shihtzu-4su, I understand your hubby’s concern. But Pip Squeek is so tiny (but demanding), he would not notice it (I am not suggesting a secrete trade though). Once it grows to be with half a dozen of leaves (1/4’ to 1/2” long) from a cutting, it behaves as a mature plant (1” high) starting to bloom. Talk to him, he would love it as well. If you are still interested, I will send a pair of cuttings to you for postage. By the coming fall, my Chantaspring will be ready for cutting. Let me know if you are interested. I do grow some plants of Lil Ballerina (mini). As having strict limitation to my growing space (my plants are now growing in 4” x 4” x 4” compartments), I can only grow microminis. Lil Ballerina is perhaps the largest plant in my collection. I am now looking for something such as: Tsunami, Midget series, Senk’s Fruit Fly, Vallarta Campanas Moradas, Flashy Trail, Lilla Blaklockan. I understand some of them are on eBay, but I have not had a luck, instead with growing interests in trade so that I could talk with other growers on those little guys. Anyway, those tiny guys generally require more of our attention. But once you grow them, you will see how attached you grow to them. Let me know.

I have the same problem with soils sometimes, they drain so fast that even a small spritz from my spray bottle leaks right thru the soil out the bottom of the pot and then I get iffy on if I should water it some more in case more of the water exited the pot then allowed for the plant to drink!! we all tend to baby our plants in some way or another I still gotta learn to take a step back myself but ive been doing better - I just gotta muster up the courage to separate and repot my baby plants that are still in the same pots with there mothers, its starting to get a lil crowded in a few of my mini 1.5in pots and im not sure they will be completely happy sharing a pot that size with anything growing bigger by the days! and oh, boy! I cant wait to get your e-mail and receive one of your babies ...(or 10 ;-) ..) lol, I forgot to ad my address so just e-mail me back and ill send you my info if and when you need it! I already cleared a nice lil spot for your plant to go and I will be sure to send you updated pictures!

At this time of year you can only plant things like claytonia, spinach, etc, the very hardiest of plants. And even then, only expect the claytonia to do any real growing. Unfortunately, for a winter harvest, you really need to have planted in August and September and let the plants get to nearly-harvest size before the really cold weather and lower light levels slow the growth to nearly nothing. This year I was late planting seeds so I only have a few mustard, spinach, and carrots, but I was able to find transplants of lettuce, chard, and kale that I put in the first week in September. The kale was hit hard by cabbage worms and aphids early on, but I managed to wash them off and left the cold frame open for a frosty night--that finally did the bugs in, and the plants look great now. The lettuce is a bit sparse because I have been harvesting heavily, expecting a really hard freeze (common here just before/after Thanksgiving), and the lettuce isn't as hardy as kale and spinach. I've never grown chard in my fall/winter garden, so I don't know how hardy it will be, so I'll be making a big harvest this weekend for some braised chard. In about February, start planting your spring greens in the hoop house, as you can get to it. We don't have much snow cover here, so I can get to my cold frame/hoop house just about any time. My fall/winter garden is in my front garden (the south side of my house) so I can reach it conveniently. As I said, I was late planting this year, so I don't have any turnips and winter radishes (I grow black Spanish winter radishes, although I intend to try some new ones next year), and not enough carrots or spinach. I haven't tried claytonia or corn salad, in spite of hearing good things about them. I plant peas in that bed in the spring to help it recover from the heavy feeding greens, then apply compost in late summer and start over again. My early spring garden is in the back yard, on a south-facing slope that is sunny before the trees leaf out, but shady during most of the summer and early fall (therefore not suitable for the fall-garden growing season). I have the ribs of the hoop house up already, but will only put the plastic on in late January or early February, depending on the weather. Hope that helps some Catherine

Ahh, I see :) -- well, similar styling guidelines would apply in that case. There's a small book I'd recommend: Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce Bonsai by Saburo Kato. It's published by The National Foundation, Inc (Washington DC).. and is distributed through Stone Lantern Publishing. The library may also be a good place to start, as you can read many bonsai books and study the principles/aims of pruning in general, as well as how all this relates to Forest plantings There are also a few bonsai forums on the net ( IBC and Bonsai Talk) including the one here on GW Jack