Stored energy
Feb. 13th, 2005 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumSpring has arrived, on catlike feet.
This is about the time for it, and I wish it were more sunny than grey today.
I measure spring by the bonsai. Well, the incipient bonsai, none of the trained plants survived the time I was away. Los Angeles is tough on them, they need lots of attention because the weather is so variable.
Friday I did some winter trimming of the wee things. I need to repot most of them (about a dozen). I also started putting my birthday present to use (I was given a trio of half-barrels, they are going to house grapes and small herbs) by repotting the Tokay. The birdshit grape (the seedling just appeared in a pot of tri-color garlic three years ago) and the labrusca I grew from a cutting (one of the stranger events I've done in botany. Cut a branch [one joint] with a leaf. Put it in a pot and water it. The leaf just sits there (like one of the plant creatures from Midnight at the Well of Souls) and doesn't die. Months go by. It just sits there and doesn't die. No growth, no wilting [no, not true, there was a side branch when I potted it] it just sits there. All through the summer it sat there. In Sept. it elected to send out some more leaves. The it went dormant for the winter.) Four years on and it was the first plant to hint at return. It needs to be repotted, and today it goes from a one gallon terra cotta pot to a half barrel. I have four cubic feet of mixed soil and compost, a half gallon of small pumice and, if I need it, about a quart of larger pumic (more if I raid the border between the driveways). Rain and dirt, the peasants' joy and trials.
Then to separate and repot a trio of wisteria (one of which may be dead, they are really in a lousy pot, but they volunteered and have been duking it out for light ever since. Interesting habits they've developed.
This is about the time for it, and I wish it were more sunny than grey today.
I measure spring by the bonsai. Well, the incipient bonsai, none of the trained plants survived the time I was away. Los Angeles is tough on them, they need lots of attention because the weather is so variable.
Friday I did some winter trimming of the wee things. I need to repot most of them (about a dozen). I also started putting my birthday present to use (I was given a trio of half-barrels, they are going to house grapes and small herbs) by repotting the Tokay. The birdshit grape (the seedling just appeared in a pot of tri-color garlic three years ago) and the labrusca I grew from a cutting (one of the stranger events I've done in botany. Cut a branch [one joint] with a leaf. Put it in a pot and water it. The leaf just sits there (like one of the plant creatures from Midnight at the Well of Souls) and doesn't die. Months go by. It just sits there and doesn't die. No growth, no wilting [no, not true, there was a side branch when I potted it] it just sits there. All through the summer it sat there. In Sept. it elected to send out some more leaves. The it went dormant for the winter.) Four years on and it was the first plant to hint at return. It needs to be repotted, and today it goes from a one gallon terra cotta pot to a half barrel. I have four cubic feet of mixed soil and compost, a half gallon of small pumice and, if I need it, about a quart of larger pumic (more if I raid the border between the driveways). Rain and dirt, the peasants' joy and trials.
Then to separate and repot a trio of wisteria (one of which may be dead, they are really in a lousy pot, but they volunteered and have been duking it out for light ever since. Interesting habits they've developed.
