That's all I grow on my second floor apartment balcony is things in containers: palm tree, hibiscus, roses, English & French lavender and a collection of shade lovers (plain & rex begonias, alocaisas, african violets and a dendrobium orchid.) Whew! Thatsa lotta pots...yes..there is still a place to sit and a path through...just barely! I use those plastic, cheapie nursery-style pots inside pretty clay pots or decorative fiberglass planters; just as long as they have good drainage--all good by me. Added bonus: the pot-inside-a-pot tactic provides moisture retension & root insulation in my hot Florida summers. Roses--I have 4 floribundas: Angel Face (mauve & strongly fragrant,) Europeana (red & light fragrance,) Sunsprite (yellow & strongly fragrant,) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (pink & fragrant) is on the way. As far as rose care--I've gone organic, so no icky chemical sprays (they didn't do much anyway!) By far the best care I've found is maintaing overall soil health. Repotting with fresh soil every 3 years with good grade soil (I like Jungle Power, sold by Lowes in these parts,) a good feeding program (I tend to forget, so do it every time I water,) using solid product like Mills Easy Feed (has micro-everything in it so no weird deficiencies) and regular attention. It goes without saying that lack of attention--ahem, water--is the greatest stressor and that invites disease with open arms. It sounds like I work at it, but not really. A little bit by little bit, and it's all turned out wonderfully. Everything blooms & blooms...my DH teases that he is jealous of the TLC the plants get, but I remind him that he is first on the list, well..maybe after the cats are fed in the morning--ok, second on the list and well ahead of the plants.

Don't believe it's Photinia, more likely a Prunus. HTH Chris

These are cedars taking over an area of grassland where they are anything but welcome and the photos show how quickly it happens. The deciduous trees will follow and the soil will be forever changed and lost and cannot be brought back to its original grassland state. Habitat and wildlife is destroyed as open spaces fill in. Fires become a daily danger in summertime because the cedars explode like matches on sticks throwing flames across a dry hot landscape that is supposed to be a natural grassland that had existed for centuries. Fire is a natural phenomena of the grasslands. Its a serious and very costly problem in the midwest. The loss of acreage is calculated on a daily basis now and is overwhelming resources to deal with the problem. The same thing is happening in Australia. Its bad land management because there are places where trees do not belong. The cities and towns out here are not close together like in the east. Trees in a city is an entirely different situation but they escape into the surrounding land compounding the problem along with fence lines, roads and settlements. The grasslands took millions of years to develop but can be lost forever in just a few decades. There used to be a literal ocean of grassland, it was a natural wonder that was lost and it continues to disappear. I'm not so sure about the 9 times out of 10 remark. Invasive species are another problem. Its much more complex than the simple much advertised "Plant a tree" solution. I think we have all heard that very public message many times over by now. Other problems get much less attention so that now when someone says something like we need to thin trees in certain areas, people react in a knee jerk way. This post was edited by GreatPlains1 on Wed, Jan 1, 14 at 18:21

I finally found out... it's a Catawba. Very pretty tree with a nice growth habit, just right for the spot it's in, but I don't know much about insecticidal spraying... can anyone offer suggestions on types of equipment, etc. And how the heck do you spray a TREE? I'm 5'3"!! ;-))