I have seen the NIP growing in Florida too. It's odd how they are in an outdoor setting, vs indoors. The needles change in orientation, upward outdoors and downward indoors. I thought mainland Florida would be too cold for them, but I saw them growing there, as well as the Florida keys. Joeinmoe, how do you coat them? You surely aren't covering NIP, planted in-ground in your yard and overwintering them each year? Are you covering them with ice or I have really misunderstood your post? I've had a bit to drink so am more dim-witted than usual. I have 2 "hardy" palms in-ground, which are covered. I have one that is potted, which is indoors. That would be great if have overwintered NIP, in-ground, joe. If you have time go look on the Tropicalesqe forum. There is a guy on there that kept a palm alive for many years in zone 4 Utah, I THINK. He finally couldn't do it anymore, it got very large. I would say 10 ft tall before he stopped covering it. His posting name was Arctictropical, I am 80% sure of that. He had covered them with a styro box and used lights wrapped around the palms. If you have some spare time look on the Tropicalesque forum. Arctictropical I am pretty sure is the name. If not it is similar. Boy, I have gone really off topic here. The posts about the overwintering of some hardy to zone 7 -8-9 may take a while to find, but the guy on here has done it in zone 4, for years. That is until his windmill palm, zone 7 hardy got too large for his enclosure. I have 2 palms in the ground, I already mentioned, but it is only covered by burlap. I may try to overwinter a palm or 2 in the winter of 2014-2015. I will have to use those that grow slow close to the house. Has anyone over-wintered any tree for several years by covering/ artificial means for more than 4 years?

sergnic - what part of Italy are you living in? Are you in the city or out in a rural area? I see mentioned in, "your page" that you are a botanist. I am very interested in more input from you concerning the types of figs grown in different parts of Italy. I have been there quite a few times. Many in the spring of the year when the figs where not ready to eat. I had to fill up on the Nespoli. My family has a farm in the Cilento, Campania area just south of Palinuro a sea coast town called Marina di Camerota, Italy. There are many different type of figs and other fruit growing there. This year we are planning a September trip. I should be able to get my fill of ripe figs during this seasion. I plan to ask what the names of the trees are take photos of them and also have a notebook to write down what my relatives tell me about the figs and other type fruit trees they are growing. My one uncle even has some sort of banana tree growing in his yard. How I wish I could take along home with me just small rooted trees of all sorts. Living in northeastern Pennsylvania Zone 5 makes it a bit rough but I still would like to try other trees I have seen growing there. I know other people using this forum would feel that way as welI. I have seen what some people have told me was a grape vine that they called a, "strawberry grape". Are you familiar with that type of fruit? I will be looking forward to whatever you can contribute concerning the questions I posed to you. Regards and thank you Tanti saluti Lou NE., PA

@pjb448 yep! Prices aren't too bad with shipping at XLB: https://shop.xlbpalmtrees.com/products/kumaon-palm-wagnerius?variant=16508827909. Note these are wagnerianus trees. It says /Takil but he doesn't actually sell any Takil trees, he's just mistaken by the old Waggie/Takil confusion. Pictures are of Fortunei plants which is also weird, but as a customer I can verify they are indeed Wagnerianus. An alternative is Montreal Palms (http://montrealplants.com/?s=wagnerianus&post_type=product). The trees aren't as big for the price and larger trees cost much more than at XLB. Shipping is extra and he doesn't give you an exact figure - you don't know until your card is charged because he charges you close to cost for shipping and doesn't know what the cost is until he brings it to post - it's based on weight. From my experience buying smaller trees makes more sense from Montreal palms, but bigger trees are best bought at XLB, provided they have the species and size you're looking for, economically speaking. I know that XLB will charge maximum $250 shipping to the US, so you can order as many trees as you want if you're buying enough to exceed $250 in shipping costs. The downside is that the minimum shipping cost is $50, so buying 3-gallon trees on their own is usually a waste of money. I don't know if there is a maximum per order at Montreal palms as I haven't bought in bulk from there yet, but I do plan to this coming Spring. I want some of his 10' needle palms!

I wanted to stop back and update this post. Of the roses that were damaged last year, all but one (Earth Angel) recovered thanks to y’all advise to soak the roses and then pot them up and keep then in a protected, shady spot. This fall, I planted allium and fritillaria bulbs along ghe edges of the bed and near roses. I had read that the pungent smell made it hard for voles to find their preferred food source. I can report that I have had zero vole casualties this year and have not noticed any ”mysterious” holes dug in the garden. So far I’ve found the results encouraging! Fritillaria uva-vulpis it’s not pretty, but it seems to do the trick. 🙃