Strategies for restoring variegation to M. del. albovariegata?
mark4321_gw
9 years ago
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garyfla_gw
9 years agowoodnative
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Favorite tree of California
Comments (78)kerrican2001(z9b CA), nonaberrie(sf bay area), sandylighthouse(7), fruithack, teajm_yahoo_com Can you tell me more about fig trees? Ive never noticed them up here in the SF Bay as much as I did in Venice/Santa Monica in LA. Which varieties do well here? Do they grow tall? Can they be pruned so that they grow tall and stay narrow? I have a small front yard that is mandated to have a tree and I just cut down our existing one and am considering putting in a fig tree on both sides of the driveway. ( I started a separate thread in this subforum for it as well)...See MoreUsing Design-Seeds....Part II
Comments (110)No I don't have a design background at all, other than what I learned from watching Christopher Lowell or Lynette Jennings. But my mother was a sewist and she made all my clothes when I was growing up...I used to design my own wardrobe, pick fabrics, mix and match, and she'd make it for me. I was also allowed to decorate my room as I wished (including having the mattress on the floor in my "hippie" days) and it was great fun. I've always been sensitive to my environment and needed my surroundings to feel comfortable and be well balanced. It's so funny as the principles for the exterior are the same as the interior, but somehow decorating porches and patios or landscaping are beyond me. Somehow I do so much better when the space is defined by walls. I had a similar reaction when I was working on this house and had to select tile. I can walk into any fabric store, no matter how large, and feel quite comfortable despite the cacophony of pattern, texture, colors....but when I started selecting tile, I was confused and struggled with where to look and how to put it together. I realized it was because the fabrics are "done" but tiling a room is like designing the fabric...you are selecting the colors, the patterns, the textures to put together to create the "fabric" if you will. Once I realized that, I got a lot more comfortable and did better. So I think applying your color, pattern, texture skills is the same thing, only in reverse...I had to learn to go small, you need to find a way to go big. Once you realize it's all the same thing, you'll be more comfortable with it....See MoreFicus elastica - droopy leaves and leggy
Comments (42)As a bonsai practitioner, I have to know a LOT about how plants work in order to be successful. Technically, a new leaf cannot grow from the bud in question, only a new branch with the potential to give rise to many leaves can grow there. In every leaf axil (an 'axil' is the crotch formed by the leaf stem [petiole] and the branch the leaf is attached to) and above every leaf/bundle scar (the scar directly under the bud in your image), are a row of latent buds waiting to be stimulated to grow. In healthy trees growing outdoors these buds produce random branching whenever growing conditions are very good. Trees growing indoors, due primarily to lack of light and inadequate air movement, often need these latent buds to be stimulated chemically into becoming active. I'm not talking about them being stimulated by actually applying a chemical stimulant; rather, I'm referring to the change in the plant's chemistry which occurs when the growing tip of the branch is removed. This area at the tip of the branch is called the branch apex, plural is apices, or it's often referred to as the apical meristem. Primarily in that area of the branch, a chemical, auxin, which suppresses activation of these buds is synthesized. Auxin moves only downward toward the roots, so removing the the apical meristem where it is primarily synthesized sharply limits auxin flow and its suppressive influence on the axillary buds we're discussing. This allows another chemical (cytokinin) to become dominant, and one of it's jobs is to activate the axillary buds. This antagonistic balancing act between auxin and cytokinin is the chemical relationship on which almost all pruning strategies are based. This is a Ficus microcarpa cutting from which the apex/apical meristem has been removed. since that halts almost all synthesis of auxin, new branches are forming in the axils of both mature leaves. As these branches develop, many single leaves will grow along the new branches, and they too will have a row of buds in their axils, or if the leaf is shed, above the scar left where it was attached (what your image shows). So, leaves that form at nodes while the branch is extending will always remain a single leaf - like the two mature leaves in my image - they can never be anything but a single leaf. All growth that comes from the dormant buds in leaf axils or (the same) dormant buds above old leaf scars, will always be branches. BTW - these buds remain able to be activated at any time during the tree's life, even if the scars are no longer visible and bark growth has completely obscured the older leaf scars. Questions? Al...See MoreWEATHERMAN DRIVING ME NUTS
Comments (79)It looks like a hurricane came through up here. Broken trees everywhere. I do not know how or why I have power. All my neighbors are without. I have started the trimming. Some to thin what remains to save it from more ice and snow. The wind last night brought more down. But I can't tell if we got wore ice. The branches off to the left are goners too. I have a 15' Madrone tree under this mess. It is snapped to pieces under these large oak branches. Ahh the life of an understory tree. I clean up everywhere I look ahead of me. WE lost every limb on a large live oak. God; it is so sad.I wanted to moan with the wind last night. I just looked on the radar and I see another mass headed our way. I hope it is snow. My large 6' agave porto americana is puckering....See Moremark4321_gw
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