I like the two types idea. I have everbearing (fall-bearing) raspberries. I got them from OSH, with the label "Bababerries" on them, although you can never trust the labels on OSH, so I have always assumed it was just Heritage. The ones I grow, though, are FANTASTIC. They start to flower in mid-June. I get my first berries around August 1, and they continue all the way through to Christmas or New Years. That is a LONG harvest season, which is great for a home gardener. Berries for your cereal every day! Now, I'm in southern California, so you can't expect that long a harvest, but they are definitely worth the try. One nice advantage to the everbearing (primocane, fall-bearing) raspberries is that you can get fruit the very first year. I was astonished by that. Watch out for the dead canes. Those tiny thorns are puny compared to blackberries, but they can be pretty horrible at the end of the year when the vine is dead and the thorns become brittle and start to travel around. You'll need a magnifying glass and good tweezers to pull them out of unusual places. Put dead canes in trashbags immediately and close them.

I responded privately but will also reply here - I live near Kanas City and am growing many varieties of figs to see which ones do the best being grown in containers. I grow only one fig in the ground right now and have a winter protection plan that worked very well. I also grow some native fruit trees (persimmon, hazel, plum) and domesticated varieties of pear, plum and apple. I have also spent a lot of time researching native prairie plants and roses. I have been doing some heavy research on various fig topics for the past two years - mostly for the joy of learning something interesting about a very unique plant. I have compiled a very large list of research papers, articles, web resources, nurseries, books, etc. Write to me if you are interested in digging further into this topic. I grew up in South Texas and fondly remember the stewed figs that Mom cooked up every summer. I don't know what kind of fig it was - just a med to lg brownish fig. Fig interests started brewing about 5 years ago when I dug up the 'frozen to the ground' stump of a fig in my dads new residence and brought it home on the airplane. I'll continue to post interesting things that I come across as I have time. Right now I am hoping to shed some light on the origin of figs in the replanted orchards at Monticello. Ingevald -

I would recommend a redbud tree. They are SO beautiful, and no fruit to pick up. With the serviceberry, though, the fruits are small and indeed eaten by birds so those work well, too, although they aren't as pretty. How big do you want the tree to grow to in the end? Lilacs get pretty big and are almost tree size eventually. We have a magnolia tree that has gorgeous blooms in the spring, I am in SE WI, so it is something hardy up here. I've had flowering crab, also gorgeous, if you can find one that doesn't have fruit somehow. I would say off the top of my head that the landscaping company might rip you off, probably cheaper to just find a local nursery and pay them to plant the tree than have a middleman. Marcia

>>>So can I assume that any/all fruit bearing varieties in catalogs that state that they require a pollinator "for better production" or "for a larger harvest" are cloned cultivars? Yes, but be careful. This is not the same as when the catalog says "buy two for better fruit production" or "requires a pollinator, buy two" and there is only one kind to choose from. In this case the plants are seedlings, and are therefore genetically different. They are different clones, but not named cultivars. Now if the catalog says: "requires pollinator for fruit production" instead of "requires pollinator for better fruit production", the answer is still pretty much yes, but... 1) If the species is dioecious, where there are male plants and female plants, then of course, an opposite sex would be required as a pollinator, and both male and female may or may not be cultivars. However in most cases, to determine the sex of an individual plant, seedlings must be grown to adulthood, so practicality necessitates clonal propagation, usually of named cultivars. 2) In a few cases, different self infertile species can pollinated each other. In such a case, "requires a pollinator" does not dictate clonal separation (within the species), just species separation. Therefore, the plants of either species may or may not be name cultivars.