Now it gets more interesting, as I am seeing more losses of Noisettes, but not luteas. I lost the rose which was grafted onto fortuniana but not fortuniana. My Lady Banks are big and healthy as can be but the noisettes are suffering and some of the teas are not really really great this year, slow to get moving. We did have a cold winter, a very cold winter and we had snow at unexpected times, we had flooding. I think here, our winter was back to those in the mid 70s to 80s when we were returning to the ice age, just a year before it was predicted we were having global warming because of the unreasonably hot summers. Just shows to go ya, ya can never predict what the next politician is going to latch onto. Similar to the swine flu scare of the 1970s when the vaccination killed more people than the swine flu.

Many around, some of them almost happy. Unless you want the purple leaves of 'Forest Pansy' one of the dry climate species like California redbud or Judas tree would be a better one to try. However, these are not as prevalent in the local trade, and the west coast species is usually quite bushy. For instance, I've seen it recently at Sky (185th & Aurora, Shoreline) and the ones they have fork right at the ground level and are small; few would look at them and think the same kind of plant can also be a tree.

Yes, the Pacific Northwest is an area that is incredibly rich in horticultural diversity, represented by a large and vibrant nursery industry. As is Tennessee. As is Michigan. Specifically, there are a number of different types of nurseries. If your primary purpose are those objectives aligned with horticulture, you are selecting a tree from a source grown for different purposes than those with objectives aligned with conservation. Nurseries, especially wholesale nurseries are incredibly specialized businesses requiring considerable overhead to produce their product. Expecting a nursery to be a small, localized business in an increasing global world is stupid beyond calculation. In any given locality, individual nurseries are THE BEST source of information as to what grows there, how it does, and in what conditions it best there. As such, local retail nurseies tend to take great care in selecting where their merchandise comes from (as opposed to large box store outlets). As we develop increasingly detailed stragems as to what constitutes a native plant, we may find the ability of a nursery to sell a plant native to a different part of the country severely limited. Improperly so, if the truth be known. Yes, there are those plants that have created problems. Yet in our exceeding logical way of creating solutions, boiled down to make a three second sound clip, we'll gladly paint maackia, magnolia and rhododendron with the same brush as maple, ailanthus, and buckthorn. And somewhere we forget the fact that while some bemoan norway maple, we also have quaking aspen. While some rue siberian elm, we also have boxelder. If the only plants that are best adapted for a specific region are those that are native, by that argument, we would have no discussion about the problem of plants from other places. The history of our world is a history of change, of movement, of plants, of people, of ideas. Some have been good, some have been bad, some, a verdict has yet to be rendered. Personally, I think I'm gonna start recommending that you only plant those plants that come from a local nursery (as if that has a chance of succeeding in a box store world) and have a provenance of not greater than a fifty mile radius from the planting site. As a general matter of information, how many people on these forums a) know how many true grower operations there are with in a 50 mile radius, b) have travelled greater than 50 miles to visit a nursery and/or c) order from mail order nurseries across the country, much less with in a local area?

The tops should have died down anyway by the end of the season. I don't know your climate but if there is any chance of the ground freezing the potatoes will turn to mush. In my climate that is less of a risk than their rotting away in the damp or being eaten by soil dwelling slugs etc. If your ground stays unfrozen and is dry, well drained and pest free there is a chance you will save some but I don't hold out much hope for the quality. I second the suggestion of trying the veg forum where someone in your area might answer.