The message
from Christopher Norton contains these words:

The elder I mentioned last year is doing well - while not exactly
traditional - it is in a proper tray, but the soil is humped, and the
roots cascade round a stone in the middle. The non-traditional bit is
that the soil is covered in moss and lichen.

And why would you call it non-traditional? The essence of Bonsai is to
make it look like a tree in nature but in miniture. Do NOT get caught up
in getting rid of the lichen and moss.

Don't worry - I started it there deliberately, with a very small species
of bitter cress and some pearlwort which crept in unbidden.

Imagine it is a solitary tree at
the top of a field with a gently undulating rise to it and surrounded by
a grass carpet. If you can see
the tree in your minds eye like this your on your way to the reality of
Bonsai.
I like the sound of the cascadeing roots.

It's a standard bonsai ploy (which I'm sure you know) - when the tree is
dormant, wash off the soil, snip a tap-root, if present, or divert it,
prune the roots if necessary, then arrange the tree roots over a
projecting stone, so that only the ends of the roots are in the soil.

I've put a pic borrowed from a book up at
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/temp/bonsai.jpg

Also from the book, the instructions for perpetrating the deed:

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/temp/roots.jpg

The advantage is that you can have a pretty fair-looking bonsai tree in
two years, while your more usual varieties are lagging well behind.

A rather poor pic of it last year (taken with a *VERY* cheapo digital
camera) can be seen at:
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/cobble/nursery.jpg - but the roots
appear much thicker than really they are.

Get that little electric box of tricks up and running and let us see the
elder. I`m full of curiosity.

I've got to get Win 2000 up and running on the other box - there's not
room on this one for the (better) camera software - indeed, there isn't
enough left for the ZIMACS database to pack...

....and I've got three drives in this box. (Loads in the other - the Zip
is K:\ - but C:\ is interchangeable. I've a Win 98, Win 98SE, Win 2000
Pro and Debian Linux, all separate HDDs in trays.)

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/