May I pls. disagree abt keeping it moist? That's a sure recipe for rot. Place the leaf ON TOP OF, not in the mix, & just leave it there, & don't water 'til you see new growth which will either be tiny leaves or little tiny root hairs. Then, go easy on the water, these are succulents, which by nature hold their own water reserves (so when you don't water this, it'll continue off the moisture it's retaining in that plump, fleshy leaf). I'd suggest bright, indrect light.

simple pickup a bunch of celery at the grocer ... and look at it ... the CORE ... would be akin to the crown ... so instead of snapping off a celery stalk ... you would cut down and take a piece of the core with the stalk.. which in a hosta is called a petiole ... but i still dont know why you would need to massacre a whole plant.. to get 100 divisions ... when most of us would simply divide it in half.. or quarters .. and be more than happy with a few more plants ... i just dont understand the need for mass reproduction on the scale this process dictates ... that.. and its going to be 3 to 4 years.. before you end up with much of anything the size of a normal plant ... if you are lucky.. next year.. you will probably have the typical 2 to 4 inch TC sized plant.. that will need extreme TLC .... except for the 'experimenting' part of course ... there is never a down side to that ... i did it.. you may as well try .... i am just trying to set your expectations where they should be .. not some pipe dream.. that next year.. you are going to have multiplied momma as to size ... if you have one plant.. and you want 4.. simply dig it up.. wash it off.. and separate the eyes.. and make a few cuts [if you can not simply pull them apart ..... and cut it into 4 parts.. ibso presto.. 4 plants... WITH ROOTS .. and most likely.. near the size of what you started with .... BTW .. if you do the crown division ... something like ROOTONE will help.. not so much as for the rooting hormone.. but for the fungicide [make sure you buy the right one] .... if you cut into the crown.. odds are high.. that it will rot ... if fact.. if you arent already guessing at my predilection .. just go to the link.. and do it that way.. and skip this nonsense.. unless its just about the 'experimenting' .... whatever you do.. just have fun .... ken Here is a link that might be useful: are you aware of this.. and why not do it this way???

Well if you're on the wintersow forum than you'll have seen a few nods for JLhudsonseeds.net (shipping $1.50 and carries MANY of the drought tolerant plants on those lists, use the botanical name). You can probably also seed trade. Almost every drought tolerant plant requires regular water it's first year so you do need to plan that for your first summer. Low maintenance is ONLY possible if you kill all weeds first and mulch. Columbines will often bloom spring & go dormant over the summer without much water, but they'll generally live. With water you get a much longer bloom period. There are many heucheras (coral bells) - no pink, but is red ok? There's a firefly (red,) Dale's Strain (nice variegated leaf colors with cream flowers) or Palace Purple (deep purple leaves. white flower). They'll be easy enough to wintersow but grow slowly. All should fit in with their color scheme. Aquilegia (columbine) is VERY easy from seed and comes in all sorts of colors - yellow, white, blue or red - you pick, they'll all look good (just don't get a seedmix or you'll likely get pink!). Cerastium tomentosum (snow in summer Easy from seed, on their list further down) could be substituted for the ice plant as could serbian or greek yarrow. The coralberry gets 1 ft X 1 1/2ft or so - you could substitute penstemon husker red (for reddish foliage, has white flowers) although you won't have the "winter interest" the branches of a shrub would get you. For the redleaf rose, substitute another hardy shrub rose (not a climber) - you can find them in red, yellow or white easily enough. Looks like every color is already in the plan (currently the cream/white from the grasses) - so whichever color you pick should blend with the scheme.

