Gardening provides hope...that the new season will happen; that it will be better than the last; provides excitement and expectation for beauty and development and exercises the "Faith muscle". I have FAR too many roses for the available space left here, perched on this hill. Sooo, yesterday, geranium sidioides came home to snuggle up close to the sidoides "Gloriana" and Deerfield Lavender and other geraniums and pelargoniums which seem to bask in this dry, crumbly "dirt". An unnamed lavatera, might be Barnsley Pink, or not, to mirror Kew Rose which is gorgeous crowding Mary Rose. Caesalpinia mexicana has made itself QUITE at home where it's too dry, hot, exposed and steep to have to mess with roses other than the species, so gilliesii and a spontaneous hybrid with more orange to the mexicana buds sneaked into the trunk. The cacalaco probably wants the open hillside, but it is so beautifully dwarfed, corked trunk and already "trained", so it went in to one of the many bonsai pots and seems fairly happy. Whether it will eventually flower or not is immaterial. It is developing quite nicely, as is the tortured wisteria which would probably never develop into the perfect specimen like the one out front, so it will also occupy one of the bonsai pots with the cacalaco. Emu bushes have always been wonderfully whimsical, so a small yellow one slipped by the "border guards" into the trunk to accompany the divaricata with its wonderfully blue flowers. They should look quite intersting near the Salvia chameleaagnea and muirii. Grevillea "Scarlet Hooks" finished its flowering so it will be moved to the slope to add texture and a splash of red among the yellows, oranges and blues. Fortunately, most love this dry, crumbly, intensely hot soil and southern facing hill. The only roses which seems to bask in the same conditions are Bracteata, Banksiae and the Clinophylla X Bracteata seedling. They all jostle the various pepper tree and Ca. Black Walnut seedlings and suckers to varying degress of success, but even if they aren't "Garden Queens", and even if they can't be nestled in with the others I CAN tend on the level-ish area, there is still room for things to grow and don't require my daily intervention. Those are increasingly becoming the favorites because they do their things splendidly and ignore my meddling. Kim

Ah, Dave, I think we are talking about different kinds of things here. I would have done exactly what you have done with your Omorica pendula. Yes! But this Mission blue thing is quite a different kind of tree, I think. I see them often in local nurseries, and they are growing exactly like the species Colorado Blue spruce--strong, vigorous upright growers with strong leaders. My assumption here is that this Mission blue spruce in question will grow exactly like a seedling (species) blue spruce--I will bet its origin is from a seedling, and although it is grafted as a cultivar, it will grow just like a seedling spruce, My understanding here is that the one that we are talking about has long since established a leader and that impulse to grow and replace this leader is very, very strong. If you have a regular seedling blue spruce there is little or nothing one can do to defeat this strong impulse to grow from a single, occasionally double, leader. I have had some of my spruces lose their leaders to weevils several years in a row and each time by the end of the season in which the leader was lost, a new one was growing. You just can't keep these things down! In this case, leave the thing alone. With many other kinds of cultivars, especially "pendula" varieties, they are much more likely to need some help. If they are young grafts, many, if not most, must be staked for a period of time. And if you saw my previous post on the subject, sometimes they need to be staked for a frustratingly long period of time. And if once a leader is finally established and then lost, I would guess some more staking will be in order. In this case, if I understand the description by the original poster here, the leader was not realy even completely lost--just snipped off somewhere above the point that the year's growth started. It will re-grow even "easier than pie." --Spruce P.S. Forgive me if I an going overboard here trying to avoid a misunderatanding. You are one of the most knowlegeable conifer people in this forum. I wish I knew half as much as you do.

Normally,heavy solids such as sand that can't be digested settle to bottom of airation tank where they remain until pumped out (unless agitation is vigorious and they make it to secound tank). Other solids settle to bottom of secound tank where some are eventually digested,others collect on bottom. Same as conventional septic tanks,arobic tanks must have solids pumped out occasionally. I am doing something similar but instead of useing processed water,it is pumped into origional leach field lines. My 3 tank conventional system was installed in 1965. After several years bio-mass (a thick slime) builds up in and around leach lines and gravel. Purcolation slows and eventually requires a new leach field installation. In my jurisdiction local bureaucrats passed ordainance forbidding plumbers to install or repair conventional septic systems then teamed up with other crooks poseing as arobic system maintainance technicians and inspectors to make their fortunes. Inspector/tech licenses were granted by said bureaucrats so that only selected individuals could aquaire the licenses. As you might expect the routine maintainance and twice per year inspection fees were very expensive and one person could easily make several per day. They eventually put two henchmen on county payroll checking tax records for older homes not permited for arobic septic. One of them wrote me up for violating the repair ban. If you ever have to defend yourself in court,insist on a jury. Allthough it forbid plumbers repairing conventional septic,the county was unable to proved there was a provision in their scheme forbidding diy homeowner septic repair. Concurned citizens joined by plumbers filed suit and won. A homeowner can now take a short class,obtain a certificate which alows them to maintaine their septic system and have inexpensive inspections by plumbers. Bio-mass was consumed by arobic microbes living in oxygen rich liquid from airated tanks. It took about three months for leach field to start preforming well. For years before I did the work heavy rain or several overnight guests always resulted in slugish/backed up tub and toilets. Going on seventeen years now,I had the tanks pumped twice and there has never been a back-up or slugish flush. That is very impresive considering recent record rainfall in Tx. The pretty lady "I stays with" has been happy,happy,happy!

maackia - agreed, in spite of our climate limitations compared to say, northern California or the PNW LOL - I feel lucky to be in an area where there is a lot of advanced horticulture going on. You have to get better and better at looking for it though. The nursery scene here is a shadow of its former self. Styer's in the late 1990s, had an online list which blew my mind for its selection. (my brother moved to the Philly area in the mid 1990s for his first post college job, so that's when I started making trips up there) When Urban Outfitters took them over, the focus moved to frou frou housewares and annuals. They still have the odd interesting perennials or shrubs but it's no longer a destination for me. I'll sometimes go there if I happen to be in the area. The once celebrated and huge Waterloo nursery went under...a result of foolishly expanding just before the housing bubble burst. But for example I finally joined the Philly chapter of the ARS because they are the only chapter, to my knowledge, that is promoting and producing grafted plants. Which is a good idea. All rhododendron plants produced by the Hachmann nursery in Germany, for example, are grafted these days. Yes, Longwood is like 'horticultural Disney'. But as I've posted elsewhere, this is actually a good thing in terms of getting the general public impressed by or interested in plants. I'm amazed when I see large families visiting...the admission must get steep even with the kids discount. And the amusing to me phenomena of how many young couples are there. I joked on another forum that many a "Sow Philly" Italian fathers must have told their sons: "third or fourth date, if you really like a girl, take her to Longwood." Chanticleer in the place for people who already love gardens and plants. I actually know a couple in the Bay Area who say it is the most charming garden they've ever visited! And that is saying something.