CHara I grew some bosc pear from seed, and my seedlings did the same thing: One redish, one green with a slight red tint to the edges of the leaves and the trunk. They do seem to change a bit as they get older. Also, seedling pear apparently can have spines... Lastly - Dont expect to be growing the exact same fruit as where you got the seed. Our fruit have enormous genetic codes, which means the variability of the plants is really a guessing game. The odds are you should get something worth it, even for rootstock, but its very, very rare to get something really worth it from seed, and even rarer to get the parent.

Not sure aabout cross-pollination, but Razzle Dazzle, like many gaillardias, is a hybrid, so the babies will seldom resemble the parent plant. I have a red & yellow with semi-fluted petals - I suspect the original parent was Fanfare - and this year have planted a new hybrid called Gallo Peach. It will be interesting to see what the seeds produce!

Bon, : ) You are so sweet. I grow a gazillion different kinds of flowers every year, but the ones that grow every year are the ones that reseed and come back on their own. I do try to renew them with fresh seeds purchased every few years (like, for example, with new Laura Bush seeds from Wildseed Farms). I want flowers that will self-sow and perpetuate themselves fairly well over time because I don't want to start over from scratch every year. Many perennials can be iffy in clay. They'll thrive for a few years and then an extra hot, dry year (like 2011) will kill them, or an extra cool, extra wet year (like 2007) will get them. Those two extreme types of weather have done a good job on their own of weeding out perennials that cannot tolerate my clay in both extremes. So, when I find something that thrives in both types of extremes, I grow lots of it...hence, the huge poppy population for example. I am fairly picky about flowers----they have to be able to thrive in amended clay with little to no irrigation, no fertilizer beyond what compost and other organic soil amendments provide, only minimal deadheading (because I stay so busy harvesting and canning), no pampering of any kind.....and they need to stay disease-free. That means that I don't bother even planting anything reputed to be picky, persnickety or needing pampering. It also means the flowers I grow bring me much joy because they aren't stressing me out by being high-maintenance. And, yes, many of my favorites either are wildflowers or herbs, and they won't die and you can't kill them,making them perfect for a gardener who has lots of fruits, herbs and veggies and not all that much free time to devote to flowers. Having said all that, I'll give a variety of flower three years to prove its worth if I really want to grow it. If I cannot get it to succeed here with minimal care after three tries, I'm done with it and move on. If I cannot get it to grow at our place after 3 years of trying, I say "it won't grow here" and give up on that one. No one loves the wildflowers more than I do because they are so danged tough. A lot of flowering herbs are the same way---just tough, tough, tough beyond belief. I've been having fun planting flowers that need really well-draining soil in the back garden's sandy area the last couple of years because I cannot grow those in the front garden. However, anything I plant back there may (or may not) be eaten by voles in July and August when they exhaust their supply of whatever the heck they eat down in the woodland before they migrate upland to our garden plot. Wildflowers are kinda perfect for this area because I can watch our pastures and see if those wildflowers survive all summer. If they do, then the voles likely aren't eating them. I love agastache but haven't been able to grow it in the clay soil out front. Last year, Agastache "Blue Fortune" performed wonderfully in the soil out back and, as far as I know, the voles didn't eat the plants unless they have eaten the roots this winter. 'll see if the plants come back this year. If they do, I might plant some other agastache varieties back there. I am in love with all the plants at High Country Gardens but most of them need very well-drained soil that I don't have. So, if I can find something like agastache that the pine voles don't bother, I can order some of the different varieties from HCG and grow them back there, which would make me enormously happy. My daffodils down by the front driveway gate are about to bloom. I am so excited that something is about to bloom because so far the cool-season wildflowers have been really skimpy this year, and I think it is because of all the recent cold weather. The prettiest wildflowers on our property this year are the dandelions. People who love a perfect green carpet-like lawn don't like dandelions, but I love their cheerful yellow flowers, especially when they are the only thing blooming.

It kind of looks to me like something was letting moisture in (perhaps a branch broke off or perhaps a crack in a crotch) and so there was fungus starting. Some of the prettiest staining (from the prospective of a woodworker) I have seen of this type was caused in a red maple that had flying squirrels living in a hollow in the trunk. Other things I've seen that can cause staining include ambrosia beetles that bring in a fungus and often create long streaks along with larger center stains, but also usually have visible bug-sized holes.