Alicia, around here you can buy bags of long fiber dried sphagnum moss at garden centers -- I've even seen it at Lowe's, too. That's what I use. I just rub it through a strainer, the ordinary kind with a handle you can buy in the kitchen tools section of a grocery store. It's the same moss as florists use, just dried. If the potting mix stays too moist or drainage isn't sufficient, add perlite. Don't worry about the seemingly big size of the perlite relative to the tiny seed. The sphagnum moss (or live moss, like Mainegrower uses) gets the seed going and then it roots down easily into the medium below. It seems to me azalea seedlings likes a lot of oxygen in the soil and not too much wet. Once they get beyond a certain size it becomes less critical. The other thing to do is make sure your containers have as many drain holes as you can reasonably punch in the bottom. I use an ice pick and put maybe 20 sizable holes in the bottom of a 3" x 5" container. You want the water to flow freely out of the bottom. Soeur

Hi, Nell ... nice pictures. And thank you for asking the horticulturist about crossing flame azaleas. I did find some info about someone who had created flame azalea hybrids, and it said that the orange would tend to dominate any crosses. Since I already have an orange color that needs no improving, I don't know what my goal would be. Maybe if I could cross the flame azalea with another intense color, it would be fun to see what the resulting hybrids would look like. Or maybe if I could cross the flame azalea with an evergreen azalea I could see how that went. I have heard about colchicine, but I believe I read that it can be an unsafe substance ... I think there is a post here somewhere about using a certain weed killer instead of colchicine to induce the mutation. I've never tried anything like that ... but I do think about it from time to time. And I figured out a trick ... go to azaleas.org and search that site for the word "tetraploid", and you find references to tetraploid azaleas. I see a "Casablanca Tetra", "Road Runner", "Cream Ruffles", "Pink Gloria", "Anytime Tetra", "Guy Yerkes Tetra", "Hershey Red", "Chimes Tetra" ... and also a species "atlanticum f. tetraploid". If anybody here has any of these, I would trade for a budstick that I could force in a vase and get pollen from (things are still dormant in my area). Here is a link that might be useful: flame azalea hybrid

> Suitable outdoor trees will, of course, vary from area to area as they are dependent on local climate. > Any tree, shrub or bush that grows naturally in your area can usually be used, but there are some native plants that just do not lend themselves well to bonsai culture. > Certain trees may not survive your winters and others may need a winter rest (that your climate cannot provide) to survive beyond a year or two. > Some enthusiasts like to collect specimens in the wild. You must be very sure to get permission to do this on any piece of land that you do not own. > Sometimes you can find good material when a parcel of land is being cleared for development or a neighbor is replacing trees in his landscape. > The easiest way to find suitable material is to check out a local nursery. Most of the trees sold in the local nursery trade will do well in the area where they are sold. You dont have to shop expensive landscape nurseries. A garden center in your local discount department store may have some appropriate trees. > Pick plants with interesting trunks and nice bark. Small foliage is another desirable trait. > Trees that fruit and flower are very popular. Azalea, crab apple (malus), cotoneaster, wisteria, flowering quince (chaenomeles), firethorn (pyracantha), crape myrtle (lagerstroemia), honeysuckle (lonicera) and bougainvillea are but a few. Again, these may not all grow well outside in your area, so check with local nurseries or reference books. > If you live in a temperate climate some deciduous trees to consider are several types of maple (acer), birch (betula), some oaks (quercus), hornbeam (carpinus), ginkgo, bald cypress (taxodium), sweet gum (liquidambar), larch (larix), willow (salix) and Japanese grey bark elm (zelkova). > If you are looking for a tree for your first attempt at bonsai, you cannot beat the junipers. Most of the juniper species make good bonsai, are relatively easy to care for and do well in many different climates, except the tropics. > Pines are considered the kings of bonsai though pine culture is usually considered the domain of the more advanced grower. > Some other evergreen trees that have been trained as bonsai are dwarf spruce (picea), false cypress (chamaecyparis), holly (ilex), ivy (hedera) and boxwood (buxus).

Nearly all the native American species should do fine in Maryland given proper siting and soil. There are several online nurseries with many to choose from. "Cultivar" has become a somewhat imprecise term. There are a great many named native azaleas which were selections from the wild with larger, brighter blooms, increased vigor and adaptibility, etc. They are propagated by cuttings when possible or by careful cross pollination to insure that seed grown offspring are identical to the parents. They are not hybrids and just as "woodsy" and just as much a straight native species as any dug in the wild.