(Altadena Mara) Peach trees don't last that long so are gone in around ten to fifteen years, from my experience at least. A foursome of plum trees also died over a ten to fifteen year period. One foursome of apricots had two trees die. One of them that was left was especially good so I let them grow full size. A three some of apricots is hard to keep cut back but doable. In a three citrus, one sapote cluster, the sapote has grown four times the size of the south placed citrus but is trained away from them so they still are growing and producing. I wish I had not planted the sapote there, another citrus on the same rootstock would have been better, but the sapote fruit are too delicious to remove it. I have several threesome of fig trees which aren't doing that well, compared to individual trees planted elsewhere, are about half the size, but are still producing a nice crop of figs. Banana trees make their own foursome, given half a chance and a little time. I would suggest that if you have a favorite fruit, plant it by itself. If you moderately like several different fruit, fruiting over time, plant a three or four cluster.

Claysmom, perhaps your son would be interested in making his property a Certified Wildlife Habitat? This is easier than most people might think. You just need to provide food, shelter and water for various types of animals. You can Google it and read all about the requirements online, and even print out an application for the official certification. Nicki's city yard is certified, so even those without rural property can qualify. I encourage everyone who is interested to check it out. (If I can managed to stay on the computer long enough, I'll see if I can find the link, but I'm having some unanticipated difficulties from my foot surgery, and won't be here very long.) Glad you guys enjoyed seeing this old post pop up again. I do love these birds, and am happy it was of interest to you. Marcia

G'morning g..g..148 - Beautiful! How long do her blossoms last? What you surmised about H.a petiolaris, seems to make sense even here in my zone. I've been growing my Petiolaris since '06 (realizing her slow habit) ... a very wet/cool Spring of '08 boosted her growth & even surprised me with beautiful, tho short lived, blossoms! This season started very wet & once more, gave her a great running start, however the last 2 wks of June was oppressively steamy (upper 90s w/ mid100s heat index) ... needless to say, much of Petiolaris' young, beautifully growing, heart-shaped, foliage got steam-cooked, no blossoms either ... what's more, might have stunted her initial growth spurts! Â:( I'm still cleaning up her scorched foliage. She is recovering well, with our entire July, of beautifully sunny & unseasonably, cooler than normal temps ... (tho very dry. easily remedied) ... 'hope she picks up in the growth dept, soon, again!!! Â;) ... still has a long way to cover our 40' retaining wall. Thanks for your thoughts on H.a.petiolaris - I value this thread, refer to it & recommend it, as a great tutorial ... too bad Chelone's photos have been deleted - they were worth thousands of words!!! Have a great day!

You should post your question in the fireplace forum to get lots of opinions. There is such a forum on gardenweb. My neighbor had some sort of deluxe fireplace installed. Not sure if it was an upgrade or if he never had one. He goes through mountains of wood but says it heats his whole house. He has a family room with a cathedral ceiling that has an opening to the second floor hallway and since heat rises...I think he said he used 5 cords of wood. I'm not sure, but I do recall thinking it was a lot of wood and it wasn't free (maybe one batch was free). I don't know how healthy that is to heat your house all the time with wood. Maybe it has doors and a filter...I don't know. He just got his gas bill and it was $50. Mine was $115, but I did have my mother-in-law here for a week with her "thin" FL blood so we had to keep the heat at 70-72 rather than 66-68. Neighbor and I both have tankless water heater. You might consider wood as a cheaper back up option and also ask on the other forum about a unit that can use gas and/or wood. That's what I would do if I had the $. On another note...MY gas usage on the current bill was higher than last year. Last year we used 65 ccf for a 28 day bill period with avg temp on bill listed as 49.6 This year we used 82 Ccf on a 33 day cycle with a temp of 45.5. The longer bill cycle, lower temp and mother-in-law makes it hard for me to see if my 97% heater,air sealing and tankless SAVED me anything over my old 91% furnace without air seal and my 57% water heater. I have to wait for a bill cycle that more closely matches the temp etc to tell if it helped or not.