re: Pistachio Trivet

In general Ohio is fertile, and most things grow here provided they fall into the temps ranges. In a Tx neighborhood I am not sure where they haul in fill from, but it is a largely arid state, and a lot of what freely grows there is pretty scrappy stuff. Redbud are specific need, and we have scads of them. However they all grow self selected, and wild. You see them all along the freeways, tucked into wooded hills. Planted they are as stubborn as a planting can be.

Dad had about the greenest thumb of anyone I knew in my life, and he wanted a redbud in his yard something awful. He never could get one to grow, in his richly tended soil, Mothering them until they died. When Peg and I built in the country at the first "place" I threw one into a planting I popped in around the well head. Dad said it will never grow there, too crowded. Took off like a corn sprout. That thing is still right there, just dominating that planting, and has killed off all other growth I had in there, probably 40 feet tall, and 30 wide, truly a beauty. 

The biggest difference I could see beyond total indifference, was my soil was just the heavily fertilized farmland from our build site which had been farmed for centuries. I think it's all about them growing where they darn well please, rather than being able to coax them into being where you want them.