I have a patch of wild blackcaps myself. Love em, even though they're small, they make the BEST pies, jelly, jam, etc. I've got about 40 feet of row, and its about 5 feet wide. Well, it's kind of late for this year to shape them up before harvest -- just do your best and accept the fact that there are some in the middle you probably won't reach, unless you can borrow a suit of armor from someone. Now, the good news -- you can make this a LOT easier to handle next year. The old canes ("floricanes") that are blooming and soon to bear fruit are all going to die within a few weeks of the last berries getting ripe, so if you cut those in the harvest process, no big deal. The NEW canes ("Primocanes") that emerged from the ground this spring are probably about 2 to 4 feet tall now (depending upon where you are in IL, more north = shorter due to later spring than S. IL). Those you can shape up nicely for next year. If you just let them grow, they form the tangled mess. What you need to do is to TOP the new canes at around 4 to 5 feet tall -- just cut the center out when it reaches that height. This will make it branch out a lot, and, more importantly, NOT flop over and NOT grow into the tangled mess. You may need to come back one more time in the season and pinch out some of the tips of the new side branches before THOSE get out of control. I've pruned black raspberries here any time between mid July and about Labor Day and had good success getting them to branch for the next year. Also, at some point after all of the berries are done, you need to go in there and cut all of the old fruiting canes off to ground level. This is one of the harder jobs, since they are thorny, but you can't leave all of that dead wood in there, it just makes an impenetrable thicket in a few years. If you do it right, you will end up with a MUCH more manageable bed, and as many if not more berries, because all of that branching turns into fruiting wood next year. It takes me maybe an hour to two hours to do this job every year, and it really makes a night and day difference on the manageability of the patch and ease of picking for the next year.

Jeannie.....so very beautiful and colorful! I found a stake with a 4 prong end a couple of weekends ago when I was hacking away underneath a Norfolkpine that was wedged up against the trunk in my mom's yard. Think it is a perfect base for a tipsy something. May try my hand at it. (p.s. I planted some purple petunias last summer in a Mexican Pottery Swan planter that I bought outside of Ensenada Mexico for my mom about a gazillion years ago, but it got ratty by this summer is there a trick to petunia's?)

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. We had tried the ice, the hot water, rapping on the counter, twisting, and nothing. Then I took a look at the tip spring-meadow linked. I read through all the feedback on that page and was encouraged that some found success with acrylic as well as glass. What I did was ice, salt, and water in the inner glass and let it sit for 5 minutes. Then I used a small bucket in the kitchen sink and added very hot water. I dipped the outer glass in up to where the inner glass met. After about 15 seconds, I heard and felt a pop. I removed the glasses from the water, twisted and they are apart !!!! Thanks to all of you !!!!!

I know we've discussed this before, and I often re-use mayonnaise jars and spaghetti sauce containers, pickle jars, etc. I don't use them for pressure canning, as I tend to get more breakage, but have experienced no more problems with my "recycled" jars than I do with commercially available Ball/Kerr jars. This is from the National Center For Home Food Preservation: "Most commercial pint- and quart-size mayonnaise or salad dressing jars may be used with new two-piece lids for canning acid foods. However, you should expect more seal failures and jar breakage. These jars have a narrower sealing surface and are tempered less than Mason jars, and may be weakened by repeated contact with metal spoons or knives used in dispensing mayonnaise or salad dressing. Seemingly insignificant scratches in glass may cause cracking and breakage while processing jars in a canner. Mayonnaise-type jars are not recommended for use with foods to be processed in a pressure canner because of excessive jar breakage. Other commercial jars with mouths that cannot be sealed with two-piece canning lids are not recommended for use in canning any food at home." Given the above statement, the premise that "Mayo type jars, as I know, have never been approved for preserving good products long or short term" is incorrect, they have been and still are "approved" for limited use. So, it's perfectly fine to re-use those mayonnaise jars and such, if you have them available. Even the Goverment and the widely recognized experts above say it's OK. Grandma did it, and I have some of the old wide mouthed marshmallow cream jars from back when they were still glass. Grandma used the stuff in fudge so she had several and when she quit canning she gave them to me. They've held at least 20 years worth of sweet relish and salsa, I like the size and shape for that as the product is easily accessed. Why do I use them when I can easily afford to just buy new commercially available jars? Because I don't like to buy things I don't need, I like to reuse/recycle/re-purpose all I can, and I don't like useful items to end up in landfills when it's not necessary. In spite of recycling centers, most things don't get recycled, and more resources must be used to produce more jars, so that they can then be thrown away. It's just not sustainable or ecologically sound. Matthias, it's good to know that those plastic lids fit the jars. I like to use them when storing a jar of something that wasn't completely used up, and the newer/thinner lids get bent by my can opener to the point where the ring doesn't screw all the way down and the jar isn't completely sealed shut. I also use my old "vintage" blue Ball jars for storing lentils, beans, rice, popcorn, and as refrigerator containers for leftovers. Sometimes in canning season I'm right down to my last lids, so I don't want to "waste" a good flat on a storage container. Annie