hi ace, thanks for the advice, my baby apple tree looks to be doing well. with some minor insect problems just on the leaves. i'm reluctant to try too much after what happened with the peach, but in two weeks or so i will thin out the small apples. do you follow any programm as for spraying, and can you tell me what you use? incidently if you ever want a fig tree ,drop me a line i have extra, i know more about figs and grapes. but i'm dying to grow peaches with success , but i think i over did it. in early spring i used dormant oil afterwards copper sulfate, what did it i think was the combination garden dust of rotenone and copper which i applied as a dust. i have friends with beautiful peaches that do absolutley nothing. i'm frustrated there are only two left on the tree. well heres to next year. marcantonio

I have oriental lillies, white ones and stargazer lillies. They are planted in the ground, under a tree that gives them shade about 1/2 the day. The area is amended with compost and is on the same watering system as the rest of the garden, 40 minutes once a week right now, 2 times or 3 times a week in the summer, depending if that wet stuff that I vaguely remember (rain?), falls from the clouds. *grin* They die back when it is late summer, then I cut the dried tops off. In February I dig in a little bulb food around where I know they are (they have tiny green shoots there right now) and wait for them to get going. The smell of 1 stargazer lilly out there is just great on a warm spring night. Susie

You need access to the rear of the dent. Possibly that means drilling a hole, then pushing out the dent. A dentless guy could do this with a hole. Then fill the hole with low expand foam or something depending on what you find when you drill the hole. Place a bottle of salad dressing in front of the repaired interior spot. Certain death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?

Sometimes it's just up to mother nature........ Has anyone had any luck when doing selective pruning in the hope that plant energy is directed in a specific manner. For me, one of my Limelight standards got uprooted by a storm, and one of the framework branches snapped off due to the impact. What was left was a 6 inch stub off the graft. I put glue on the tip and wished for the best. The remainder of the season, the stub looked healthy - no discoloration, bark was still the same going into winter. Fast forward this year, I for sure thought it was a goner. The bark appeared to have peeled open during the offseason, and I could see the - guts under the bark per-se. I was thinking this stub, while hopeful it was still alive, it surely must be dead now, with the exposed bark that seemed to unravel itself. Come mid-late spring, I noticed a bud/branch emerging so all smiles !I trimmed -most of the existing branching- a bit lower for this year -----THINKING---- more energy could potentially be focused to this 6 inch stub. I was wrong. The tree still branched out like a Limelight, sending 3-4" new wood and the 2 branches that came out of this stub, was about as thick as a toothpick.. Honestly, in full leaf out and bloom, I don't even see this framework branching is amiss, as it's pretty full and round. In my -mind- , I know it's missing of the 5 primary branching points that are on it, but that's just a mental thing...... Anyhow, just curious. Has anyone done any selective pruning for a particular function and actually had sucess. Ha, I know once can prune for height, shape or just straight culling out. Wishful thinking I suppose.