i understood you will be at moms on either day ... i was joking about holiday time ... you refill the hole WITH NATIVE SOIL ... you get it from somewhere else on the property ... besides... this time of year.. with the plants dormant.. there is no reason not to bare root them.. and leave all the soil there ... wrap them like a burrito in some newspaper... wet.. and wrap in a plastic grocery bag ... just to keep the wet paper from making a mess in the car.. the plant above is NOT wrapped in plastic ... should last at least a few days as such ... plant when you get home ... no need to pot them ... simply plant them ... the seeds got near the foundation.. from a bird sitting on the gutter or roof edge.. finishing the digestive process ... wink wink.. if you know what i mean ... lol ... if the trees in your area are changing color... then you can basically presume.. all plants are dormant or nearly so ... expect any leaves to fall off soon after moving ... you have been warned.. do whatever pleases you ... thats how i learned.. when 10 years later.. i cursed moving a ROS for the billion seedlings popping up everywhere.. only took me 5 years to kill them all ... ken

I love that tree. I love projects that can become 'Keepsakes'. I actually used that idea for my classs each year. Our classes would have a 'Thanksgiving Feast' with all their Family invited. Each year, I would make a Huge Tree that was displayed in the School's Front Entry Hall. All the students in the school, would make a leaf, and write on a leaf - their names, and what they were Thankful For. The children that were too young to write, would be asked - What were they Thankful for, and the teachers would write it for them. On 'Feast Day'.. the parents loved reading all the messages...some very sweet and some really hilarious! After the 'Feast'...everyone got to take their 'Leaf' home to keep. Some families who had severl kids, over the years at our school, said it became a 'Tradition' to have them. We were an International School...and it was also a big hit with Foreign Families as well. Luvs, thanks for sharing this..maybe some here, will do it with their families too. jane

In my yard in east Tennessee I found that the Japanese beetles feast upon my Montmorency and Lutowka Rose sour cherry (from Poland) trees, but the newer hybrid Carmine Jewel and Romance series sour cherry trees developed by the University of Saskatchewan, including Carmine Jewel, Romeo, and Juliet get pretty much left alone. But maybe that's because the beetles become full from eating the leaves from the straight Prunus cerasus trees. But it could be that the Romance series trees inherited some resistance genes from the Prunus fruiticosa (Mongolian cherry) parent.

Japanese maples are one of the plants I focus on - I have a pretty extensive collection - and as a former nursery staff person, I can state with a lot of confidence that staking is almost always exclusively a shipping concern. JM's are rather delicate little trees and can be easily damaged by rough handling.....and they get plenty of that being transported in semis across country from the growers!! You should see how they pack them in, precariously stacked on top of each other's pots and each with their branches snuggly roped together! I remove the stakes as soon as I get them home and potted or planted. And since JM's are not best sited when exposed to strong winds anyway, there should be little risk of the root ball or the tree itself becoming unstable with normal airflow and movement.