Hi, well I think I'd wait til you can plant them outdoors this spring (after the last frost has passed), and grow them in the ground where they'll do the most the fastest. You didn't say if you were e.g. in the Hebrides vs. Cornwall (where it's a lot warmer!). If you are in the south, maybe a grower there could tell you how hardy the plants are in your area, whether they can live outdoors all year or not, or how much protection they need over the winter - they're not really meant to grow indoors and they do get awfully large. Otherwise, it is best to grow them out individually for as long (couple of yrs?) as it takes for you to be happy with the trunk growth, etc.

What a great antique tool collection. If those tools could talk, they would tell us about hundreds of hours of dirt-work. Maybe they were there when the owners wore their backs out. lol. What a great way to display and honor what they represent. I would add a garden sign to the collection. "SWEAT HAPPENS". Or a quote from a gardening poet. "Sweat Doth Happeneth". There thats better. The blue bottle tree is so great and I'll bet looks wonderful as the continuation of the blue garden balls in the other tree. Your garden bench looks so inviting. The 'hopping steps' (log slices) make a very fun path to get to the seating area. Dont forget to paint loads of wood sealer on them every season. (I had some but mine were cut too thin and rotted down quickly) The headboard has a forboding look that says, it dares any of the woods to encroch any further. "May not grow beyound this fence". lol. It all works well and you needed that pop of white to prevent the shadows of the woods from swallowing up the designs of the bench and headboard. Thank you and Carol for providing a rose garden for your princess!!!!! Roses are gifts of love. I did not know that mini roses could live through the winter and come back! Let me know their proper name (it's probably Latin). I'm all excited about learning that. Great pictures!

No duck tape? My rule is a roll in every vehicle and if possible, one on every floor of every structure. I drive a Ranger with just a small space behind the front seats and a center console/arm rest. There's a bottle of windshield washer in the bed of the truck. Otherwise, it's usually empty during the week when I'm commuting to my office job. Up front, I've got a set of cheap socket wrenches that rides on the hump of the transmission. Behind the seats are the jack, ratcheting straps and some bungees, a screwdriver, an umbrella, jumper cables, some mismatched gloves and a scarf. In the console is a box of bandaids, assorted small bits and pieces and a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce for eating meals away from the South Side.

Callistemon have plentiful epicormic buds (those buds that lie dormant beneath the bark up and down the trunk). Since the top/tips of branches are dead, these buds will now become active and produce shoots, as you are finding out. Pruning won't hurt it, it is now a matter of aesthetics - you can wait and see what buds out and how much of the branches are dead, and cut off the dead wood. Or anticipate a bit and do it now. I have a whole row of 'Little John' that got hit hard last winter and I took off about 1/3 of the plants and they are now almost back to normal. If yours is grown in tree form it may be a bit harder to recover a nice shape, but it can be done. Good luck! Sara