Shelley, First, sorry that I misspelled your name in my first response. You wrote: "Here's a question: Crushed lava rock-what size should the bits be?" As in so many things in life the answer is, it depends. If you are serious abbot bonsai you should purchase/make a set of sieves or screens in various sizes. Without them sizing your soil or components will impossible. Now on to the question; I have a series of screens in progressively larger sizes. The smallest could be described as coarse window screen, about 1/16 square, whatever passes through this is literally dust and is discarded without a second thought. The next size up is 1/8 square; whatever passes through this but remains on top of the smaller size is retained for limited use. This size is really pretty small for most purposes, about the only thing I use it for is seedlings or cuttings, both of which will be transplanted in a short time frame. The next size up is ¼ square; whatever passes through this but remains on top of the smaller size is used for most of my trees. And on and on, it is up to you to decide the most appropriate size for various applications. Larger trees and conifers can be potted into a coarser mix. Vermiculite and Perlite are both in-organic soil amendments, I much prefer Perlite for most applications as the texture seems more appropriate for most of what I am doing. I hope that this answers some of your questions. Norm

when a tree is going way too far in its reproductive cycle.. the first thing i think of is this: its life is threatened.. and it MUST reproduce before it dies .... not really thinking it is going to die.. but is there any chance you have been in severe weather patterns recently ... extended drought??? heavy equipment installing a new driveway or patio ... what is different.. in the last 2 years.. that would cause this tree to produce so many seeds.. that you would actually notice???? ken

Yeah, it looks like the samaras were shed. Sometimes one windy day can carry them everywhere. They can hybridize. As Dax said, it is probably black maple. Black and Sugar can hybridize easily, and in fact, it's sometimes thought that the Sugar Maple cultivar 'Green Mountain' is actually a hybrid of black and sugar, but I don't think that has ever been proven. Sugar Maple, I believe can hybridize with any of the other "sugar-type" maples: Acer nigrum (Black Maple) Acer grandidentatum (Bigtooth Maple) Acer leucoderme (Chalk Maple) Acer floridanum (AKA Acer barbatum) Florida Maple or Southern Sugar Maple Acer skutchii (Mexican sugar maple) I don't know if it can hybridize with others, but I'm pretty sure it cannot hybridize with the other common Eastern maples, at least not the commonly found large ones (Red and Silver). I don't know if they're pollen-compatible, but the bloom times don't overlap, so it at least won't happen in nature. I also don't believe it can cross with Norway Maple (Acer platanoides), despite their superficial similarities, they're actually not that closely related. There may be some Asian maples they could cross with, but I'm not sure. Someone more knowledgeable can chime in I'm sure.

Hello, I have a Meyer zoysia lawn that has been established from sod for two years. It has been maintained organically since new. It was mowed once this year at the first of April. In the past week, there have been thousands of purple stalked seed heads coming up from the zoysia. I checked and they're actually growing out of the zoysia stalks. Their tops are about 2" above the grass. I didn't know Meyer produced seeds? Should these be mowed before they fully mature? If they mature, will they germinate elsewhere? Do I actually have Meyer or maybe it's Zenith or other? Thanks