Devon, what an update. Glad to hear that you are through the treatments, but still battling grass!!

I guess you won't have a bed full of amaryllis year round in Idaho! I held off sending you bulbs last year till I heard you had it all under control. Now I know why you didn't have time to respond. Just when you get the house rebuilt after the fire, you are leaving it. Well, guess it's progress, right?

I don't have any nut seeds to share, but would love to see some pictures once you get moved and settled. It will be different than Arizona for sure!! Safe travels! Kristi

Thanks life will definitely be different my beautiful brown desert will be gone at least from my few. It seemed like our lives were turned upside down between the fire, cancer, and the birth of numbers nine, and then my bro moved now If I can make it work I plan on following him.

I am a bit worried about my flowers I planned on taking 1 of each variety with me and sharing the rear with family and friends that live here. Maybe they'll fall in love with them like we all have.

Hi Devon!

It's good to hear from you, some of us wondered where you were and we missed you! So sorry to hear about your health issues, it's been a trying year for many of us for one reason or another but nothing as bad as what you've been through. So glad to hear that you're better and starting a new life with lots of acreage! I can't think of anything better for a large family like yours, your kids will love having lots of land to roam around.

I'm not sure if I've got any seeds for you but when it stops raining I'll look for some acorns from our oak trees. Some years they don't produce any acorns but this year I think they did. The squirrels plant dozens of them in the lawn thinking they'll be able to find them when the snow flies and they are hungry, but they never do and in the spring most of them come up as tiny trees and get mowed over by the lawn mower. I'll see what I can come up with, but it may be too late.

Some years we have beach nuts from our copper and green beaches but it's been a few years since they have produced any. Maybe next year.

Best of luck with your move and good luck digging up some of your bulbs. You will have to resort to pot culture like so many of the rest of us do and it's doable, not as easy as planting right in the ground but doable!

Donna☺☺☺

I've got Black Walnut trees in my backyard. I'll walk around and see if there are any walnuts in the ground left. The squirrels love em. Maybe it would be a good idea to research on which trees do well in Idaho.

Devon, plant a shagbark hickory tree so that you can make syrup from the bark. YUM...AMAZING!!!

Nice to meet you and i am very happy that illnes has gone away and now you are busy planning to grow an orchard, what a beautiful proyect! Black walnuts and shagbark hickory tree sound really good. We used to live up in the hills, the area was relatively cold and damp due to its altitude, back then we had a pear tree, it got more gorgous every year, every x-mas the tree turned pink, coral, vermillon and orange. Then we moved to Aguascalientes, we have a bigger garden now and i am trying to grow pear trees again, different varieties, but i dont know if that's going to work.....the weather is very hot and dry during the summer here...i have two sweet almond trees, 2 peaches, warner and white, they are ok, just ok.....maybe my orchard just needs more time....i wanted something like Oscar de la Renta´s pear tree orchard....with lots of hippies on the ground of course.

Unfortunately, when one sets out to grow orchards, they are usually planting for the enjoyment of possibly their children and most definitely their grandchildren. As you have 9 children, in your old age you will most surely be surrounded by lots and lots of family, many who will remember than Dad planted this tree and that tree. Lots of happy memories to be made with this project with all your little helpers pitching in a bit too. You're still young, so you should at least be able to enjoy the harvest from some of your fruit trees!! Apple pie anyone?? ;-)

Donna☺☺☺

Apple pie? Me! there´s nothing like the taste of an American Washington state apple, Granny Smiths if we are talking bakery..... I friend from Argentina who lives in Mexico hates Mexican apples! Let me explain: he loves Mexican mangoes, guavas, zapotes, papaya.....tropical fruit, but you just need the appropiate temperature for certain trees. On the other hand, you always want what it´s hard to get and no one has. It could be very easy for me to grow bugamvilias, but i hate them, i want Japanese wisteria on my walls, and it is very difficult to get them in Mexico.....but guess what? I like my apple pie with American apples from Washington state, and dulce de leche, p l e a s e . And for tomorrow pastel de guayaba de Calvillo, Aguascalientes.

