~~~~~~~Happy Birthday Lucy~~~~~~~ I hope you have a wonderful, super great birthday today my friend. Celebrate and Partay!!! You know with this birthday you are catching up with me. I'll be over there to help you blow out ALL those candles. ;-) jk I do hope you have a fantastic birthday. (((Birthday Hugs))) Deb

Thanks everyone for the best wishes. I spent most of the day at work helping to thaw culverts (the melt has started here). Last evening we had my mother,my middle daughter and her husband and kids, my two sisters and their families, my father-in-law, and a friend of my daughter and her kids over for a hamburger barbeque and cake. Giftwise all I got was cash(which is what I requested). Although my daughter, her husband and her friend had a very unique way of giving money. When I got home last night they had a corner of the living room covered with a sheet. When I uncovered it there was a fake tree covered with 50 American 1 dollar bills. They used the American ones because they thought that it would look fuller and better than loonies or five dollar bills. Now who says money doesn't grow on trees LOL!!! This will be all put together to buy some perennials for my yard and some patterns for my shop. I am not sure what kind of perennials yet but will keep everyone posted as to what I buy. Cheers Al

Thanks for all the kind words, as always. Troicalgrower89: You are considering: carrie, alphonso, golden nugget, glenn and valencia pride. I haven't had Alphonso yet, but the other choices are all excellent. My personal favorites are Maha Chanook, Edward, Dot, and Cushman. The best tree ripened specimen of the above would win my taste preference contest on most days. There are many other mangoes, that, on a given day, at the peak of perfection of ripeness, that could crack into the elite line up. There are almost too many to name of the mangoes that I am growing that would fall into this category. I built my collection based upon mango selections that were either rated excellent in the early Fairchild ratings back in their publications in the early 1990's or, if I came across a variety that someone thought was the best mango in the world (and I thought they had any idea about what they were talking about). I do own an obligatory Tommy Atkins just for completeness of the collection (I am almost embarrased to say). Of the mangoes you are considering, I would still reserve judgment on Alphonso. Valencia Prida is one of those that I grow that, in a given year or day, it can crack the top mangoes. The others would be just below the elite.....still excellent and worth growing, however....IMO. LOL, I just went back to an old post to a thread in this Forum to see what I had previously said in answer to this question. Here's what I said.... In the very top group would be Maha Chanook, Dot, Edward and Cushman...in no particular order. These would consistantly rate 9.0 or higher on a 10 point scale. After these, there is a group that, while not always in the top group, can, on a given day rival those in the top group. These would include Julie, Carrie, Graham,Mallika, Cogshall, Pickering, Okrung, Nam Doc Mai, Spirit of 76, Ice Cream, Valencia Pride and Southern Blush. These would consistantly rate 8.0-9.5 on a 10 point scale. I also have a seedling tree grown from a Mallika seed that has fruit that has flavor with the best of the best...but is knocked down because of abundant fiber. At least I agree with myself. Best of luck with your Haden graft! John: Good question. I have purchased the Ohia, Ohia Red and Ohia Pink. I have two trees that I know are the original Ohia...that was before I ever heard of the Pink or Red. I have one other tree that is flowering for the first time which is either the pink or red...not sure which. Also not sure how this one will differ from the original Ohias that have flowered and fruited consistantly for many years. Stay tuned for further developments on this front. Ethan: No...no damage on the Dang Rasimi again this year after a second fairly brutal winter. But then again, I really didn't have much daamge this year on any jakfruit other than some peripheral leaf damage on the Tabouey x J-30, Mai 2 and the Borneo Red. Sheehan: No...you misunderstood what I had said. Two of the Maha seedlings have flowered previously. Actually, one flowered two years in a row. However, they have never set any fruit. This year they are all three flowering and I see small fruit development. Maybe I am just looking closer but I am very hopeful that we'll have some to try. In the interim, I would say that there are some fairly different characteristics that indicate individuality. In the picture you will notice that some of the pannicles are deeper red than the others. Also, there was some difference in the timing of the blossom push. Not that this proves anything as I have 4 grafted Maha's planted out and they are off considerably by a number of weeks as compared to the others in bloom timing. Also, the tree on the NW side has much shorter pannicles than the others. BluePalm: Yes, Rosiegold does seem to be very anthracnose prone and the tree habit is scraggly as you can see on all three that I have. Remember, the tree pictured was originally grafted by me and I was calling it the Martinez mango based on what I was told by the suppplier of the scions. I have come to realize that what I have is Rosiegold...so now I have three of them planted out and they all look the same...scraggly. On your question about that Brewster lychee. It was a wedding gift to my wife and I and was in a 15 or so gallon pot when it was planted out in June of 1991. Andrew: My Jean Ellen was purchased not this past Fairchild Festival but the one the previous year. So it has been planted out since around July of 2009....that is one year and seven months. Remember...that is the tree I used as an experiment in my "To prune or not to prune" thread. See link below. Here is a link that might be useful: To prune or not to prune

I hope that, be it an anniversary, or a birthday, that it may be a really lovely day for each of you, and for your fellow-celebrants. Interesting, isn't it, that folks (quite a few of them female) don't take much notice of the specifics of birthdays ... until they get up around 80. But we do tend to take regard of the numbers when dealing with anniversaries - well, the more or less special ones. Hope each of you may have a celebration that you can write home about ... ... oh, wait a minute - you *are* home. ole joyful