hman, I don't have significant intermixed plantings. I could have nematodes but I have never seen them on trees I have dug up. In the majority of cases I would say there is an obvious disease or pest or light issue; one problem I had a few years ago for example was peach scale, that stunted several trees. My O'Henry for example had bad peach scale. The problem is even though you fix a problem the tree can be in a self-fulfilling path of low growth which it can't just pop out of. There is only one tree that I really don't know why its not growing more, its my Black Boy peach. I think the original cause is it got horrible brown rot two years ago, the kind that is so bad that it kills the small shoots as well, and it is very slowly recovering from that. This year it did much better than last year, no big vigorous shoots but at least some 2' ones. So it may have just been from the rot and its taking its time recovering. If you read all of the old fruit books they refer to the "yellows" on peaches quite frequently, something they thought was a disease of some sort. Today it is not considered a legitimate diagnosis. My view is this "yellows" is just this tendency for peaches to runt out under certain conditions. It often results in leaves that are more yellow. Scott

Carol: That is what a logical person would do, of course. But I am not in a logical position anymore: We were out of the country for 4 years, so no gardenning. Then came back, buying the house and etc. so no gardenning that year. The following summer we put all the landscaping, that was last year. They were working in the good part of planting and growing season, so no gardenning, well minimal gardenning with some annuals and couple of perennials. Now, this year I am gardenning! They are going in and growing (hopefully) ASAP. Can you feel my pain? So, you know, I have no patience left to wait and study them anymore. But thank you for you suggestion. Sammy: If it is working don't fix it. If you never thought about it, it is working.

Kristimama - I use Black Magic potting soil. It seems to be widely available, and it was highly recommended by a very knowledgeable person on this forum. It's a tad expensive, but since my roses have so much to contend with already, I felt they deserved it. I should have mentioned that I have only had roses for about 4 years, so I'm far from expert. I've learned a lot, however, due to volunteering once a week at the Sacramento Historic Rose Garden in the old city cemetery (a wonderful place to spend a few hours, working or not!). I also should have mentioned that my roses are about to face an even more challenging environment: After yellowjackets came every summer that we've been here (4 years), last summer they built a nest in the rolled-up "privacy screens" on the balcony, directly above my roses. The exterminator said that they would be bound to come back, as they find those rolled-up screens to be a perfect nesting site (it keeps them warm, etc.), and that it would be best to keep the screens rolled down. They're part of the balcony (i.e., the property of the apartment complex), so I can't get rid of them. They are down now, as I am allergic to bees and wasps. SO... the roses (and my other plants, succulents) will get even less sun than before. This coming summer is an experiment - I'm hoping that the screens being down will produce a dappled shade effect, thus shielding things from frying, while still letting in enough sunlight to keep everything more or less happy. We shall see. As Amelia Peabody would say, "Another challenge! I'm up to it!" -- at least, I hope so. Laura

No one knows for sure as the original source is quite young itself, less than 20 years old I believe and maybe closer to half that. Speaking offline with Arktrees, they capable of vigorous growth typical of a happy redbud so ultimate size may be around the species average but it's all a guess right now. They are also now taking selections from Rising Sun offspring and applying for patents. I found the following patent searching for 'JN2' which is the Rising Sun. John Edit: I read the patent and it was a branch sport on a Rising Sun growing in a field of RS liners, not a seedling that led to this new selection. It's trade name is Solar Eclipse and SoonerPlantFarm has it for sale HERE Here is a link that might be useful: Rising Sun branch sport patent This post was edited by j0nd03 on Tue, Aug 27, 13 at 12:31