Hi I just emailed you thanks Sharon

Hi I think the best compromise for the sphag is the type sold at Walmart. called "Orchid moss" be sure to get the more expensive pack as the cheaper is half twigs,not sphag lol.. New Zealand would be great but VERY expensive and hard to find. You could get live sphag or dicranum moss get it established then add your dwarfing subject. makes a long process even longer lol. But wow the result lol lynne You do the compacting as you plant the tree . Sphagnum moss is a type that lives in bogs will hold 20 times it's weight in water,has a biostatic property which lasts a long time. I use the plastic drip pans the kind sold to put under regular pots because I'm cheap and have no artistic ability at all. lol I do put some holes in it to drain excess water and build it up so the crown of the plant is above the edge . As the tree grows feeder roots and the sphag begins to break down it will become a solid mass . You can easily remove it from the pan . When the moss has broken down you can merely stuff some more into the voids. None of that soil sifting and grading that comes with regular Bonsai. To me, the only real difference between this and regular Bonsai is the potting media. 100 times easier to maintain long term. Trimming those pesky tap and prop roots is a snap ,lol The powder puff is the only one I maintain using this method as I moved the ficus over to water culture about two years ago. I got into this mainly to keep the plants smaller yet still have the flowers and regular traits of mature trees. This method has never failed outright for me but several species did not work out well. Royal poincianna Jacaranda, shaving brush, Colvilles glory. They grew but did not flower nor develop the beautiful characteristics of full sized plants. A very interesting one was bald cypress . I kept it under two feet and with constant flooding it produced the "knees" you see on mature trees in the swamps. So cool !!! lol I lost it when in the hospital as it dried out . They MUST be started from seedling as they don't tolerate root pruning gary

Generally if the plant is dead the leaves stay attached to the dead stem/branches. You can scratch the bark with your finger nail and see if the tree is green underneath the bark. I can't grow poinciana here so I don't know much about their care.

I bought two dwarf pink poinciana at McKee Botanical Gardens. The good thing is they bloom QUICK! They get kind of bushy with a sideways type growth.hmmm that is one plant I haven't taken pictures of yet as I have them down by the road.Sorry. I guess the word for the dwarfs is sprawling.I think they are great.