2018 shaping to be a crazy good year for plums. I get them so rarely due to the customary fluctuating Spring temperatures that I have mature plum trees just covered with fruit this year that have never fruited before. It'll be good to try them at long last. The weather in March and April was perfect with cold day after cold day delaying bud progression until the constant warm weather arrived late April. I've done my copper sprays already and will wait to do my curculio and fungal sprays together with the apples once they finish blooming. My Japanese are Shiro, Methley, Bruce, Primavera, Improved Duarte, Satsuma, Santa Rosa, Howard's Miracle and a few other smaller ones. My fruiting European are Empress, Coe's Golden Drop, Autumn Sweet, Pearl, something a nursery labeled as Burbank (a Japanese plum) but clearly isn't and others. Apricots and pluots looking good too.

Those are different and I agree it is very confusing. The Dave Wilson cherry-plums (Sprite/Delight) are a cross of plum and sand cherry. Sprite is supposed to grow well in hotter climates but I don't know about the chill hours; Dave Wilson lists chill on their site. Sprite has been an easy grower for me but has been splitting badly. I don't know about chill on the cerasifera plums. Bay Laurel is a standard source for Dave Wilson varieties. I would look at a southern nursery such as Just Fruits and Exotics to see what low-chill plums they have. Scott

No, not just survival food. Rosehip jam is heaven, has a lot of vitamin C and if you can find a German store in your neighborhood you still mind find some here. One of my alltime favorite foods my relatives make when I get home is yeast dumplings and rosehip sauce. We also made rosehip tea from dried rosehips. Just make sure, if you make jam that you half the hips, scrape out the seeds and surronding hairs while wearing rubber gloves and dispose of thatstuff wrapped up tightly, it's the original itching powder (not kidding).

My experience is in the Portland and rural Longview areas. Italian prune and Bosc pear are productive and trouble-free. I have some apple trees which do extremely well, except for apple scab. I applied a few pounds of lime per tree two years ago, and the scab disappeared. Not sure if it's just a coincidence. I give my apple trees a deep irrigation in mid-August. It greatly improves fruit size and quality. Cherries are good where there are pollinators. In SW Portland, I got almost no cherries. In rural SW Washington, I get tons of cherries. Chestnut trees are healthy, but the nuts are small. Blueberries, black and red raspberries, hardy kiwis, and Aronias all do extremely well here. Blueberries need a sandy loam soil that does not dry out. The Burnt Ridge catalog is a great local source of info about fruit and nut trees.