My two cents on a 6 year old thread... Northern seed source for Tulip Tree is critical if you want a healthy vigorous tree in zone 5 or colder. After two conversations I had with landscape professionals (urban forester & retail nursery owner/landscaper) in southern Ontario, they shared that a few wholesalers are bringing up B&B Tulip Trees from growers in North Carolina (cheaper than locally grown). They discovered this after investigating why their Tulip Trees planted in the last ~5-7 years were not as robust (low vigor, winterkill, sudden death) relative to the native wild Tulip Trees. Performance of the southern trees was not so bad that the wholesalers would stop importing but poor enough that the perfectly hardy Tulip Tree is getting a reputation as 'borderline'.

Here is my latest update...sure I'll continue to tweak but at least most of the selections are made (nothing mail order this go around). Still struggling a bit with the speciman conifer next to the house. I want the red fruit of the crabapple to pop off the backdrop confier (when there isn't any snow). Any suggestions on any plants is appreciated! All plants shown at about 30 year spreads. A = Picea abies AA = Aesculus 'Autumn Splendor' AG = Acer griseum (the one plant I took from my old house) AP = Aesculus Pavia #5 AS = Acer saccharumàâÂÂLegacyâ or âÂÂGreen Mountainâ BE = Acer negando (existing - cutting down in 2-3 years) CC = Cercis canadensis #5 CJ = Cercidiphyllum japonicumàCK = Cornus kousaàCR = Carpinus caroliniana #5 G = Picea glauca var densata GB = Ginkgo bioblia âÂÂAutumn Goldâ GG = Thuja Green Giant LT = Liriodendron tulipifera MJ = Magnolia 'Jane' NS = Nyssa sylvatica #5 O = Picea omorika OV = Ostrya virginiana #5 P = Picea pungens PC = Pinus cembra or Abies concolor or Abies koreanea or Picea abies âÂÂCupressinaâ or Picea OrientalisâÂÂAureospicataâ PG = Picea glauca (existing - cutting down in 2-3 years) PP = Asimina triloba PS = Pinus strobus #5 QB = Quercus bicolorà#5 QE = Quercus ellipsoidalis #5 S = Pinus strobus #5 ST = Malus âÂÂSugar Tymeâ or âÂÂPrairifireâ TA = Tilia amerciana (existing) TD = Taxodium distichum #5

Hey Galveston1602, I live in the West U./Med-Center area of Houston, and spend most of my time inside the Loop, west of Main St. and south of Buffalo Bayou. Galveston has always relied more heavily on tropical plants than Houston, especially with the history of "wicked" freezes that plagued the mainland until about 1990. After the winter of 1989/90 even about 90% of the W. robustas were AGAIN wiped out in Houston, but then things changed. Of course you see more tropicals on the island than in Houston. But what did Houston look like in the early 1990's compared to now? Galveston will alwasy have a "leg-up" on Houston for the more tropical of plants because of the warming effect of Galveston Bay and proximity to the Gulf. Most of the Foxtails that I've seen in the central sections of the city got minimally burned on that one cold night back in February... they actually did better than I thought they were going to. This past Saturday I happened to drive by some of the larger Foxtails in the city (that I've aware of) on the SW corner of Stude & White Oak, across from Fitzgerald's. There are 5 or 6 of them there, some of them are about 17 feet, and they looked really good, growing in full sun, planted out by the sidewalk and street. In fact the person with me remarked that they are not even in a protected location. Very heavy trunks, and heavy fronds, they've been there 3+ years. The few big Royals (25') in town have been where they are for probably 4-6 years, they have that "heavy" look to them. One of them is in the back garden of a patio home, in a place where you could not get large equipement in to plant a tree of it's present size. Actually I've seen it for years when driving by, and always though it was a Queen Palm. I never dreamed that I was looking at a Royal until it got so big (and different from a Queen) that it literally hit me in the face one day! The first Royals I saw down at Moody Gardens planted along side one of the buildings as early as about 1999, but I wasn't ready for a big one in Houston. Something I hadn't mentioned so far is A. cunninghamia. For the past two years I'd been watching about 3 different plantings of them around the city. Finally beginning to take off and grow. This past February they had absolute minimal damage (I was surprised), but one day when driving through Bellaire (just inside the Loop) something told me to take a right, I drove one short block, and then I saw them... two A. cunninghamias, each about 20-24' tall. Beautiful! THis was back in April, and they didn't have any damage from cold... I bought a large one from Home Depot the next evening on my way home from work. By the way, I checked out your website, it's great! I was expecially knocked out by the Carpenteria, I love Carpentaria's... I had a number of them when I lived in Miami. Carpentaria's are really tender, so I never even tried to find any to plant here in Houston, that one in Galveston looked great. Did it burn last winter? Also loved the S. amara. I think that the palm that you wanated an I.D. on in the Moody Gardens section is a Livistona decipiens. You've may have noticed that a number of these have been planted along the Gulf Freeway between downtown and approximately Monroe. It's one of my favourite Livistona's and for some reason it's seldom brought in tho Houston. I do know of a nursery that has some nice 10 gallon size. I'm about to buy 4 to plant in my garden. What did you see Bismarkia's do last winter in the cold? The ones that I've see around Houston all came through with no problem, to minimal burn. I'm thinking about planting one of them as well. Take care, Jose

Not to speak for Wendy, and while I completely agree with the statements above explaining that rotation is first, and foremost, about disease prevention (especially soil-borne disease,) there are a few examples where rotation can be utilized in pest prevention strategies. Again - this time with the specifics of cabbage 'worms' on brassicas - rotation has absolutely no effect in prevention. However, one pest that does attack brassicas (some types more than others) is flea beetles. If you had a lot of flea beetle damage, AND wish to apply row covers to protect against serious infestations (especially since flea beetles are difficult to control using a product as safe as Bt,) rotating plant varieties that are prone to flea beetle damage to a garden space that didn't have as serious a flea beetle infestation in the prior year, then installing the row cover immediately, can help in pest control in that instance. Another similar example is with SVB. However, even though there are such instances when rotation can be used IN CONJUNCTION with other pest control techniques to foil serious infestations, the principle remains intact... rotation is for disease prevention first; nutrient availability and fixation second; and a distant third is the few cases where specific pests over-winter in soil and you're going to use certain other pest control techniques along with rotation. Perhaps a fourth reason for rotation (and some may rate this higher) is in soil friability where a deep-dug crop prepares formally shallow ground because of the digging required for harvest of the first crop. Jerusalem Artichoke (sunchokes) is an example where some people plant it in the first year of 'new ground', and after harvest another crop is planted in the turned soil - of course, because sunchokes are perennials, there's always the issue of not getting all the tubers and watching them come up in the second year with the crop rotated into the space.