Good questions Brady. I will only comment on what I have observed with my plants in my area because I haven't been doing this long enough to say what's right or wrong. Im defiantly still in the learning curve with my plants. With Rabbiteyes I think there are a few things to consider. I live right next to the gulf of mexico, with in 1 mile of Galveston Bay. Needless to say its very humid here in a normal year. Add a very wet spring on top of that and leaf fungus becomes a issue with the spring flush of growth. My limited experience with them has shown me they are more sensitive than SHB to really humid/rainy conditions when it comes to leaf fungus and premature leaf drop. I saw this last spring. In a dryer environment it's probably not a big deal? Can't say cause I don't live in a dry environment. Because of that I tend to prune to keep the center of the bush open which seemed to help with my fungus issue. Also some varieties of Rabbiteyes can get very tall and I'm not crazy about breaking out a ladder to pick fruit. What I've doin the past 2 years is after harvest I cut the fruiting canes back to about four feet. By the end of the season they are right back to 7ft or so when they stop growing. Perfect for picking I'm my mind. Now some varieties are more up right while some are more spreading so prune accordingly. Also in late winter I will do a light prune to thin fruit buds on the tips of branches. I dont know if I even need to do this as I obviously thin next years crop by topping back the plants at 4ft but I do it any way. I leave 5 to 6 fruit buds but I may really be shorting my self on fruit. Maybe some one can correct me here? I do know that berry size has not been a problem. They are very large so far. Chill hours have also been a concern for me here with Rabbiteyes. From looking at a chill hour chart for my area we only received 180 or so chill hours in 2011-2012. For some reason it didn't seem to effect any of my Rabbiteyes negatively. They all fruited and leafed out fine. This year I'm showing 250 or so chill hours so it should be a good year for them if the past holds true. All mine fall in the 300-450 chill requirement. Maybe excessive pruning is keeping them fruiting and growing???? I don't know,,,, I would think lack of chill hours would keep them from fruiting and leafing out but I haven't seen that yet??? SHB are a little different. Now keep in mind I'm growing all my SHB in pots with the exception of one Emerald. I can tell you this, the one Emerald in my raised bed is massive compared to my potted plants. It's actually wider, just as tall and much more impressive than my rabbiteyes! Now with SHB it's all about controlling crop load as a over producing plant can bring on unwanted disease. Stem blight is bad one that can kill a plant in a matter of months. How much fruit is too much??? Don't know and don't want to find out. I'm not in it to push a plant, I'm in it to feed my 3 boys home grown organic goodness! I have pretty much followed Fruitnuts and Bams advice on pruning them. Prune heavy after harvest and a light bud pruning in late Jan before the buds break to control crop load. I've gone with 5-6 fruit buds on all the major branches. All small thin branches or weak shoots that spout in the fall get pruned out in Jan. So far so good. I haven't had leaf fungus problems on them like the rabbiteyes, at least not yet. I do tend to prune with more of a open center though with SHB also just in case. Keep in mind I tend to over kill everything so take my post with a grain of salt. I try to be as proactive as possible rather than reactive and that's probably helped me more to this point than anything.

Lapins, Royal Ann, and Brooks are really more "semi-low-chill" cherry varieties than true low-chill. They can fruit in zone 10a, but typically produce fruit every other year (or the fruiting is not consistent, there may be some years without fruit) and do not fruit as profusely. In a warm climate, it can also take a few years longer until a young cherry tree begins producing fruit. With something like Royal Ann, you might see just 3 cherries set fruit in the fourth year after planting, it will be 2 more years until you see anything significant. This may not be suitable to every home grower but there does exist some special chemical treatment strategies for cherry trees that can be applied to try to partially compensate for the inadequate chill. A 200ppm solution of gibberellic acid, sprayed onto the bark of a cherry seedling can help bring it out of dormancy. The gibberellic acid has to be continually reapplied, and should not exceed this concentration (otherwise the plant may stay in dormancy, strangely). In my experience, the treatment is a lot more effective if applied into a cut or break in one of the main branches. The initial first shoots that appear may send out deformed leaves, but the appearance of this first growth will help stimulate a second wave of buds to break a few weeks later, which will produce normal leaves. There is another rest-breaking chemical, Thidiazuron (TDZ), that can be used in conjunction with gibberellic acid (although it is even more expensive). From what I have read, TDZ is most effective when applied BEFORE the plant experiences chill, and reduces the necessary subsequent chill requirement. Both of these chemicals are fairly expensive, so the small quantities need to be applied with care to the tree to maximize their effectiveness. One of the main ways to try to counteract lack of chill hours in warm climates is to try to minimize as much as possible the higher temperatures on warm winter days, because these can seriously detract from winter chill accumulation. In other words, it may not be so much about making sure the plant receives chill, but rather preventing the plant from experiencing warm temperatures when it is in dormancy. You can do this by providing partial shade, or in drier climates misting the leaves during a particularly warm winter day.

I think I'd rather deal with some cracking/sinking pavers now and then than to have to deal with potentially worse repercussions for doing the job "right." It seems to me the proper way to do a paver patio is only for certain property layouts and certain patio locations. My property was designed to direct rain runoff right past my back door, and the proposed paver patio would be in the flow's path. It's not going to get a lot of traffic... only light foot traffic, so I know that matters, too. I am wondering now, though, if excavation won't be a problem so long as I don't go lower than the excavated level of the existing concrete patio. That would give me at least a bit of depth to work with. Still, in the deep South, I have to wonder how much is truly necessary. It's not like it's going to heave with deep freezes every winter. [SHRUG] You bring up another concern I had, which was the sand washing out of the installation. I am not even sure how this isn't a given and something to be expected. I read that pavers can be installed on an existing concrete patio, something I was interested in doing to have the old and new areas match, but I was concerned because the recommendation was to put a layer of sand on the concrete patio. I immediately thought about the sand washing away over time.

Thank you dianela. Your EV is beautiful! Mine has been in a pot a year and looks very similar in size to yours. I knew I was asking a lot, for size info in a warm climate, so soon but thought I'd give it a shot haha! If EV does get like Olivia here, she will be a short climber lol. I had 2 Olivias holding their own on a gazebo with 2 Teasing Georgias at my old house but I am half a zone colder here in the FL Panhandle. I really need to get EV in the ground so I guess I will go ahead and put her in with the Evelyns and see what happens. I am also toying with the idea of adding either Sharifa Asma or Mill On the Floss (not really apricot) to that bed just to get them out of thier pots. I wonder if the Mill On the Floss petals can hold up to the intense heat of a block wall in full sun? Anyone know? I have 2 Abe Darbys that would totally go w the apricot color scheme but they are on Fortuniana so will become climbing monsters here. Just thinking out loud lol and greatly appreciate any advice :) ~Sjn