The All-America Rose Selection committee is a non-profit association of rose growers and introducers dedicated to the introduction and promotion of exceptional roses. AARS operates a nationwide network of 20 official test gardens located throughout the country which represent all climate zones in the U.S.

New rose varieties in the AARS trials are grown and monitored for two years, receiving only as much care as would be given in the average home garden. This sophisticated evaluation process results in a new crop of AARS winning roses each year, guaranteeing that only the best make it into your garden. The winners for this year are 'Carefree Spirit,' 'Cinco de Mayo' and 'Pink Promise.'

'Carefree Spirit' is a shrub rose that exhibits even better disease resistance, habit and blooming power than its award-winning siblings, 'Carefree Delight' and 'Carefree Wonder.' This vigorous, well-branched shrub rose boasts huge clusters of deep cherry red blooms with a white eye and yellow stamens over a very long season. A delightful and carefree addition to any garden.

'Cinco de Mayo' is a wildly colored floribunda rose that offers giant clusters of blooms containing every shade of red, orange, magenta, purple, smoke, and more! Each flower is unique, and a fully blooming shrub is a conflagration of festive colors, enhanced by a fresh-cut apple fragrance you will love. Just the right size for a low hedge, large containers, or mass planting, 'Cinco de Mayo' is a standout in any garden setting.

'Pink Promise' is the official rose of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. This exquisite hybrid tea combines all shades of soft pink on high-centered, perfectly formed large blooms. Arising on long, elegant stems just right for cutting, these lightly fruit-scented flowers convey the essence of romance and promise hope for a cure.

Outside of the easily-identified blueberries and strawberries, the world of berries can be very confusing. You have blackberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, and yellow raspberries. And don't forget boysenberries, loganberries and marionberries, which are all closely related. How do you tell them apart? Berries whose core stays intact are blackberries. Berries that lose the core and resemble a thimble are raspberries. But then...a few berries are a cross between the two!

The similarities don't stop there. All bear fruit on two-year-old wood, except for the ever-bearing raspberries that also fruit on first year growth. These are also called two crop raspberries because they bear a late summer or fall crop on the first year growth and a second crop the following spring on the two-year-old wood.

Different types of wood? What's that all about? Ok, it may help clear up a lot of confusion about blackberry and raspberry culture if one remembers that after flowering and fruiting, any cane that bore fruit dies back to the crown. All the new growth will rise out from primary buds just below the soil line.

Now here's the good news, blackberries, raspberries and any other favorites will thrive in most locations and soil types, but good drainage is desirable with most varieties. Just give them some room to ramble because they do like to spread out. As far as cold-hardiness goes, raspberries tolerate very cold temperatures better than blackberries.

Most berries like being fed at blooming time, with a follow-up feeding in early fall after the plants have finished fruiting. Just use a well-balanced fruit food such as Dr. Earth Organic 7 All Purpose Fertilizer. They prefer staying moist, and should be watered regularly if rainfall is insufficient.

The new canes that grow out each spring will not bear fruit until the following summer when they are two years old. After harvest, the two-year-old fruiting canes will start to die back and should be removed as close to the ground as possible without injuring the new canes.

In mild climates berries can be trained to stakes or trellises in late summer or early fall, after the fruiting canes have been removed. In colder climates, the canes should be left on the ground over winter--making them less likely to be damaged by cold. The ideal time to "spring train" is after the danger of freezing weather and before the leaf buds begin expanding.

We have berry plants that grow well in our local area. The bottom line is that all berries are easy to grow and they taste great. So don't stress about all your different choices. Just plant some berries and enjoy!

How should you prune a Japanese maple?

Answer:

Japanese maples can be lightly tip-pruned during the summer months to control new growth or runaway water shoots, but save the major pruning for December or January, when the tree is fully dormant. Do not prune later than February (or when the leaf buds start swelling), because the tree can bleed quite severely and become weakened.

All Japanese maples have "eyes" on the branches, where the leaves were attached during the growing season. These "eyes" are small half moon swellings, spaced every 1-3" along the branches. Each "eye" faces a different direction, rotating along the branches.

Pruning 1/4" above a particular eye will make the tree branch out in that direction the following year. You can control the shape and direction of the tree each year simply by deciding which eyes to prune above.

Avoid pruning beyond the previous year's cuts. Always allow at least 2 "eyes" of new growth each year to remain on the tree. Pruning more severely can lead to knurled and stunted growth, with many tiny shoots coming out from the same spot. If a large branch needs to be pruned to thin out the tree and allow more light, prune it completely off. Make sure to seal all cuts larger than 1/2" in diameter with a pruning sealer like Bonide Pruning Sealer.