It's being soaked in the ground now. :) Hopefully that will be okay. Apparently the plant wasn't happy about it though because it stabbed the tar out of my right thumb as I was planting it. I pulled the thorn out and it bled a lot, but since then (about 10 hours ago) my thumb has been really sore and a little swollen, like I'm having a reaction to it. These things aren't poisonous, are they? I've heard people eat roses sometimes. But gosh, my thumb hurts! And it's been all day. I'm not a weenie. I'm just perplexed about why this hasn't gone away. A little thorn-prick should swell up and still hurt half a day later. I've been stabbed by blackberry bushes scores or hundreds of times and I just go on my way without a worry or a complication. This is different.

aw come on ... its alive.. WHAT MORE DO YOU EXPECT FROM A TREE YOU JUST PLANTED ... $40 bucks is about right .... in a year or two.. you will be limbing it up.. and get rid of every single one of those branches.. who cares what they look like now .. they have leaves.. they are feeding the plant ... it is growing roots .... pshaw ... now.. that tree in a 5 gal pot.. did you take the time to unwind or cut heavily circling roots... i dont recall if mentioned above ... if not.. dig it back up in late fall and plant it the right way ... and in the right spot subject to what is next ... now.. i dont like elms... and i ask the rest of you.. that close to the house .. is that a good place for THAT elm .... the carp elms in my 'hood' are all the Chinese elms that shed branches when the neighbors sneeze .... SHOULD SHE MOVE IT AWAY FROM THE HOUSE FOR THAT REASON??? i suspect.. that most of us gardeners.. have paid more.. for a better bargain.. for stock looking worse than that.. and with our help.. i suspect you are at a 95% success rate with most trees ... JUST DONT DROWN IT OR FERT IT ... on some level .. ignore the nattering nay-bobs ... as helpful as they usually are ... i think they are just jealous here .. lol ... could it be better .. yes was it a bargain .. yes ... was it a waste of money .. not really if you like it ... will it live and make you happy.. probably ... quit worrying about it ... if nothing else.. its a $40 lesson ... been there.. done that ... how about a $100 hosta that died a week later.. talk about regrets .... ken

Great discussion! My wife is from the Dominican Republic [DR] and cooks a lot of rice and gandules so I figured that I would try to grow them. Question: Am I too far north here in Maine? Her Mom brought us some seeds from the DR so I'm going to plant them and see what happens. Bad idea to get them from the DR though, they had some sort of bug infestation. Looks like there's a larvae that tunneled out of the seeds and became some sort of short-lived fly. I put the seeds in the freezer for a few days before planting and hopefully that will take care of it. I'm guessing that anything native to the DR isn't going to make it through our winters anyway so nothing to worry about right?

Devil’s club is a really interesting plant, though! I thought briefly about planting one, but you know, hands. And children. And pets... The A. Spinosa was a really lucky find for me. I’ve never seen another for sale here, and it’s done really well. I’d like to try Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (Hercules’ Club) to give it some company, but the Zone 2 thingy would probably make that idea a non-starter.