applenut: Here in Burbank, CA I had the same experience with Flordaprince that you had. Last year they were inedible and this year they have great flavor. I thin mine like jean001 says. AT LEAST 10 inches apart. When thinned like this, they get good sized. But it's not my favorite fun thing to do to thin 90% of the little fruitlets. I have the same varieties of blueberries that you have - plus Misty and Reveille. I planted mine in 24" pots exactly according to DWN's website instructions. Works great. I put a 6' bamboo pole right in the middle of the pot and tie some of the branches to it. I also bought a little cheap pH meter. When I have the pH right, the blueberries put on vigorous upright growth with thick branches - about 1/2" to 3/4" thick. There are still some little droopy branches though - about 3/16" to 1/4". One of the posters on this forum wrote that he prunes off the little droopy branches in favor the upright thicker ones where the bigger berries occur. I like Reveille the best. I tasted them at one of DWN's fruit tasting affairs at Cal Poly Pomona. I decided to try it despite it's advertised 600 to 800 hours of chill requirement. Fruited like a charm. Reminds me of your mantra regarding apple chill hours. Tony

trosesoftrilliums, I needed to spend more time sitting and less mulching today. wound up coming inside and collapsing in chair. I know I'm not as young as I once was, but I need to finish that last bed. One of my peonies is finished, one is just about to start blooming, and one is just beginning to form buds. No correlation at all. Some of the roses bloom with the iris, however. Like you said, I am usually planning what I need to do next in the garden when I am sitting. Thank you so much for the iris compliments. I agree about the slow wake up too. My New Dawn rose is usually covered with blooms now...I think one is open and the others are just buds. Daylilies are late. Ah well. kay

Sounds like you thought it through pretty well but be careful of somehow during a mishap that the rain barrel water can't get into the mainline and flow to the street when there is a broken line in the street being repaired. It will contaminate the the neighborhood water supply. JMHO Aloha

Yep, Donna, reading over it, it kind of sounds like a Chevy Chase movie scene. At least no food disasters that day. Since you came clean (to us--not to your mom), I'll admit that we cut the cat-chewed portion off the blueberry cheesecake and ate the remainder! Oh, that reminds me of another animal-related holiday disaster. When I was younger and had more energy I baked cookies, for weeks before Christmas, and gave out packages to neighbors, mailman, teachers, etc. We live in an older home, with a barn, and among cultivated fields, so getting mice a couple of times each year is not unusual. But one year, in the weeks before Christmas, I was hearing noises that were too loud for mice. I told my husband that I thought we might have a rat. He said no way--we'd never had rats, and there was no place for one to enter the house. I've always kept perishables in vermin-proof containers, so I didn't worry about mice (or rats) getting into the food items, and at that time the rule was no food in bedrooms. I was very proud that year to have my baking done on schedule, and I put together stacks of cookies on Christmas themed plates, wrapped with plastic wrap and tied the bundles at the top with ribbon. I left all my cooky bundles on a drop-leaf table in the kitchen, for distribution the next day, and went to bed. I was almost asleep when I heard the noise start in the bedroom. I had some plastic bags with gifts for the kids hidden, but I could hear something making noise in the bags. I woke up my husband and made him listen--he finally admitted that it sounded like something bigger than a mouse, and said he'd set a live trap the next day. I was almost asleep again, when I felt something jump on my leg and run up to my hip! I was on my side, under the quilt, and when I reacted, it jumped off. So I had proof! I was so exhausted by that time, and I figured I'd scared the rat more than he'd scared me, so I was hopeful that he'd vacated the premises. Until the next morning when I went in the kitchen to find that all of my cooky bundles had been sampled, and at least one was completely hollowed out. No cookies left in the package at all! I'd left my large metal storage cans sitting next to the table, and the rat had used them as a ladder to get on the table top. I was so aggravated, although I found it kind of funny to think of the rat hitting the jackpot like Templeton in Charlotte's Web. I cleaned up the mess, salvaged what I could, and my husband set the trap. That night we caught a HUGE rat in the pantry, which used to be a laundry room. It was coming up from the crawl space, through holes in the floor around the water pipes. The holes had never been sealed, and we'd never noticed. I sealed them, and haven't seen a rat inside since. I was all for drowning the $#%& rat in the pond, but my daughter insisted that it be taken to a far away wooded area and released. It was very lucky that I was still feeling the Peace on Earth vibe.