Scott: The best way to try to identify cherries is by the characteristics of the fruit, although many cherry varieties share common characteristics with others, so you may never know for certain the varieties you have unless you can find the person who planted them. Your brief question mentions nothing about the fruit, and not much about anything else. It is not possible to identify a cherry by looking at the leaves. There are sweet cherries, sour cherries, and sweet/tart cherries, and among these are dark red, light red, yellow, blushed, and just about everything in between. Sour cherries can have yellow or dark red interior flesh. If you were able to accurately describe the cherries your tree produces, which might take more than two sentences, it is possible someone could take a guess. Aside from this, many mailorder and online nurseries describe and often illustrate the cherry varieties they sell. So you might start by using your search engine to look at nursery lists. Since you live in Canada, you may be able to find descriptive information on cherries from Agriculture Canada, which publishes loads of information on fruit growing. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Heythere, Toni! I am so in love with the plant in your top pic. What beautiful coloring! Love the Dr. Seuss look about the big 2nd one, too. Nice, thanks for sharing them! I have 3 Dracs, the 2 from this discussion, and a corn plant that WM had on clearance this spring. I knew there was nothing wrong with it, it just wanted to get out of WM. It's grown a lot this summer, too. I think the big one making new tops out of the branches is about 35 years old. Nobody remembers when it joined the family. Is the Aglao/Dieff planted in the same soil as your marginata? Are you asking about the Philodendron? If so, yes, those 2 plants have been companions in the same pot for around 10 years. I cut pieces of it off all the time to keep the mass at a manageable level. It's really cool the way the philo has roots about 2 feet long that grow all the way down to the dirt. This summer the philo has started making leaves 3 times as big as they used to be. I've read how they go into adult phase upon reaching the top of a tree but didn't think this little tree would be enough of a climb for it. I don't allow it to get much higher than the point where all of the branches start breaking from the main trunk, and keep weaving it around the trunks and back down to the soil. Maybe a factor as important as height is security/bracing. It's got a good grip on the tree in several places. I feel like I'm in the tropics when I look at that pot. That philo came from my Uncle's funeral about 15 years ago, and has had a hard-knock life also. It came in a wicker basket planter with plastic liner from florist and although I knew better, I never did anything about making a drain hole or repotting it. About 5 years later, I had the basket hanging on a shady hook in the yard and the wicker broke (decomposed?) from filling up with rain water while I was away and I found the plant in a heap on the ground the next day. I discarded the roots and put several cuttings in water, gave a few away, and put one in the pot of the Drac tree hoping it would hide the soil. It started doing that right away and the cuttings in water did great and even got moved 800 miles but then got neglected and dried out. So you could say this tree saved the philo's life. At this point, I'm not sure which plant is supporting which. Like me, both of them seem to really like being transplanted to the south and drinking sweet tea.

and perhaps that is why she should ask in the conifer forum .. since the resident tree nut .. admits he is no conifer expert .. lol in conifers.. size ESTIMATES are generally at 10 years ... and if you divide any given number by 10.. you get a general annual growth rate .... and yes.. it usually has a range.. how it all works in your zone.. in your garden.. is left to fate.. and getting fully established ... carp.. now she doenst need to go over there.. lol .. screening really has nothing to do with spacing.. or annual growth rate.. its a function of how fast you want the screen ... do you want to wait 5 years for them to screen??? ... its all about instant gratification ... vs natural form ... ken

I get crushes on plants...........you know, when you become obsessed with a genus and have to have one of every variety you can find? It started with euphorbias, then moved on to clematis, hellebores, species iris, hardy geraniums and then when I shifted from my fascination with perennials, Japanese maples and dwarf conifers. Somewhere in that span of years were epimediums as well. Had maybe 20 or so different types in my old garden. Some epis grow/spread faster than others but overall, they are extremely well behaved plants that absorb real estate slowly. I'd consider them more colonizers than groundcovers, slowly increasing in clump size over the years. And if they ever get much larger than you wish, dead easy to divide and spread elsewhere or share with friends. And in addition to their good garden manners, fascinating flowers and shade and drought tolerance, they offer amazing seasonal foliage color too. My main regret in my new garden is that there is not more shade. I still have passions for hellebores and epis and have managed to squeeze in some that I can't live without but if I had the space, there would be many, many more. And just to feed any other epimedium addictions, check out Garden Visions.