Hello all, well my four plumie seedlings from last springs sowing of Lauri's seeds have made it through the winter OK. Most of the leaves have stayed on 1, the other 3 have lost many.

My reason for posting is I have a couple of ??'s that may seem bit dumb, but I don't know the answers so here goes....

1)....Do I leave them (leaves) all on?

Several are a bit limp, despite the seedlings have been watered sparingly due to them being leafy. They're also a bit pale in colour too, obviously not green and vibrant like new leaves, but rather tired and jaded, like me after winter! I removed those that yellowed completely and the plants now look rather odd. Guess leaving them on will give the plant some goodness till new growth starts?

Celadine dropped all its leaves so I hope it kicks into action soon, the claws are looking green and healthy. They're all sitting in the window facing south and lapping up the lovely sun we are getting today. Here's an horrendous pic of them, all crowded together with reflections, sorry.

To the left are 2 white/yellow seedlings, then 2 red/pinks, followed by Celadine to the right. Plants #1 and #4 grew lots of branches, #3 grew a few and #2 grew none.

2)...Does the fact that they have branched mean I could stand a chance of getting flowers at the branch tips at some point in the future or do they actually have to flower and then branch?

At least they are still alive..that's got to be a bonus!! Notice the size of them though, that surprised me that they grew so much, they're almost the same height and girth as Celadine which you may recall was the sole surivor of the batch of 6 inch Oz cuttings I started to root in spring 2005, half of which is buried under the soil line. Am hoping for flowers from it as in 2006, had none in 2007 sadly.

Can't wait for things to warm up can you?

Cheers, Gill.