On Sat, 14 Jun 2003 20:08:38 GMT, (Shiva) wrote:

On Sat, 14 Jun 2003 14:22:54 -0500, dave weil
wrote:



Thanks for the info.

Can it be that I have not talked to you enough about DON JUAN? How can
it be?

Dunno.

BTW, the new blooms on Don Juan have been nicer than the first ones
(as I suspected they might).

This will be helpful as I start to train DJ on my
trellis, although it doesn't sound promising for the DJs that I have
planted under my dying cranberry tree. I should have probably planted
something that throws off a *lot* of long canes to wind up the trunk.
Maybe I'll drive some posts next to the tree and train them around
them and back to the tree to get some lateral growth going...

Dave, I have damned near NO experience with climbers except this Don
Juan and the Sombreuil planted next to it, which seems to grow the
same way. I don't know how others grow or even if there is a
difference except in length, vigor, that sort of thing. I just pretty
much just let these do what they do, benign neglect. I don't like the
idea of training anything, although, the reason for the benign neglect
is just lack of time. They are all in a tangle--the tangle is
presently about 10 feet wide but I regularly hack off parts that break
free and wave around. In any case, if you have this thing in full sun
and give it tons of water it ought to be leaping out of the ground.
Plenty of plant to do what you want with.

Well, this was all helpful stuff. I wasn't worried too much about the
little trellis, but the tree was something that I wanted to eventually
hide. Maybe I can work the lateral thing to my advantage by wrapping
the canes *around* the trunk of the tree rather than training the
canes *up* the trunk. We'll see.

Sombreuil has been an underperformer for me (mainly due to the lack of
afternoon sun I think) but that works well for its location, which is
fairly limited in size anyway.