The best rootstock is Lovell. If you want more than one variety and you don't have a lot of space, I'd recommend you get a three-in-one or five-in-one peach. Those you can typically pre-order from Dave Wilson, and you'd want to do it now. Our nursery here in Santa Cruz doesn't charge extra, it's $19.99 no matter what, but the multiple grafted peaches are more. Citation is better if you want to plant several varieties together, they will stay small enough and not compete, but they will also use more water. I know, lots of choices, my personal recommendation would be to get a single variety peach on lovell, and then find someone from the CRFG who'd be willing to graft additional varieties onto your tree. Carla in Sacramento heard the same thing I did: Baby crawford is supposed to be one of the best, I was looking for that one last Winter, now I just plan on grafting it. Babock is not a good choice if you want something with a bit of a tang in it. Most white peaches are sweet and less acid. White nectarines have more acidity, and yellow peaches have yet more acidity, followed by yellow nectarines, and finally, red fleshed peaches which have the most acidity. Snow beauty peach is truly an amazing peach, it's much more flavored and sweeter and juicier than babock. Dave wilson says this about it: Snow Beauty White-fleshed taste test winner: one of the all time highest-scoring varieties in blind fruit tastings at Dave Wilson Nursery. Low acid, high sugar, tantalizing flavor. Large, very firm, attractive red skin. Harvest early to mid-July in Central California. Tested as 96.5GF330. Estimated chilling requirement 750-850 hours. Self-fruitful. Pat. No. 10175. (Zaiger)

First, I think most sub-tropical boos are good for our area. Bambusa pervariabilis viridistriata - grow fast. It sent several 15 - 20' shoots in the second year - very clear stripes like a smaller version of Vitatta. But with some lower branches. Bambusa eutuldoides viridi-vittata looks similar to viridistriata but smaller. Both have golden culm (not green). If you are looking for a green culm with white stripes, Bambusa textilis albostriata is one. I started a 3-gal last winter and sent out 3 shoots so far. The stripes on young culms of Bambusa emeiensis Viridiflavus are not very obvious - actually it is hardly seen on the 1.5'' size culm. But Flavidorivens appear with more stripes even when young. If you don't really care the strips, Chungii is one that grow very fast (my second-year one is now still trying to complete the 20' tall shoot) with no branches at lower area and look blue. It culms will reach a bigger max. Here is how it looks Bambusa textilis Kanapaha is similar to Chungii but slimer and grow as fast as Chungii. The similar size plant is not seriously sending two 1.2-1.5'' shoot now (hopefully they can make it before too cold.) Unlike tropical boos like MeiNung (shoot died in winter), sub-tropical shoots can be "on-hold" during winters and restart to complete next year in our area. From my collection, you can see what I like: stripes on big culms. I have most "big" runner and sub-tropical clumpers with stripes - and some tropics with lower part in "green house/box" and uper part out. I normally learn to love the boos I originally didn't like if I couldn't get those I loved

Stan, Don't believe everything you see on television, especially with regard to average winter temps in Capetown and the Cape of Good Hope. They can and do get some frost there occasionally, as they have varied microclimates due to elevation and topography. wind is also much more a factor there, and weather is very inconsistent on a day to day basis as they do get cold fronts off the Antarctic as well as the Atlantic. From my observations of what is growing well in Capetown, I would say the climate is most similar to San Diego in general, but with more winter rains, and 80F is not a typical long term average daily high in winter there. I visited over a 6 week period in the Western Cape in August/September, and the weather was very much like what we get here in the SF Bay Area in mid to late spring. You needed a jacket on many days, there was typically driving windy days alternating with warmer ones, and there was snow on the mountains in back of Capetown above 5000 foot elevation, although it didn't last for more than a week at a time. Even the subtropical parts of coastal eastern South Africa can also get the occasional frost, and has, so don't believe that it never gets down to freezing along the coast from perhaps Port Elizabeth west to Capetown. As you get to Durban and points east/north, it is distinctly subtropical with no frost, unless you get inland and up into the mountains. Not really safe to generalize about South Africa unless you live there or look up the climate records... And Capetown does get their local equivalent of Santa Ana winds which result from compressed, heated air descending from the interior mountainous plateau when they get offshore wind conditions. The hot drying winds or the cold onshore winds can be really hard on gardens in Capetown, and large leafed tropicals that need lots of water fair poorly there in such events, and water is costly to provide.

daylily, no offense at all :-)) I completely understand where you are coming from and only wanted to point out that this is indeed a pretty common occurrence!! However, one of the major responsibilities of a skilled landscape designer is to guide their clients/homeowners towards good design choices. That is, after all, one of the primary reasons they have contracted with a designer in the first place! And one of those "proper" choices is to ensure that the garden is not overplanted from the beginning. IMO, designers that do overplant (or overdesign) - even at the client's wishes - are doing their clients a major disservice both in terms of economics and overall plant health. And appearance!! This is not always an easy concept to communicate, however. Most homeowners get any garden design exposure they have from TV landscaping shows and we all know how condensed and far from true life these really are. They are done entirely for show, not for practicality, so an overplanted landscape is pretty much par for the course. It has to look perfect, not spotty, for the reveal at the end of the show!! I sometimes wonder what these "perfectly filled-in" landscapes look like a year or two down the road........not very good, I bet. I just did a consult yesterday afternoon that mirrored this exact situation. The clients inherited a grossly overgrown garden when they moved in and have spent considerable time and effort in clearing out the excess. Now they want to replant and wanted my help in plant choices and placement. The wife totally got the need for restraint and allowing things to fill in over time. The husband however wanted to cram it full of plants right now - no bare soil showing - and it took both of us some doing to convince him otherwise!!