I'm a sucker for Yellow Perdrigon, a small plum. I think it sets fruit rather quick and can be grown as a shrub or a small tree. They are common here in Germany, you often find them alongside roads, but would be quite exotic in America, I reckon. ;)

I guess I'll have to try and add that one to the list see if I can get hey bare root plant, or seeds unless you know of someone that sells them online

Hi Devon,

I think it's rater untypical find. My favourite german retailer has them listed: http://www.deaflora.de/Shop/Mirabellen/

But, they'll only ship seed worldwide. Maybe you could get in touch with them ...

Next year I could go on the lookout for you ... I once tried to grow them from seeds but had no luck, maybe due to the age of the seeds I collected.

So I just went on a search for Mirabellen plums and boy am I intrigued. without your help I'm sad to say there is probably no way I could get them here this is what I found .

Mirabelle plums

Banned in: All states (Federal ban)
These plums are a protected-origin fruit hailing from Lorraine, France, and they are rarely seen stateside due to some bizarre import laws (though that hasn't stopped a few renegade seed-smugglers from growing their own). But whatever! We have our own plums, and they’re plumb tasty.

Now reading this it doesn't say the seeds are illegal just the fruit so it hasn't persuaded me from wanting some, so if your willing I am.

I grew 2 pluots from seed, the fruit was yellow, skin and flesh, comparing these dinosaur eggs with Mirabelle plums is like comparing Koolaid with Dom Perignon. Anyway, my pluots grew very different...one with small light green leaves that i lebelled as a tree that is going to bear small fruit, and the other one with big dark green leaves, it almost died and has been in "intesive therapy"...what about that green British plum? , European fruit trees, so interesting, i whish we could grew cheeses!

Oh gosh, what have I started? :D

I hope they are not banned due to plant sanitary reasons, since they could carry viruses or fungi, even as seeds. In that case I wouldn't want to be that guy that brought a new disease to the states.

I will keep on the lookout for fruits next year. I have found lots of these in Poland, but am not sure about trees and shrubs in my immediate area. Like rosina says I don't know if it's worth to bother trying to grow them from seeds. Maybe even the ones that are planted alongside roads are grafted on wild Prunus spinosa ... if you want seeds of those, I could gather some. The "wild plum" is used for jam or liqueur, but only after the first frost, since it's really bitter beforehand. Those "Mirabellen" are already ripe in late summer and taste fantasic fresh from the bush ... but are also a delight as jam.

I have Sawtooth Oak trees and have had a HUGE batch of acorns from them. I could certainly find a few to contribute to a new orchard! I have worked hard at collecting and disposing them in the weeks past. I figure it's easier to gather the acorns when they've freshly fallen than next spring when they've worked their way into the ground and as a result sprouted. I have a Burr Oak too, but I'm not sure I've seen acorns from that this year. I also have Lacebark Elm trees. They are very pretty, but my goodness, do they produce seed! (and therefore are a pain in my back come spring/early summer when the gazillion seeds sprout in all my flower beds).

Whatever you could send would be welcome PM me and I'll send you my address

Regarding the Sawtooth oaks: About 10 years ago we had to travel to Virginia and on the way back we stopped at one of those rest areas on the highway in New Jersey and there was this giant, beautifully shaped Sawtooth oak, ( I didn't know what they were at the time) but there were hundreds of these gorgeous large acorns all over the ground. So like the plant person I am, I (my husband thought I was crazy), I picked up as many as I could throw in my purse and brought them home. I planted about 10 of them in styrofoam cups and had them in my windows and I gave another dozen or so away to a few interested people we knew. Unfortunately, at that time we had a few mice living in our house and during the night they were carefully digging up and eating all my acorns! It wasn't until several weeks later when one of the guys I gave some seeds to said that his had sprouted that I looked more closely into the cups and mine were all gone!!

There is a lovely tree growing on Martha's Vineyard, complements of me and every time I see this fellow he remarks on how beautifully the tree is growing!!

Just a silly story, I know...

Devon...I'm new to houzz and garden web. I can't figure out how to send you a private message. I assume that's what you mean by "PM me". Any tips?