Something very low tech I have been experimenting with is a piece of black felt. It's more reflective than I thought, so if I continue with it, I'll try different fabrics. For this, I just cut a square and put a slit in it. I was trying to get some leaf shots. I also used a bigger piece as a background for some flower shots. I just laid it on the hosta and shot from above. (I can't find it, so I must have deleted it for poor quality.) bk Here's a leaf shot from So Sweet.

I wrote a long reply to thank everyone over a week ago- twice!- and it evidently disappeared into cyberspace because it never arrived here. I could comment on other posts but not this one. Also, the little "back" arrow that returns me to the top of the page disappeared from my screen for a couple of weeks. It's enough to give me a complex! The arrow is now back and functional so I'll try again. Thank you for your kind wishes for Katie, our foster Sheltie. She was feeling much better after several days. Katie has a tendency to eat things that aren't food. I try to be vigilant but Katie is quick and stealthy. About all the wonderful pictures and suggestions- many thanks for these. You've enabled me- and many others, I hope- for years to come. I had to look up a few of these on HMF. I hope that they will be commercially available in the future for everyone who can find some space. I've had Charles Walker Mignonette from my last order from Vintage before it closed. It's a super little polyantha, my first rose to bloom this spring, super healthy, hardy, darling pompon white flowers blushed pink in cool weather, generous bloomer and tough. Mine survived having the bird feeder fall on it twice and, while it's shorter and wider, it's none the worse for wear. I hope more people will find a little room for this one. It doesn't take much. I've had Lady Ann Kidwell, Souvenir de St. Anne's, Gruss an Teplitz, Madame Berard and Bouquet Parfait on my wish list. I'm sharpening my pencil to add Schmidt's Smooth Yellow, Mme Laurette Messimy in whatever form, Pompon de Bourgogne, and if we ever buy the neighbor's and demolish the outbuildings, Ghislane de Feligonde and r. mulliganni boulenger. Also Old Gray Cemetery Noisette. Nobody mentioned this one but they should. BTW Grandmother's Hat is in Annie's Annuals and Perennials catalogue. It says that GH is their most popular rose! I have no idea how many they sell, but it sounds like at least a few people were convinced to give it a try.

With any decent soil, inground plantings require very little in the way of supplemental fertilization - they get what they need from the soil. And this is even more the case if you mulch routinely with any sort of organic mulch. But with any plants growing in baskets, planters or containers of any sort, you will need to fertilize regularly. The reason for this is that potting soil is not 'real' soil and contains minimal nutrients. And the need for such frequent watering of these containers in summer will leach out any nutrients that may be present. Any sort of all-purpose liquid or water soluble fertilizer will work perfectly well for this purpose -your houseplant fertilizer should be fine. Typically for containers the recommendation is "weekly, weakly", meaning a half strength solution of fert every 7 days but many container gardeners water in fertilizer with every watering at a quarter strength or less. A controlled release fertilizer - like Osmocote - applied early in the season when the containers are planted up can also suffice and remove the need to fertilize so frequently with a water soluble product.

These are some of the tools I use for repotting. The tool that looks like a root rake to the right of the pruning saw is a root rake, can be had here for under $10, stainless steel a few $ more. The wooden tool made from a dowel rod looks exactly like a 'tell', which is used to check moisture levels deep in a pot, but this highly specialized tool made by sharpening a dowel rod in a pencil sharpener is filling in as a root-pick, which is used to tease soil out of the roots. The hooked tool with a wooden handle is a single prong root hook. It's used to untangle roots and can also be had here for less than $10. When I root prune, I comb out some of the roots, then snip them off, then repeat. When I'm done, there is a hollow in the root mass directly under the trunk where there are no roots. The tree, regardless of it's size, will have a root system that looks like it will fit over an over-turned soup bowl, or for trees older than 25 years, the root system might be flat. When I pot the tree, I mound the soil in a volcano shape, set the center of the roots on the peak and rotate the tree back and forth to settle the soil into the hollow before adding more soil and working it into all air spaces in the roots with the root pick. If you stick the tapered tip of the root pick in beween roots and rotate the end in your hand in a circular motion like you're following the rim of a funnel, you can watch the soil settle into the roots like it's going down a swirling drain. Strong work, JS. If the last image in the OP shows what the root mass looked like before it was repotted, I'd have pruned roots tight to the bottom and removed all the long roots sticking out of what's left of the root mass. You might even have done that, but I thought I'd make the suggestion. Al