Excellent article, Olpea although some statements seemed dubious to me. "A mid-winter severe cold snap may not injure plants unless it is immediately followed by unseasonably mild conditions." That statement leaves me a bit puzzled. I probably should reread what preceded it, but it seems it should be the other way around. The suggestion that we "know" that fall pruned trees never achieve the same winter hardiness as trees not pruned seems like a stretch, based on the info provided- the evidence they referred to was only from peaches. They may have been basing it on other studies as well, however. Around here, peaches are considered one of the most winter sensitive of fruit species widely grown and growers usually don't touch them until threat of severe cold is past. i do know that there are Hudson Valley apple growers that send out their crews to prune immediately after picking and have done so for a very long time. It might be that it is very early fall where the problem lies or it may pertain only to certain varieties or only to other species or it isn't such a problem in Z5-6. I stop pruning trees sometime around mid-Sept and don't start again till late Dec as a rule.

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The weather really has been strange this year, we have had one of the hottest Junes so far, no rain to speak of (usually pours this month) we did get some rain last night. So far the Echinaceas are looking pretty good some are growing gangbusters, have lots of buds forming. Some are growing slowly but look healthy. I noticed last night Summer Sky, Double Decker, Sundown, Sunset, Razzmatazz and Magnus are the forerunners in my garden as far as good healthy growth and formation of flower buds goes. One of my favorites Twilight looks healthy, the small clump seems to have finer leaves and stems this year, I'm thinking it might need a smidge of potash. Echinaceamanic what are your thoughts on this? What do you fertilize with or do you not fertilize? I hope you are going to show us more of your seedlings this year, I remember one from last year it was awesome. Annette

Posted by jennmonkey: What I refuse to touch are those old fashioned ones where the same piece of material just keeps coming back around, having dried by the time it's back to the front. You don't really believe that do you? Or were you just kidding? Sometimes I can't tell when people are just joking around. The machines have a CLEAN roll inserted that is many feet long. As the towel is used it is wound on an empty spindle. When the clean one runs out it is replaced with another clean roll. The dirty roll is removed and and empty spindle is put in its place to which the end of the clean tool is attached. I prefer those cloth hand towels. They don't wind up all over the floor and sinks like paper ones do. People have been known to throw the paper hand towels in the toilet thus clogging them. The air blowers blow germs all over the room and you have to stand there forever waiting to get the hands dry while people wait behind you to use them.