Holly, no problem on the thread hijack... we're all working toward the same goal here :) Now that I've gone back and read every message in Al's "Trees in Containers" threads, I realize I probably should have posted there in the first place. Blake, thanks for all your help. I appreciate the advice, and what you've suggested seems to be consistent with everything else I've read. That being said, I'm in a better position than Holly to experiment, give that I have 6 (soon to be 9) trees to nurture (or torture). Like Holly, I received these recently via mail order. I purchased the young trees recently because I have a 7' Sango Kaku that I believe is infected with Pseudomonas. I decided that, in the event I end up watching my tree suffer a slow death, I'll comfort myself by taking care of some younger Acers that may one day earn the job of replacing my Sango Kaku. Since I've ordered the trees, I have come to realize that there is a lot more to caring for them than I originally anticipated. There is an amazing amount of helpful information in this forum alone. I appreciate all the time everyone here has spent building such a large wealth of information, and hope to someday contribute some useful experiences of my own. As my brain is always in sponge mode, I've been trying to understand more and more about tree growth, container gardening, soils, etc. In the interest of furthering that understanding, I decided to select a candidate (victim) to move into the gritty mix. I'll likely be moving the rest into the 5-1-1 mix or something similar as was suggested. I am, however, a visual learner, so I decided the best way to learn my lesson was to subject one of these poor young trees to what I'll describe as a partial "repot". About 24 hours ago I moved the Trompenburg into a larger pot with gritty mix and a wick. I took it out of its current pot, and carefully removed around 75% of the soil from the root ball by repeatedly dunking it in a bucket of water and poking it away with a small screwdriver. The roots had done a pretty good job of filling up the original container. I didn't prune them, nor did I mess with them much other than to untangle them a bit. My hope was that by minimizing any damage to them, I might make this "repot" a bit more successful. I watered thoroughly then poured on another gallon of water that had some Mycorrhizae and superthrive mixed in. My plan is to root prune and do a full repot next year if the tree survives this ordeal. I plan on observing it and hopefully learning from this experience. I consider it a training exercise to prepare for the disaster scenario where I may some day be forced to repot a tree that is in leaf. Please let me know if you think there is something I should have done differently (given my fabricated disaster scenario). I've included some pictures below of the 6 trees: Trompenburg, Sister Ghost, Seiru, Olsen's Frosted Strawberry, Kogane Sakae, Japanese Sunrise. These were taken just a few minutes ago. Most of the trees are still stretching out after their exciting adventure with the fine men and women of the US postal service. Thanks again for all your help. -Chris

Ken, Here's a pic before I staked it: This is it almost exactly a year ago from pretty close to the same camera angle but much closer up (you can tell how much the foliage has increased by the sheer # of leaves): There are two main leaders at this point, both suffering from the same top-heavy problem and leaning in the same direction. So I used two 6' plastic stakes about 2 feet away and twine+velcro straps to pull them upright and slightly separate them. How long do you think I should expect to leave it staked? I'd rather not do it for long if I can help it . . . just long enough for the branches to strengthen. It didn't have this problem last year but I'd say it has >3 times the foliage now. It's definitely a JM but I can't guarantee how true to bloodgood it will be. It grew up under a mature bloodgood at my dad's house, presumably from seed? Either way I'm expecting it to be large for a JM . . . its parent tree is probably 15' high with an 8-10" trunk, and is at least 15-20 years old. This one is in a spot where that size would be fine, so I'm not worried about its growth potential . . . I just don't want abnormally fast growth to keep it from being the beautiful tree it has the potential to be. Thanks again.

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I am looking for Rose of Sharon. Would you mind looking at my list and seeing if there's anything you're interested in? Heidi