Veronica, you only use a tiny amount of salts, I just put a sprinkle in the melt. It's all locked up in the glass (much like synrock) and should be completely safe (those old fasioned blue bottles are made with cobalt, a normally quite toxic chemical). So I don't think they would affect the concrete in the slightest. fairy_toadmother, what do you want to know? I did it years ago when I was living at home and had access to a blowtorch. But it is fairly strightforward. I don't know where you get good crucibles, I was given mine from visiting an aluminium smelter. Perhaps you could make one from cement, or use a pottery container (stoneware pottery is usually fired at around 1400C, vitreous hotter still). Apparently glass melts at 1000 degrees C, and a normal butane/LPG blowtorch is about 1300 degrees C. I visited a glass factory when I was at school and they just used natural gas to melt plate glass. I had a quick look around and couldn't find any instructions on the web. The basic approach is the same as used for colouring glazes in pottery. Now I think about it, you can probably get suitable oxides from a pottery store for practically any colour. Some colours, Some more colours You can melt glass in a charcoal, coal, or briquette fire with bellows. Granite won't fade because it is coloured much the same way as glass (although with different base substances, often crystals rather than glass). The colours you get from these 'inorganic pigments' are very long lasting, unlike azo dyes commonly used in food colouring, pens, clothes etc. Granite does decompose slowly in the presence of water, but I wouldn't worry about it (it is slow enough that people make kitchen benches out of it!) or even bother with sealant. The granite will out live the sealant.

I just wanted to post that I was out at the National Arboretum a few weeks ago. The large Q. acutas looked like they sustained some damage from teh past winter. Some twig and a few branches died back. Sad to see. But they will certainly survive. The Q. salicina looked like it had NO damage at all surprisingly. I have never seen acorns on them. Interestingly the Q. phillyreoides had some acorns. No apparent dieback. They all looked rather shrubby to me and not large single trunked trees. L. henyri and Q. myrsinifolias looked just fine. Q. glauca specimens at the Arboretum have all had a rough go of it over the years. Numerous diebacks. Pretty pathetic. They should really not be grown up here. But maybe they got some northern provenance stock that they wanted to try. I didn't see where they were from. Unrelated, but all the hollies looked great. Even Ilex latifolia. The Ilex latifolia in my yard looks great as well. No apparent winter damage. A small amount of leaf spot but overall I was very pleased. This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 10:33

I had lots of red geraniums and also a white one, but this one was grown from cuttings and never develops seed pods. I guess the only way to really know is wait for flowers. It's really cold here so I don't expect much growth for the next months, but once they flower I'll post pics.

i realize that it will not turn into a weeping variety, i am just trying to achieve a very wide tree and was wondering f there s anything that need to be careful with, or something i shouldn't do. the branches are laying on the ground, i used a old metal hanger and cut it to make "staples" that i pegged it right down to the ground, i just wish they grew faster so i had more to do. i will try to take pictures tomorrow. I'm not sure if i can get them onto the computer tomorrow too but ll post them soon. thanks