This topics comes up many times. One of the extensive and still on-going is my friend Konrad's odyssey in the far North. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg050012202514.html?61 There are different sides of the story. One thins I'd like to add is that: do not take too much risk and put yourself in a difficult position. It is a risky business to buy and sell bare root trees. The trees should be fully dormant and the trees should be still in very good condition when they are sold. Trees go dormant from late October and the latest spring shipping season is about late March. So it is normally 5 months. The trees may stay in storage for that long. Some tree farms have excellent coolers, but a lot of them do not. Also, we are talking about several hundreds varieties and tens of thousands of trees. When I purchase trees, particularly bare root trees, I'll try to: 1. Purchase and plant the trees the earliest you can. Fall season is great is you can do it. Then the trees will be the freshest. 2. Try all you can to buy the plants from farms close to you. You can certainly buy from farms in Texas or Florida. But they go dormant late, not hardened in the cold zone, and long transit time. 3. Try all you can to avoid late season purchase. The trees stores in for 5 months are not in their best condition, period. I do not shy away from container trees. Of course there are some disadvantages, but one obvious advantage is that, the trees have a much higher survival rate, or close to 100%. If Lowe's has some nice fruit trees in conditions I like for $10 a pot, I'll grab one or two if I have space for them. I can separate the roots and I can prune the top. I know the tree is good for my zone, grown in my zone and will grow next spring. So I do not need to go through any ordeals like this again. Sellers' warranty is not a cure-all. Buyers should know what you are buying. A lady here (In Praise of England Nursery) purchased some trees from England nursery in KY. That was early in the season and the large trees still have all green leaves. The trees will probably live, but they took so much stress when bare-rooted with all green leaves. Our Mr. Konrad purchased his trees in late May and the trees of course are in horrible condition when that late in the season. Gardening is fun. Try to stay that way....

Governmental agents have leaked a report of a widespread, ongoing investigation of Paradise Palm Co. Nursery and Willis Orchard Nursery, and that the owner of Willis Orchards has panicked to rush to sell out his company and to flee the United States. This result of this online information has been published at (www.buybusiness.com/Businesses/13803/Multi-Million-Dollar-Mail-Order-Nursery-for-Sale-Top-Nationally-Recognized-Company) Authorities claim that Paradise Palm Co. was formally a website operated under the Internet address, www.paradisepalmco.com owned by Jason Willis, who also owns www.willisorchards.com, and the closed down company, Paradise Palm Co. has been forced off the INTERNET due to illegal activities. Rumors fly, that the U.S.D.A, recently fined Willis Orchard Co. for illegally shipping infected citrus into Texas and other States. Jason Willis was forced to destroy all his on site diseased citrus trees and then to "Cease and Desist" the selling of citrus on the www.willisorchards.com website. A garden watchdog website, is reporting that Willis Orchard Nursery has compiled more negative complaints that positives, and the B.B.B. after three years is still showing an 'F' rating for www.willisorchards.com, a rating that is so bad. that you cannot even bring up the name Willis Orchards unless you type in the now defunct company, Paradise Palm Co in Moultrie, Georgia. It is unclear. whether or not, the greatly indebted and empty pockets of former suppliers of Willis Orchards will seek a Court intervention to block the sale of Willis Orchards, before the owner, Jason Willis, has a chance to flee the United States and pursue his other interests in a foreign county. Website investigators have advised present and past customers of Willis Orchards and Paradise Palm Co. to complain to the following agencies, if they have any complaints against the Willis Orchards complex, or if the customers are owed free replacements resulting from dead or infected plants. Tommy Irvin Georgia State Agriculture Commissioner: Email- tommy.irvin@agr.georgia.gov Phone- 1-800-282-5852 Georgia Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs: Office of the Attorney General of Georgia Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General 40 Capitol Square, SW Atlanta, GA 30334 Call 404-651-8600 or Toll Free 1-800-869-1123 Website: http://consumer.georgia.gov/00/channel_title/0,2094,5426814_39102589,00.html Georgia BBB: 500 12th Street Columbus GA 31901 Phone- (706)324-0712 Email- info@columbus-ga.bbb.org Website- http://columbusga.bbb.org For protection you can file charge backs with your credit card company also.

riverrat1 - this is one of the few places where people could understand someone having a jam collection! That is one delicious sounding package. I'm pretty sure no one else here would appreciate the tangerine marmalade as much as I would. Or the blackberry jam. So if you would be so kind, just put them back in the box, stuff a little newspaper in there (you know, to keep them from breaking - wouldn't want them bouncing around like bb's in a boxcar, now would we?) and ship them on over here. Oh, and I tasted pickled watermelon rind for the first time this past June asn LOVED it. You can put that one in there too, just to balance out the box. Thanks.

Oh yes! This has been saved to my pinterest for a while. Her dad made those lazy susans for her and did a great job! I wish she'd give a tutorial on the hardware he used. Last time I checked there wasn't one but there was a trick to making them extremely stable and smooth. It's a great idea!