grade: pass! (No winterkill)

hardiness rating: 4

grade: pass! (No winterkill)

hardiness rating: zone 4

And the failures:

grade: DEAD

was it ants, drought, cold, or...all of the above? It tripled in size in five years, so it did thrive for awhile.

Two-year old mockorange in the front yard. No winterkill, and it’s about to flower.

grade: TBD

hardiness rating: 4 or 4b

This year’s experiments: above,

blackberry

hardiness rating: not here!

rating: zone 4

Very interesting to hear the Beta grape outperformed Valiant. I am hoping to try grapes one day, this info is useful.

I don't remember how long i've had a mock orange and it has never flowered. Makes me mad! LOL

I have had a mock orange in Zone 2b, it did flower and grew well. Must have just been the right spot.

Is it ok to say what I am growing out of zone on this thread?

I’m still scratching my head at what happened to my ‘valiant’ vine. Most of the oldest branches survived, but it just hasn’t leafed out that well and blossoms are few. I planted a ‘marquette’ grape as well last year, and it didn’t survive at all.

I’m sure mockorange needs to be planted in an area that gets 8 hours of sun per day. My 2 year old is now flowering, but that dead one is in part shade.

I planted these pears five years ago. ‘Early gold’, on the left, has great fruit but I can’t get more than 10 or 15 per year. ‘Ure’, on the right, had about 300 pears ladt year...mealy, sort of nasty pears. I planted them near the shed as I thought they were ‘dwarf’ trees. Oops!

Right: hackberry with winterkilled top. What the heck?! Note the apricot to the left (yes, yes, it’s too close), which escaped -41c unscathed. Sigh..,

conclusion: the biggest surprises are the southern US trees that have a very limited and local native range. I suspect that they once had a much wider range and that current hardiness ratings reflect current geographical range and NOT actual hardiness (ie. if it’s found in Kentucky, it must only be hardy there). I’d love to try Corkwood and Franklinia next year, and I will if I can find some seeds.

cool thread. Sucks about the sugar maple

Excellent, thank you.

Mid-season updates: grapes above. You can see that, despite being winter-killed to the ground, the ‘valiant’ has nearly recovered to its old height (and is bearing fruit). ‘Beta’ has only grown 10cm, even with no winterkill..,

Good for you David. I hand pollinated 6 burs of american chestnut for you. If there are any filled nuts, I'll save you some for your zone denial triumphs. Perhaps they will grow, who knows. It will be late Oct, so remind me if you still want some to try.

Jocelyn , in PEI