Thanks, Lee. It's always nice to find out that someone finds value in the things we write. One would assume a nursery wouldn't over water their plants. In most cases, plants in nuresries WON'T be over-watered for a couple of reasons. One of those is that they are good at noticing signs that illustrate a group of plants need fopr water, or for just establishing an appropriate schedule on which to water. The second reason has to do with the fact that the plants often rest on the ground. When the pot is in direct contact with the ground, or if roots grow from the pot into the ground or through a ground cover cloth under the pots, the earth acts as a giant wick to pull excess water from the soil. If you use a soil that is capable of supporting 3-4" of perched water and you set it directly on dry ground, the perched water will disappear within minutes due to the wicking action of the earth. .... to clarify. Water when the skewer/dowel comes out free of dirt/dry looking? Yes, that's right. If you were checking daily or twice daily to get a 'feel' for how often to water, the ideal time to water would be the first time the tell comes out dry. IOW, you want to wait until just before the plant might experience drought stress before you water. With some species of ficus (like benjamina), you can clearly see or feel when the youngest leaves are just starting to lose turgidity. If you wait until then and pay attention to the interval since last watering, you can often establish an appropriate rhythm that should keep you out of trouble re over-watering. Do you have to use a new dowel every time? If you're actually using a dowel, you can cut a 4' piece in half & sharpen all 4 ends. If you're using a skewer, they're cheap, so why not use a fresh one after each moist pot you discover. Or, if you wipe the end off with a rag and wave it in the air between tests, it usually dries down enough that you can test a lot of plants with just the 4 ends from the single rod you cut in half. How much water do I flush it with? I usually suggest at least 10x the volume of the pot the plant is in; and if you err, it's better to err on the generous side and use more than 10x. How often do you do it? I use a soil that I can flush at will, and I DO flush every time I water. If you're limited to supplying small amounts of water to prevent soils from staying soggy for long periods, a thorough flush every 4-6 weeks is good. What do I use as the wick? Anything cotton? Cotton rots quickly. I prefer strands of rayon. You can buy a rayon mop head and pull it apart, or buy a man made rayon chamois and cut it in strips. Too, the nylon string ties used to tie onion or citrus bags closed very often work very well for drainage wicks (but not watering wicks). I have some of those that are 12-15 years old & still working great. Not all are created equal though, so discard those that don't work well. And do you tape it on the side of the planter out of the effluent. I meant to talk to you about the effluent. Your pot should be raised so it's above the effluent that collects in the saucer, or via other means, the effluent should have no pathway back into the soil. Reason: It doesn't make sense to flush salts from the soil only to leave a pathway right back to where they came from because the pot is sitting in the effluent. Here's how I do wicks: That covers how I do it before the planting is established. If the pot supports an established planting, I simply fold the wick over the end of a straight slot screwdriver and push it into the soil far enough that the short end is all the way into the soil. That holds it pretty securely initially and as roots grow around and into the wick, even more so. Is foliage pro 9-3-6 still your go to fertilizer? Yes. I might add a little extra K for some plants (tomato and hibiscus), but I basically use it for everything. I completely avoid any high-P fertilizers in containers. I consider a fertilizer to be high in P if the middle number (P) is equal to or larger than the first number (N). ..... it seems I will loose a bunch of leaves off the bottom. Is it ever possible to get that growth back? Yes. Once a leaf is shed, no new leaf will form in its place, but above the scar where a shed leaf was attached, there are dormant buds that can be stimulated to grow. The methods of activating these latent buds could easily fill a chapter in a book, so I won't elaborate. Back-budding will naturally occur if you can get the plant outdoors in full sun and plenty of air movement, fertilize it in what's called the luxury range, and make sure the root system is healthy and has plenty of room to run. You can artificially stimulate back-budding low on the trunk by notching or pruning the plant back hard. The hard pruning is especially effective when working with healthy plants at the peak of their food-making/photosynthesizing ability, which, where you live would be in June. Father's Day or the summer solstice are the easiest markers to remember. You mentioned the kids and learning. When I was a youngster, I went to a 1-room little red brick schoolhouse that had K-8 in the one room. Obviously, it was hard for the teacher to spend as much time with each student as they needed, so most of the time I read World Book Encyclopedia and anything I could get my hands on about animals or science. I only wish that the world of plant science would have got its hooks into me at a very young age. I hope your kids find something they love to do, no matter what it is, and have the opportunity to follow that calling. Al