Oh man! I almost forgot this thread. I was at work and had typed a long description of how I treat elderberry cuttings, and somehow it vanished when I hit 'send'. I was too frustrated to write it a second time. ;o) Take several hardwood (wood from last year) 5-6 node cuttings after leaves fall and bundle them so the proximal ends (ends that were closest to the roots) are together. You can cut the proximal ends at a 45* angle and the distal ends at 90*, so you can tell them apart, but don't forget which is which. Bury the cuttings proximal end up in a full sun area of your garden/beds that gets good drainage, so the end is covered by 3" of soil. Be sure to mark them so you can find them in spring. The ends will form callus. The warmth from the sun in the spring will stimulate root primordia (the beginning of roots) or actual roots, while the cool temperatures deeper in the soil will inhibit bud movement. When elderberries in the landscape are starting to leaf out, dig up the bundle and reorient them so the distal end is up and at least three nodes are buried and 1-2 nodes are above ground. Be sure any roots that have formed don't dry out. The ground is cold enough at this time that fungal issues are not a problem. The proximal end up warms the rooting end, which promotes rapid callusing & gets roots growing. The cooler temps deeper in the soil keeps the shoots from developing until roots have formed, which is when you'll be digging them up & planting or potting them. I do a lot of temperate trees this way, and a few years back, I did it 2 years in a row with a half dozen cuttings of Sambucus nigra 'laciniata', the EB with black cut-leaf foliage everyone thinks is a Japanese maple. They all struck. Al

Jim Thomas of Biosphere Nursery says pawpaw won't live if they are dug up from the wild. He has to go to great lengths to get any to sell in his native collection. Don't know if it is because of an exceptionally long tap root, or what, but apparently digging them is a death sentence. They are getting very scarce in the wild, too, due to development of pine flatlands. And the scarcity impacts the numbers of zebra swallowtails seen in the wild these days, sadly. (Not zebra longwings, but the black and white zebra swallowtails.) Interesting that the pine hyacinth is a clematis. My native is a well-mannered vine that gets about 6 to 7 feet tall in my garden every year. It is just leafing out and heading up the trellis right now. I dearly love it. (Pics from last year.) I have several beautyberry volunteers in my yard, and love them. I'm not familiar with the arrowwood viburnum. Sounds interesting. One of my newest natives that I'm really starting to enjoy is a Simpson's Stopper. Have you seen them in the wild? I never have...or at least, never noticed them. But if you limb them up a bit, they can be grown like a crape myrtle, and the fluffy flowers (followed by edible orange fruits) are fun. Marcia

Beautiful pictures, sunnyborders (as always). I just trimmed back my royal candles and it's setting buds for a 2nd bloom. Really great plant. I recently posted a picture of some 'weeds' very near the royal candles that I was wondering about and it turns out by the looks of the flower buds that they are veronicas. I'm currently waiting to see if the flowers are similar or totally different than the royal candles which surely must be where they came from. Have you ever had yours re-seed? I also have first love, which I like a lot. They've been blooming since May here in zone 7 and still going strong. Last year, the first year I planted them, they bloomed clear up to frost and although I deadhead flower heads as they look spent, I noticed they bloom new flowers whether I deadhead or not. Here's a picture of mine taken on june 16 . Although i'm happy with mine, i envy your zone 5 . Your plants always look so fresh and unstressed, whereas most of mine show a little tell-tale hint of the intense summer heat here.

I only have a handful of OGRs. And they don't really bloom all that great, unfortunately. My MADAME HARDY hardly blooms. I need to remove her from the somewhat shady spot she's been in for over 10yrs. FRAU KARL DRUSCHKI does much better. Altho this spot shown here is now where the new septic tank is. She's patiently awaiting in a pot, her new place... REINE DES VIOLETTES also needs to get moved. It rarely blooms. The soil in that area is rather deplete. VEILCHENBLAU on the other hand, blooms rather nicely once a yr. The color is a bit more purple than it shows here. Very interesting little rose. Here's a close up from a few yrs later. I have several teas. Some haven't bloomed yet. Well, to be fair, a few were new babies last spring. I love SOUVENIR DE MME LEONIE VIENNOT. She's a gangly climbing tea that gets some lovely pink blooms. MAMON COCHET is a big monster bush, sprawling all over with beautiful blooms. I don't have a full bush shot of it tho. RUBENS is another big sprawly thing. It and DUCHESSE DE BRABANT, ROSETTE DELIZY and MME LEONNIE all kinda inter-twine together in the corner of this bed below our living room. It's a rather shady spot, but they all do well there. RAINBOW hasn't been as productive as the others in that bed tho. Stays small and rarely blooms. Crap, you can see that infernal wild blackberry in the background. Auuggghhh! I forgot MADAME DRIOUT is also in the mix with the other teas. Blooms only occasionally as well. I think I seriously need to get in there and clean out the underplantings (and blackberry), and give these lovely ladies some much-needed fertilizer!