I thought I was going to find out the other night with a forcasted low of 24 degrees. I checked the foreast at 10:30pm and it still had 24 forecasted on every site. Including updated 9pm webcasts. I did have my doubts as it was 38 degrees at that point. Low and behold the low was 35 degrees. How the heck can you be off by 11 degrees that close in time? I must admit I was grateful. My tres have a life line yet for fall color! Most times the duration of the freeze will impact what happens. If it hits 32 (which technically is a freeze) for an hour, it'll have little impact for hardy plants. I've already had 30 and 31 degrees in mid-Sept and it did nothing to my decidious plants. They are just now taking on some color almost a month later. Fall color for new transplants is completely random. Some show their best colors due to the stress and other show NO fall color even though they are known for a good display. For example my 'Jelena' witch hazel (planted spring 2011) didn't have any fall color last year and isn't showing any color yet this year either. On the flip side my 'Girard's Purple' and 'Arnold Promise' had/have glorious fall color.

Speaking from the experience of having a basement that used to flood, the former owners had a concrete patio under a deck on the side of the house where the ground sloped toward the house. The concrete patio also sloped toward the house which is a violation of building codes and common sense. There is a formula for a certain amount of slope going away from the foundation of the house. Your original side yard probably was very good for drainage, and changing it will make water pressure against your basement. I spent a lot of time creating ditches rather like your original one to protect our basement from future flooding. The low part in the middle could have a brick or concrete walkway, and the sloping sides could be planted with a variety of perennials for a nice green look. Then you wouldn't have needed a retaining wall in that area, but I would have wanted to install a retaining wall on your bigger slope past the deck to make a level terrace that would be a good place for some trees. So before everything is set in stone, I would advise that you find out what the code is for slope away from a foundation and follow it. BTW, your photos and diagrams are excellent!

All trees not adapted to desert areas are shallow rooted - most roots grow near the soil surface, where the air is. Since Magnolia grandiflora is being grown on other properties in the vicinity we already know it is possible there. And wild roses, ash trees etc. indicate pretty good soil conditions. Horn-beams are another that are not going to be growing where it is almost a desert. Pines are not going to indicate a higher water table, quite the opposite - in many places pines are the last trees to be found before the forest gives way to treeless grassland - or worse. If you learn what your existing, spontaneous plant species indicate about the parts of your land where each kind is growing you will be better able to judge what new additions can be made to each of these areas. You have already found that land that supports wild roses can also grow garden roses pretty well. (Note that the wild roses never had anybody dig in amendments for them but grew anyway). 'Gallissonniere' is a cold tolerant French selection producing a conical tree with sometimes jumbo flowers that dates from the 1740s, was being produced by 1856 - but was not named until 1869 (after its introducer Roland-Michel Baron de la Gallissonniere, Governor of Canada). This post was edited by bboy on Thu, Jan 1, 15 at 16:45

I've read most questions and answers on this thread but it's hard to imagine how things are cut. I don't have any background with growing plants at all. My rubber tree shed most of its leaves at the bottom. How do I encourage leaves to grow back on the bottom part so it's not leggy? The leaves were drooping at one point, so I moved it by the window. One leaf has brown edge, and another new leaf on top is dead. I live in England so the weather is dull. Stress is a measure of how well/poorly plants are able to deal with the cultural hand they've been dealt by the grower, who is totally responsible for their well being. For each cultural condition (light, fertility, soil choice, moisture levels, temperature), there is a "sweet spot" where that influence is perfectly suited to the plant and all other cultural conditions. The further away from the sweet spot, or the closer the conditions are to the limits of what Mother Nature programmed the plant to tolerate, the greater the level of stress. Stress unchecked leads to strain, which is a condition that finds the plant using more energy than it's able to to trap from the sun's energy during photosynthesis. Stress, unchecked, always leads to death of the organism. As growers, our only job is to identify what causes stress or strain and correct that influence to the greatest degree possible. From what you wrote, I suspect there are a number of things you do habitually the plant has trouble toleration, light levels being only one. This piece I wrote about Good Growing Practices will allow you to avoid all of the most common pitfalls you're sure to encounter on your journey as a grower; or, it will at least leave you with a sense of what you need to do or what additional knowledge you'll need to add to what you already know in order to become confident in your ability to keep all your green pals happy. There are 2 ways to stimulate growth low on the trunk. Pruning back hard will literally force new branches to grow from dormant buds located immediately above the small scars on the trunk, which serve as evidence a leaf has fallen off recently. If your pruning cut has leaves still attached immediately below the cut, the act of pruning will FORCE new branching in the axil (crotch) formed by the leaf stem and the branch it's attached to. This image is what is called an internodal cutting (as opposed to a tip cutting, which includes the growing end of the branch) from a Ficus retusa tree, so it's closely related to your tree. Even in cuttings, removing the growing tip of a branch forces new branches to form in the axils of leaves immediately below the pruning cut usually referred to as a 'pinch' when the intention is to force back-budding. It appears that new leaves are growing in the axils of the older/mature leaves; however, even though a leaf might be the first thing you notice, the new growth is actually a branch. When a branch grows, it produces leaves from leaf primordia that occur along the branch as it extends. Once that leaf dies, another leaf will never take its place. Instead, all that will grow from that spot on the branch is a new branch - just as you see in the image above. I'm not sure if this is doing you any good, so I'll stop to wait for any questions you might have. Growing consistently well is very easy if you get a few things right. Your biggest obstacle, other than light, is usually water/air relationships in the soil, so making sure you have a strategy in place to limit the potential for an excess amount water to remain in the soil after it stops draining is probably the largest step forward you can take as a container gardener. Questions? Al