I took these pics last weekend. Things still look pretty dead around here. I planted 5 more one-year whips this winter. I'm excited about this upcoming growing season. This is "leap" year for me. I planted the first trees (16) in Nov. 2007. Fisrt year sleep, second creep, third leap. Looking forwards to seeing some serious growth. Though, as far as I was concerned, last year they lept. I had to summer prune twice to control growth. Hoping a get a few tastes this year. I included some grafting pics too. BEFORE PRUNE AFTER PRUNE A pic from the end of last season I've seen other folks' orchard pics on this forum and some are really quite impressive!

Thank you Arthur and Sambac. Arthur those are gorgeous. Sam, I thought I could get away with ground planting them but the woman at Ace thought that was a bad idea. I looked at the pot they're currently in and thought, "they look fairly content to me ?" I think I'm going to pot them in a nice bark heavy cactus mix combo regardless. Now, one more question. It has gotten quite leggy, can I lop it off or will that kill any potential blooms by cutting off the top ? Also, will those cuttings root, I'm suspecting yes. Thanks so much.

mamabird, I can appreciate your (or is it DH's?) desire to have a white room to house that large stone fireplace. It sounds very good to me, in fact - a lovely Scandinavian-country look. I really like the idea of a nearly-white in that room - it won't look cold! not with that behemoth of a firebox in the room. LOL! If you like the White Dove for the woodwork, it looks good. For the walls, if you're amenable to other brands, I would suggest Farrow and Ball's "Strong White". I have this colour in my living and dining areas and it looks like cashmere on the walls - just regular undyed, cashmere. A definite white with a little bit grey, a bit green, a bit tan, but only enough to keep that white from being blinding. Strong White's my preference for your room. It will "go" with the white dove as well as with the tan of the stone. Another (set of) suggestions are from Donald Kaufman. I have DK-24 (in a bedroom) and I love it. It is basically a white with some green, blue and lilac / tan to it. I have it in north-facing room and it reads quite like a blue-green tinted white - once again just enough to knock the blindingness out of the white. This would be even more of a scandinavian-country touch to your room with the great big stone fireplace. Other nice whites from DK are DK-4,5 and 6 the last of which has a noticeable amount of green to it. So not a green colour per se, but a green-shaded White. Alternatively, if you're really bound for a deeper colour in the white-ish territory, I'd suggest F&B's Off-White or Shaded White. Both are gorgeous, definitely deeper colours but both also come across as whites-in-shade if you get what I mean ;-) And I think they'd go swimmingly well with that stone fireplace. Good luck. For what its worth, I support your paint-it-white vision as I think the look will look stellar in it with the fireplace.

Holy Hannah Helen!!! Your pictures are DIVINE!!!! Angels must help you get so many gorgeous blooms!!! But, seriously, they look like they belong in a David Austin catalogue/book...where there are so many blooms that you can't see the foliage! Unbelievable!!! :)