I would not disturb the stunted trees if they are actively growing, but I would certainly manipulate them next spring before they wake up. You can either move them to better soil or go with a raised bed scheme of some sort. If you mound dirt over the graft union, the tree will very likely put on its own roots and become a standard size tree, or whatever, for that particular location that it is planted. Maybe that is just the ticket for more vigor, but when a tree is on its own roots, it could be many years before you see a fruit. Semidwarf pears: when a nursery puts a graft onto a rootstock that gives you a pear that grows 9O% of standard size, they call it semidwarf. The terms dwarf and semidwarf are much mis-used in the nursery trade. If you get a known rootstock on your own, like from raintreenursery.com, you will at least know what you have. Oh, standard size pear trees are gonna be big and uncontrollable eventually, not to mention take many years to bear. Plus most fruit will be unaccessable to people, as they will be 40 to 60 feet over your head! You will become intimately familiar with branch training and summer pruning in order to keep these monsters in control. Pyrus calleryana rootstock is highly resistant to fireblight. I am assuming fireblight is a problem on the east coast. Cooking pears that are fireblight resistant: Thats a tough one for me. What are other folks in your area growing? Maybe family-owned nurseries can tell you what is successful in your area. They might carry the kind of pear you want on the correct rootstock! Here is a link that might be useful: info on pears

Yup, it's Paris, France. And I'm so excited I can barely sit still. My poor coworkers, they've got another six months of this. Anyways, the first picture is awesome, though I think we might have a bit of a problem. They're a couple of blocks away from the place where I'll be staying... Maybe instead of a bouquet for my room, I'll get a Phal of some sort and then make a gift of it to my hosts... On the plus side, this isn't really a destination, just a stop to make while my friends are sleeping in or something. Which leaves room for more... Oh, I'm so bad. Thanks, Calvin. Julie P.S. OOS is making a group order from Exotic Orchids of Maui this fall. Details should be on our website in the next couple of weeks if you're interested, and I could send the Laelia alaorii at the same time.

I'm in San Francisco on holiday and brought SWMBO to Cookin’, the amazing jumble of vintage French cookware on Divisadero St that I posted about at the start of this thread. The door was locked with a hand-lettered sign: "Knock", which I did. A man opened the door and explained the store is no longer open to the public but only admits "the trade". Before I could break down in tears he said he'd give us ten minutes in the shop. We entered and I said I was looking for a 25 mm carbon steel Sabatier chefs knife (yes, I like my first one so much I want another one). We wriggled through the forest of enamel pots, vintage advertisements, hanging racks, small appliances from the 1970s, cases and boxes and reached the glass case holding thousands of knives. He rummaged around a bit, and then went to fetch the owner Judy. She looked exactly as she had last time I was there, and we started talking about French knifemaking, blade profiles, her trips to France, and where the best markets were. I don't have any reason to think she recognized me. There are people you just click with right away and for me, she is one. She showed me a collection of vintage mochi molds and Japanese pastry branding irons, and we talked about her desire to find a collector or museum to keep this set intact. We went into the back room and she explained her plan to install a kitchen for cooking demonstrations. By now I'd been in the shop for a hour and I hesitantly asked if there was a way to become a "trade member" to have access to her shop in future. "No problem, I'll give you a card.". So a little later I left with a business card that signifies something that I'm not sure what, two 25 mm Sabatier knives, and various pots and forks that SWMBO, who had been talking with the man, had decided I should buy. Oh, and three recommendations for hole in the wall food joints in San Francisco that I promised to visit. I love shops and people like this. I hope Judy and Cookin' last forever.

They've been making shrewd use of the social networks, substantially for recruitment. It seems to me that we need to do some serious thinking, to out-smart them. Bombing may slow them, but it seems to me that they want to lure us into sending more boots over on the ground, to confront them directly, as much of their propaganda says that every time the westerners have interfered in their area in the last hundred years or more it has caused more trouble for the locals ... which will help to unify many who don't care for us much, and give the radicals more support ... including more bodies not only in the local area, but in our bailiwick as well, to carry their guns and bombs. When we get blustery, as we have for the last couple of days ... it makes them look good in the eyes of many who are feeling dispossessed and hopeless ... thus to feel that maybe it would be a good idea to help them in their troublemaking. It seems to me that we need to play the situation in a much cooler fashion - it seems to me that when we get all hot and bothered ... it helps their cause. Which is the last thing that we want to do, right? ole joyful