Beautiful! Yes ge silicone ii for windows and doors clear. I notice that you are in zone 4. If you plan on leaving your totem out all winter you had better turn the black platees over so they don't collect water and freeze and break. I leave mine out. Kathy

I dont know about liquid nails but silicone is safe after it cures, most people I know have used it for years and havnt had problems, thats why its used in aquariums, as for disinfecting the dogwood....I guess if you can fit it into your microwave? that would work! =) I dont use wire to hold up branches in my set up, I just position it in the tank roughly where I want it, take it out of the tank, and remembering the position, mount the plants, then I sharpen one end up a bit, and stick it right into the foam where, as long as you stick it into the foam deep enough, it will hold strong, thats one of the reasons why I applied the foam so thick! (as one member noticed in my pics) =) It ends up looking like roots (with cool plants growing on them!) sticking out of the background. =)

Thanks so much for your feedback -- we had to make a fast decision about whether we were going to try to uninstall that molding before the glue dried. We decided to leave the cabinet molding as is. Funny how I never noticed that the light skirt is different from the cabinet molding -- now I'm wondering about that too ;-). We sent an email to Scherr's to ask about the crown molding and here is what they said (in case anyone wants to avoid our 9pm freak-out and plan ahead with your cabinets...) From Scherr's: "You have installed the fillers and top trim correctly, there is nothing odd about it. Occasionally we have customers order the fillers "L" shaped so they end up flush with the doors. This works too, but then the fillers need to be wider for scribe room, so there is a trade-off." I must admit that I don't understand some of what Scherr's (and some of you) have said, but fortunately DH does. Thanks again!

The plant I worked on today is F retusa, a VERY close relative of F microcarpa, your plant. They like the same cultural conditions, share the same growth habits, and would be difficult to tell apart if not for your gensing fig's unique (to the genus) root structure. It might have been sold as a bonsai or a pre-bonsai at some point, but the owner had no knowledge of how to tend to it, so just allowed it to grow - hard to say. The tree I worked was a leftover from a workshop our club had. It was a tree no one wanted. I've had it about 10 years and have altered it significantly through chops (cutting most of the trunk off, then training a branch upward as a new leader). It was only last year that I decided to train it as 2 trees. Eventually, the larger tree on the right will hover over the smaller tree in a mother/daughter arrangement. I'll repot it next summer into it's first bonsai pot where I can start refining it. Like yours, it's a strong (genetically vigorous) tree, which is why I removed a lot of leaves and cut the remaining leaves in half to slow it down. Limiting its ability to make food by reducing foliage volume limits internode length (the distance between leaves) and leaf size, both of which are desirable for bonsai. Good luck with your repotting and the recovery. Let me know if there is anything you think I can help with. I've spent time in Montana, the Bridger Range, Gravelly Range, Big Timber, and the Shields River Bottom, and loved every minute of it. What a beautiful State. One of my clearest memories was being on the ground while bow hunting elk, and ending up within 5 ft of a 42" plus Shiras bull moose in full rut who was raking the fresh blowdown I was using for cover. That was a scary moment, but still a fond memory of time spent in the mountains & foothills of your lovely state, which also has a way of making you feel humble while traversing its mountainous parts. Sorry to have wandered so far from the OT. Al