Has anyone used OIL DRI - I remember many years ago - we would keep a bag of oil dri in the garage to sop up oil spills. It was tan just like profile - and it was pretty cheap. WOnder if it will work? So then I looked it up on the garden web, and saw this thread - I cut and pasted it below. ANd list the link Greetings All: The list I have posted below, I found on another Bonsai Forum. I use Turface, made by Profile. If you check out their website,you can call the 800 number and they can tell you where you can locate the nearest supplier in your area. Good luck, Goz Soil Amendment sources: Profile Turface www.profileproducts.com and www.turface.com TXI Diamond Pro Diamond Pro is described as an expanded shale and clay. www.txi.com and www.diamondpro.com Oil Dri Soil Master & Terra Green www.oildri.com/agri/index.html and www.bonsaimonk.com for Terra Green (a bit expensive) Southern Athletic Fields Mule Mix www.mulemix.com Eagle Pitcher Play Ball & Axis Soil Amendment (both diatomaceous earth PLUS products) www.eaglepitcher.com/Filtration_Minerals/Products_services/Scroll to Axis Soil Amendments and Play Ball Stabilizer Solutions Stabilizer www.stabilizersolutions.com Lots of fun - Mike Here is a link that might be useful: Oildri

Do a web search for the price of casters! I thought I could make dollies myself, and cheap out, but OMG!! You will be in shock at what they cost. Obviously these things at Big Lots were made in Asia at a reduced cost, but 4 casters will definitely support 120+ lbs. Easy! They had a couple styles. One looked like a spiral of stainless, and one had a wrought iron look. But you would not be able to see the thing with the plant on it, so cheap is good!! My Big Lots is pretty new and they have furniture also. Their garden dept is pretty big. Look for a newer Big Lots. I'm going to start a thread on this because a lot of folks have trouble moving their big pots. I love your hypertufa experiment! Rock on!! Suz

Hahaha, that's hilarious Al! I took a closer look but I couldn't identify any pinwheels or butterflies or alphabet letters in your pics. I have someone on the hypertufa forum telling me she doesn't bother drilling drain holes because the hypertufa wicks water away just fine without them and her plants do great long-term in her pots. I wonder if different recipes have different effects as far as whether they "breath" or "wick"? I am trying to find out what recipe she is using to figure out why hers wick and mine don't seem to.

This spring's small conifers included some dandy ones. One I never heard of, looked kind of ordinary, until I got home and checked what Diselma archeri is: Glad I picked it up, because according to van Gelderen & van Hoey Smith, its "a very rare conifer from Tasmania, seldom seen in cultivation." Strangely enough, its supposed to be good to Z6 -- which seems odd for Tasmania, but is better than some of my other small plants, like the Cunninghamia konishii and Podocarpus totara, I mentioned above.... They also had a bunch of dwarf mugo pines -- I picked up 'Michelle', 'Teeny' and 'Moppet'. From the photos I've seen, I never did much like Cryptomeria japonica 'Tansu'. But the little one they had looked very interesting, in real life, so I picked up one of those too.