If you send me a stamped envelope I can send you a couple of varieties that will actually do well in your climate. Pears aren't the easiest fruit to get up the sugar up north so you need to grow the right ones. Bartlett will be reliable where you are. You might as well grow Seckel instead of Warren because it's a better setter of fruit of similar flavor- fruit-set can also be a problem with pears. Aurora is good and Sheldon can be fantastic for a lover of Comice. Comice is a more southern variety and I don't like northeast Anjous either- they don't get enough sugar here. I highly recommend Harrow Sweet but I have no wood to offer this year. I do have Harrow Delight which is a very productive Bartlett type, but bears in early-mid Aug when I'm not much interested in pears. I don't have time to run to the post office so tell me how much weight I can put into a stamped addressed envelope and I'll give you a sampler.

@ Jessica - jmm_90 (only!). Currently, I do not have any spare fig-trees or rooted-starters. But, assuming that you know how to root fig cuttings (as requested in the thread heading), I can help you there. Contact me privately with your ship-to address, and shortly, as soon as my figs go dormant, I'll send you an assortment of (free) fig cuttings for you to get started. -George (NJ).

Roger, Sugar apples prefer soil pH that is mostly alkaline between 7.0-8.0. At the bottom is a guide to growing them. It was written for the growing conditions in Florida but just make adjustments that suit your region. I feed mine a water soluble complete fertilizer 20-20-20 with minor elements every two weeks. To a gallon of water I mix 1 oz of water soluble fertilizer then I pour it at the base of the trunk. I start seeds in a pot with quality soil. when they are about 3 inches high I feed them a weak solution of the same water soluble fertilizer as above but I use 1/2 oz to a gallon of water. When they reach a foot high I plant them in the ground near a wind break. When I grow them using this system they bloom sooner. To make the plant branch out more, pinch back the tips periodically. Seedling 1 foot tall with bloom (in black circle) Another seedling also 1 foot tall with bloom (in black circle) How to grow links: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/MG/MG33000.pdf http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/sugar_apple.html Here is a link that might be useful: Sugar Apple Growing in the Florida Home Landscape

Lindy - THANK YOU so much!! Great job! Is there any way to make the stone go all the way up so the current post top treatment doesn't show? I REALLY like the partial ones with the band of brick. We may remove one of the supports on the right side and move the other some as one is not needed for support it was there for balance with the walkway and we could move that around some. Thanks for landscaping and adding grass too :D. I just finished a bed on the right side by the garage (the bit of green siding on the right is where it starts) and it took 3 weekends. I want to get the columns figured out before starting the porch ones as I figured plants would get trampled and I'd be upset. DH will love to see the grass, he's been busy raking rocks so we can sod. organic - If you see my second post you can see the sizes I'm shooting for on the top columns. Just didn't want to ask for the world with the photoshopping as I know it takes them time and needed the most basic to show DH. The whole reason for the stone is so I can beef up the posts as I mentioned in my first post.