[IBC] June is bustin' out all over . . .
 

And it's only mid February -- barely.

Spent most of the day today repotting.

Redesigned my yaupon holly saikei, adding a small Satsuki azalea
to the cave entrance and some fern to the valley.

Moved "Mirkwood" (my Chinese elm forest) from an unattractive pot
to a stone slab, cut the number of trees down from 13 to 9 and
made it quite a bit better looking. (Of course, it couldn't have
gotten LESS attractive!) FYI horse manure and hay compost makes
GREAT muck!

Potted a pyracantha mame cascade into a white Tokonome pot. Will
wire this summer, then will have quite a nice little cascade.
(It's too small to allow to bloom, I think -- only 3 1/2 inches
long -- but we'll see.)

Put a left-over from the redesign of "Mirkwood" into a nice mame
pot that Nina gave me. Has promise.

Repotted a windswept Satsuki from a too-large mica pot to a nice
shallow oval made locally. Will have to keep an eye on it,
though. The large mica pot stayed too wet and the roots did not
look too happy. I bare rooted again. Not good 2 years in a row.
Morning sun and afternoon shade for that one all summer, and VERY
judicious watering as soon as I learn how the new pot/soil combo
handles water.

Repotted several of the old mame privet that I'd de-potted for
the winter so they could spend the cold months grouped in a large
bucket of soil and pine bark. They'd all grown tons of root over
the winter, and were in super shape.

Repotted 4 pears -- 2 mame and 2 shohin that suddenly were
_bursting_ into leaf. One of the shohin may bloom this spring!

I'm dirty, but happy.

Have several more Satsuki to give their first root job and
pruning later in the spring. Still have a hornbeam forest that
needs a couple of trees replaced, and I need to reposition my
large boxwood "live oak." Other mame need the first of their
twice-a-year repotting as soon as they show any signs of leaves
or swelling buds. So there's still lots to do.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden

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