Hey Josh, exactly! You hit that right on the head. Thanks for the encouragement too. I was hoping there was enough roots left to repot and take hold. As you would suggest, I did not water the mix right away and I figure at least two weeks before a thorough watering but in the mean time I will find a way to make the soil moist around the trunk but not up to it for now if the soil dries out. I will try not and panick if leaves should react poorly at first, although hard not to do. I will post an update. Jodi!!!Thanks so much for stopping by and your kind words. You have been missed on these forums lately:-( Jademan: Thanks man. I have always admired your plants too. I saw your photo album. Wow. Laura,Laura! Thank you and you are so right, the gritty mix has saved a many plants in my years of being here! Corpsman: It's made of 1 part fir bark fines, in particular not composted, 1/2 and 1/2 part of Turface and Pumice, and one part perlite or crushed granite chips. Hey Joe...That moss is a special kind that grows well on top of good mixes. I can get all I want at the Bonsai shop. What I do is put a very thin layer of a mix with a bit of peat over the gritty mix so the moss will continue to grow. I think the top of some of them could use little Bonsia ornaments too or a nice stone. I love this moss although the Oxalis has to go. Chris: Thanks man. I really appreciate it. Hex, I am confindent that yours will do much better than what they came in. Good luck. I hope many are learning from this thread since I hate to hear of anyone loosing their plants to rot from mixes that never allow you to water properly. Mike:-0)

Everything looks great! The cactus really seem to shine in late spring/early summer and once they are finished blooming you have huge tropicals that take over! The castors are going to be ridiculous by the end of this season! If you get a late frost, I would expect them to reach at LEAST 14' Thanks for sharing! -Alex

Wetsuitor: The only ones I dug up this year were 4 washies and a sago palm, each of which would take considerable protection here including heat. I will be leaving those in when they get 2 big to handle, but the washies seem to take root distubance very well and overwinter well indoors. There is of course some set back and it is slow to get growing in the spring, however I'm not ready to get into an elaborate heating system yet. I'm trying to work out my kinks this year on a trachy. Plus my wife would kill me if I had Jim's setup! I live in maybe the coldest winter 6a in America. This will be my 3rd winter here, the lowest low each of the past 2 years is -2, and -8F, HOWEVER, it is the norm to go 3 weeks at a time never getting above freezing. Last December and January, we had 9 days that got above freezing during the day, and most of those were in the 33-38F range for highs. We also had 2 3-weeks seesions of consecutive below freezing weather. The other problem is that I generally don't see grass from Dec.1 to mid-March, it never gets warm enough to ever melt the snow. Last year I lost 2 decent sized trachies and a sabal palmetto, and my minors and needle that survived received considerable damage, the minors burned 98%, the only things left were the emerging spears. Needle had spear pull with surving pups. That was with frost cloth wrapped unheated leaf cages, which provided 0-30% damage and no losses the year before.

ROFL! No Cougar alert needed here, Dan! I haven't been out hunting for MANY years! Love my life just like it is! "compacted and underwatered" I think you might be surprised by what the folks on FC are DELIGHTED to get! My sympathies about your roots, Aloha! If your tree was right on the other side of my fence, I'd be hacking them out left and right like I do the neighbors' cottonwood roots! For your hosta, and whatever else you're planing to put in there, whenever you have time start to soften up the soil and add as much organic matter as you can. Hosta do much better with a lot of organic matter, and it'll have time to work its way in better if you start adding it now. And remember, The Tree is going to be sucking up a lot of water, and Hosta like to be wet too, so you're going to need to stay on top of the watering situation when you start planting there. (I may be giving away some small hosta starts at next year's Spring Swap!) If it's mostly shade, consider some of the hardy ferns too! They can be really cool! They like a good "spongy" soil too--and moisture. And don't worry about it if you need to cut out an occasional root here and there to make something work! Think about how many you can see--and then consider how many there are that you can't see! I've been hacking out cottonwood roots for almost six years now---and, oh how I wish I could do some damage to those trees! Skybird