My own experience with sweet cherries and Apricots.... I absolutely LOVE apricots - but so does all of the disease and bugs here... The tree seems incredibly difficult to keep alive down here.... I have 1 apricot that went in last year.... and I am seriously re-considering a Tomcot.... but I lost all 5 other apricots to bugs literally eating the trees to the ground... Cherries... Cherries are tough because Birds love them so much... so far - the last 3 years... I have gotten 1 cherry each year in my mouth... The foliage also gets hammered by Japanese Beetles... but they seem to pull through... On Peaches - Scott has great advice.. I would also add Red Haven and Elberta.... They are older, tough, reliable cultivars... Plums wise... Same as Scott - but more so... My European plums don't do well in the summer... Too hot for them - and they go dormant in the summer - and the plums came out very bitter... I dug them up and planted them in the shade last year.. and they didn't die.. We will see this year... Japanese plums wise - so far Methley is super reliable but So-so for taste (Bland and watery when fully ripe) until the very end of it's season.. The kids absolutely love them - so the tree can stay for now... I put in a Satsuma last year - we will see how it does.... If you like making Jelly - American plums are the ticket... but they are very bitter/sour/inedible until 100% fully ripe... I LOVE home made American plum jelly! Thanks

Purple, it had to be difficult passing up. How many times did you look at the Ficus before making that final decision? I've done the same thing. After getting home, X plant stayed on my mind. In fact, that's how I ended up with Chlorophytum Fire Flash. lol. I saw it at the grocery store, put it back on the shelf..Got home, wondering what type of plant I didn't get. The following day went back to the store...it was gone. A week or so later, dh and I went shopping for 'groceries.' I described the plant to him, non-stop, lol. Would you believe HE found it! lol. He goes, is this the plant? It was hidden behind, of all things, 'FAKE' plants. Plastic leaves and flowers. lol So, Purple, you have to have nerves of steel. lol. Rhizo..That IS funny. Possibly, with today's progress, computers doing jobs humans once did, robotical plants are turning, HUMAN!!!??? LOL.

Great link on the subject, stevation. My post was certainly incomplete. I should never try to do things in a rush, but seem to always be short of time these days. As the article states, sun scald can be the culprit too. In our yard we had more snow stay on the ground last winter than we've had for some time... more like normal. Of course, snow has extremely strong reflective qualities. That most likely, at the least, added to the cause for the demise of my last years' Stella. Had I read the article you linked to, I probably still would have painted (had I remembered to do so).... wrapped trunk with burlap first and then painted the burlap white so it could be removed after the temps stabilized, and reused it next winter without looking at the white paint all year. Oh, well. at least I wont have to remember to put it on! The wrap doesn't need to be 'tight' as long as there is a way to keep it over the trunk and reflecting light away from direct contact. It isn't meant to keep the trees actual temperature heat in, or the cold out. In this case, too long of a period of light equals heat. Think of a magnifying glass... The goal is to keep sun/snow from shining onto the bark... to deflect the added 'heat' away and prevent prolonged temperature shifts. A rise in temperature, if it lasts too long, causes part of the tree, usually just a non-reflective strip of the bark that is absorbing the light-heat, to begin to wake up after the winter snooze.. 'thinking' it is spring. The cells plump with moisture along this strip to begin the process of spring growth. Winter continues... sometimes with a vengeance especially in the mountainous regions. And with a drop in temperatures back down to 'winter normal', the tree doesn't have time to drop the moisture level ('sap') down. The moisture laden part freezes and because ice takes up more space than does water, the expanding cells causes a split in the outer layer, which has been weakened. I have also used the purchased plastic wrap-around 'split tube' that has little air holes formed in them, that are made to protect fragile young bark. Couldn't fine any of them last year when I planted Stella, so didn't use anything (I forgot to paint before winter... the tree was doing so well). pawsitive, they won't all split. I think some are just more prone to it. Maybe so much trouble with cherry is caused by a thinner, darker and more absorptive bark. Dark colors absorb light more readily. It is possible that a (possibly unseen to the naked eye) color difference in even the same cultivar, may make a difference in how light/heat is reflected/refracted? Where snow is or isn't and how it falls in the reflective field probably makes a difference. Old winter dormant grass will more likely absorb and thus not cause sunburn.. bright crystals of snow reflect and can cause blisters. Our Surefire Cherry tree is the latest blooming fruit-crop tree to bloom every year. We can't wait for our first taste of fresh-off-the-tree fruit... coming soon! Hope I've not rambled too much. I'm late! Got to get the birds fed! Crystal

Will have to disagree Dan since I've repeatedly seen huge variety differences in splitting. Sungold is one of the worst followed closely by Black Cherry. Unfortunately, varieties that seldom split are usually tough skinned. Sweet Treats was one mentioned and Toronjino or Pareso (grape) are also almost as tough. Since some people mentioned larger fruited varieties like Mountain Magic and Tomatoberry Garden I'll also throw Juliet into the list that everyone complains is so tough skinned. In another thread on this subject I suggested pinching the stem when harvesting so as to leave the stem attached. I don't submit to harvesting unripe fruit so although it may lessen splitting it produces a tomato of similar quality to imported supermarket selections.