Hi Ken, I have an Abies nordmanniana 'Golden Spreader' growing in my garden here in Omaha, NE. Mine's a similar midwestern zone 5 clime as yours. This will be it's 4th year in the ground and has been doing well in quite a bit of shade, receiving 4 hours or so of midday sun during the summer. Winter is a different story as it is in direct light most of the day unless snow covered. My soil is a loamy clay. As tj mentioned above, the mild winter this year has it going into spring looking the best I've ever seen it. Either that or it found out about the new hardiness zones and that it actually resides in zone 5b now! From today From last May with some burn on the south side It's planted in a sheltered locale adjacent to an old declining Brideswreath spirea that I'm using as trellis for a Jackmanii clematis. New growth is an inch or so of lime green. People don't think it's even real. I'm fairly new to these forums but plan on contributing when I can. My garden is only 5 years old but I have some dwarf and miniature conifers(~75). Like everyone here, I can't wait for spring (which ain't far off now)! jimmy

Heritage Seedlings - The best seedling stock I've ever seen by the way. They send the stuff to you in a strange orange in color shredded paper type material with the scent of a clean bathroom. Really weird stuff. With an order from these cats though, a 100 plant minimum of anything the offer must be met, and the minimum is for one thing. After that, seedlings can be purchased in bundles of 25 for anything else you'd like to add to any order. I buy my Acer palmatum rootstock from them to meet my 100 and then I buy conifers in varying numbers. Check em out! They also carry some real unusal shat as well. Grafted plants and rare seedlings. 10 out of 10. Dax

"if this accurately represents tree hardiness, a number of trees deserve colder ratingscolor>" Let's look at which trees those might be.... From experience (three winters) I would say Picea breweriana is quite happy in my zone -- versus the Z6 designation above. Especially this year, the new shoots are extra long ! By contrast, I would probably move Pinus thunbergii from Z6 to Z7 -- no end of grief with this one (yet). My Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata Aurea' is doing a lot better, despite being rated the same Z6. That Z8 rating for Sciadopitys verticillata seems totally out of whack with what I've been told recently on this forum, although I have no experience with it myself. Z7 for Picea sitchensis seems a bit overblown too.... and probably likewise for Cephalotaxus harringtonia. And Pinus contorta rated Z7?! ....give me a break ! Not easy to find a reliable list, that's for sure.

I think you guys have convinced me towards standard-sized rootstock. May have to wait a little longer for fruit, but it's better than dead or leaning trees in the front yard. There's a nursery just a few hours north of me that sells fruit trees exclusively on antonovka, Saint Lawrence Nursery. They have both my selected scions... and then some. I definitely want to try my hand at grafting, but not on my very first apple trees. Fedco has a grafting kit for around $30 shipped, and I have some apple seedlings that I was planning on learning with. Grafting onto antonovka or b118 is something I'll do when I'm a little more sure of myself. What spacing do you think I should go with? Most standard rootstock spacing is about 35', but I don't think that takes into account our frigid climate. I was guessing at 15-20' between trees?