Bboy, that was funny. LOL! I had no idea that you could make syrup from hickory nuts. It would have to be some super-tasty syrup for me to make that effort. Seriously, Lucky, I checked out some pics on the web and you're correct, it's a Mockernut, Carya tomentosa. Also, I must applaude you for finding a most creative use for hickory nuts. I grew up with pecan trees and they're my favorites...hickories are new to me. At this point, I think that we'll just try to save the tree and leave the nuts for the squirrels. After I shared your comments with the boss, he offered to put on his snake boots and clear a path for me so that I could try to save this tree. There's a nice Prunus serotina, Black Cherry just down from this one that is also covered with ivy. Thanks to GW, I just found a name for those trees in our area a month or so ago. I'd sure hate to lose that one. I guess the boss had better get out his machete knife again. (LOL) The big one up the street is already getting little cherries on it. Lucky, you know, I just may collect some of those hickory nuts when they start falling this year and give them a taste test. It will be a first for me. Thanks again to all! Bon

I'll take the comfy chair, please. Thanks for your thoughts, brittie and Virginia. Yes, it certainly does look a lot like the pictures of 'Souvenir d'un Ami' on HMF (there seems some doubt if those pix are all "fer sher" SduA). Virginia, it's very fragrant with the normal Tea rose fragrance, very vigorous (but in a shrubby way, not a climber way), very floriferous and continuous, not at all disease-prone (in the most humid conditions, maybe just a touch of powdery mildew). As to thorniness, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being something like 'William Lobb', this would score about a 2 at most. There's really nothing about it to suggest that it's anything but a "pure" Tea--in everything, it's prototypically Tea. To my eye, it has the look of something from the 1870s or 1880s (but of course an older rose could have a newer look, or a newer rose could have an older look). The very mature bush is about 6-7 feet tall (and would be at least that much wide if I'd let it). The flowers never droop; however dangly the branch which bears them might be, the flowers themselves always manage to look upwards. The hips absolutely never ripen, never have a seed. Likely if I had a list of all the unknown Teas that Heritage Rose Gardens offered, I could pick out which one this was, especially if it had the descriptions too. What I remember about this one was that it was one of two unknowns bought at the same time which, planted in a sandy soil, did poorly; but when I moved them just a dozen or so feet away to a very clayey soil, they responded with vigor and looked nothing like they did in their sandy quarters. Aside from curiosity, the reason I'd particularly like to identify it is that, though still vigorous on some limbs, the bush is getting old, and I'd hate for it to die with me not knowing that there are others out there to carry on its beauty. It doesn't seem to want to root from cuttings or by layering (going by my repeated failures over the last five or six years). It's much more beautiful than my pictures convey. There are times when I'd say that the opening bud and young flower with their tints and form are as beautiful as any rose could be.

I checked my plant out down the back thef. but the bloody birds again have pinched my label. There's new leaves on now, which, because they're new, are a shade paler than the old ones which are indeed the colour and shape of the ones in your pic. Unfortunately the thing is a long way off having a flower, the shade of which, though, is the same as in your picture. I'll send Ted and email and ask if he'd take a look at your photo, I feel confident he'll be able to throw some light it. Your dead right about the 'Name that Plant' people, though, most are Americans with an occasional Brit and mainland European thrown in. While they're pretty strong in all plant categories, their weak spot is Aussie natives, most don't have a lot of experience in them. B.

I endorse what Fred said, unreservedly! That site also has some interesting observations on new plants, etc. There are, however, cultivars that he doesn't picture. (I have one like that, which was supposed to be 'Temptation' but isn't, and I can't find anything like it anywhere. Oh well.) He tries to add photos all the time. Good luck! Joan