Have you been to the National Arboretum in NE Washington, DC? 10 minutes from the capitol. We were just there three weeks ago. An amazing collection of many bonsai, penjing, suiseki. When we were there, there was a juried show of ikebana. The extrordinary bonsai (several are gifts from heads of state from their personal collections) are in a series of pavillions and gardens, including a Japanese stroll garden, a walled Chinese garden, a Chinese scholar's room and an exhibition hall and open-air display areas for the bonsai. Have a wonderful trip! PS - You might get more responses if you post this in the discussions side of the forum.

Yes Fran, 5 or 6 out of 25 would be a good number,outstanding even. As for blooming and Bonsai quality tho, it was an intense effort for one year/season by them. After the display I'd bet they just pitched them. Many times, for a display like that, the plants are 'forced' to make sure they are ready for the display. Then, once they are bloomed-out, the energy to make it through the dormancy period is gone. I would try to make one decent one for our socitys' fall dinner once in a while. They were always 2nd year plants. One year to grow and styled then not allowed to bloom. The second year they would get the final styling then allowed to bloom for the raffle. The bad news is that after all the work one of these would live maybe 4-5 years at the very most. You will probably make a very nice Mum Bonsai but, it is very labor intensive. You go...hey...we want pictures!!! There is a ton of information about this on the web and, pictures to look at for style. Bob

I'm pretty sure it's something other than tea or tea bags, unless they're borrowing the bags and perhaps filling them with a nutrient or insecticide (imidicloprid - Merit/Marathon?). Here's something I wrote a while back about coffee/tea: Forum discussions frequently center on the question of adding dilute coffee/tea or grounds to plants as a 'tonic', but Arabica (coffee) and Camellia (tea) are known for their toxic alkaloid (caffeine) content and their allelopathic affect on plants as well as autotoxic (poison to their own seedlings) effects on future generations. Caffeine interferes with root development by impairing protein metabolism. This affects activity of an important bio-compound (PPO) and lignification (the process of becoming woody), crucial steps for root formation. We also know that the tannins in both coffee and tea are known allelopaths (growth inhibitors). There are ongoing experiments to develop herbicides using extracts from both coffee and tea that cause me to want to say they might serve better as a nonselective herbicide than as a tonic. I would not use either (stale coffee or tea) by applying directly to my plants - especially containerized plants; nor would I add tea bags/coffee grounds to my container soils. Al

Bump down.