Can I tease Mary?

[ninnymary]

Hunkie, that's a GOOD one!

Mary

 

[HunkieDorie23]

My son watches Alaska State troopers and they have towns like that on there all the time and they do not look like gardening towns. I could never live there. Montana would be pushing it.

 

[897tgigvib]

Hunkie, Montana is very doable gardening. That's why the experience of neighbors is so important, and experienced and wise persons at nurseries there is so important. (Nurseries in California have a huge list of species for the employees and owners to know. Montana that list is smaller, but they need to know all the growing tricks and tips, and to be able to say, no mayaam, Wisteria will not make it through the first winter, but Honeysuckle Vine or Silverbells are really fine, even tropical looking.)

A season from sometime usually in early June to usually sometime in September is actually pretty good for a lot of things. Some good number of folks push the limits and set out 2 or 3 month old Yellow Brandywine starts for example, and might have fence posts to drape blankets over the plants those first few light frost weeks at night. No need to be stuck only with early girl!

Even barely zone 4 has some glamorous and exotic looking plants! Valiant Grapes, a good number of apple varieties, some prunes, plums, even a couple Apricots. (((forget peaches though. we tried and tried))) the new bush roses from weeks are mostly zone 4 good and not grafted, so even almost hybrid teas can grow there. Tropicana hybrid tea grows good, and stays smallish.

You should see how resourcefull some gardeners are in Montana! Thin a Juniper just right and it looks like it's from Japan. Oriental Lilies tucked between, set in some Bishops Children red leaved Dahlias, and let one of the many creepers fill in...House hardly looks like it belongs in Montana!

One guy even added some hillocks, and put in a small stream, and a pump operated waterfall, set in flat wide stones, sets his bonsais outside

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

Marshall, have you tried a Reliance, Contender or Intrepid peach yet? those are supposed to grow down to a zone 4. i know they grow in my zone 5. you should also put them in a higher area of land since the cold that could settle at the lower portion of land does more damage.

 

[hoodat]

Marshall, I don't know where you'd get the seed but in Oklahoma I found that the Indian peach was very hardy and early. It was brought across the trail of tears by the Choctaw and Cherokee tribes. The flesh is bright red and sort of puckery in taste if you eat it fresh but it cans up great and keeps the bright red color in cooking.

 

[digitS']

Now, of course, Marshall is down there in California where he can grow just anything .

Me, I've had trouble with peaches in the past. Here are some peaches that I know grow in Kettle Falls and might be a good choice for either side of the Rockies: Red Haven, Fair Haven, Blushing Star.

I have a Tropicana rose by my front gate. It is probably the strongest rose in my yard. The variety does real, real well here for just about everyone.

Steve

 

[897tgigvib]

I'm sure when I lived in Montana that we tried all those varieties. Including also Saturn. Her list of attempted varieties was I think all of them...

But Hoodat! I know we never tried that INDIAN Peach! I'll get ahold of Big Roxy up there and tell her about those.

Dillon Montana's barely zone 4, which i no longer live at, has a VERY dry air winter. Often there in town the snow cover is not long lasting, and it often dips below minus 20 when there is no snow cover.

But I just KNEW there had to be a variety of Peach somewhere for southwest Montana.

Peach stems freeze. The buds die frozen. But, some variety of Peach with extra thick strms, buds that are drier, slower to open, roots that are rugged and large.

A Peach tree called Indian I would have remembered. I'll let her know about that one up there!