Tropic you should post a picture of it!!! Sounds really interesting.

Agree! Sounds like a tree with interesting character.

It's return to vertical growth was predictable and referred to either as gravitropism or geotropism.

Al

TY, Al!

Tropic, you're right, leaning/curved palms along coastlines! That would make an interesting (larger scale) mini garden - a beach scene with a leaning palm or two. The coconuts would probably have to be fake. LOL!

Tropic that's gorgeous! Now I want a leaning one!

I would seperate the plants into their own pots. Some plants in there like shade (begonia) and the Aloe likes sun and not to be too wet as its a succulent

Some palms growing close together will naturally curve away from one another.

...... looking for sun they don't have to share.

Al

A plant will always tell you how to shape. It takes time to develope a good eye for your plan. Nigel Saunderson over at YouTube is a great master...must see.

This Dracaena braunii was tied in place at the top for a while, around the trunk of a bigger D. marginata, and seems permanently spiraled around. I took off the tie today. IDK if turning the pot will be enough to continue the spiral or if it will need to be tied again at some point in the future.

Nice!!!

Looks like it's getting to be close to the time Tiffany starts using some wire to coax her plants into pleasing shapes. Hmmm?

Al

TY! I should try again. I've tried twice with too much unbridled enthusiasm (no, really, it wasn't impatience) & ended up with breakage.

The weeping fig cutting was put in this pot a few months ago. It has taken root by now and I intend for this specimen to live up to its' common name, and weep. A couple weeks ago:

Last weekend I clipped some "weights" near the tip (and put back outside when it went back up to 50's & 60's @ night):

Tiffany, you sure enjoy your plants! I saw a ponytail palm today at Lowes planted nearly sideways. I was incredibly tempted to buy it but resisted. I'm starting to regret that decision.

We all have those stray moments of self-control. It will pass! ;)

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana plants trimmed & propagated often to have as many tips as possible.

Jade in training to be as upright and compact as possible.

What a fun thread!

Al

I know these trees as Liars trees, because they are going to keep lying. An amazing Uncle taught us kids we hada let em be, doing what they want. He insisted these trees taught more about gardening, than any old ordinary tree could, long as you was a watchin and tendin em like any other tree, year after year, they could teach ya how to grow anything.

Kalanchoes from my last post are blooming like crazy. They've gotten fronts/backs since being inside, but it will pass while outside this summer.

Various Dracaena trunks that have been leaned, not-turned, and propped in various directions over the years to form interesting bends and turns.

This one turns almost 180°.

This series of zig-zags is my fav, so far...

Here's a 'Lemon Lime with a trunk into which I've manipulated a curved, somewhat spiral shape. The mama plant that yielded this as a cutting a few years ago has yielded another cutting. It's one of the shortest I've tried, possibly the shortest one, with only about 3" under the soil and about 2" of naked stem above before the foliage starts. Wish it luck! The red plant is Ti (Cordyline fruticosa.) This group pot is acclimated to a few hours of morning sun, taking a break outside of the greenhouse on this warm afternoon.

You break every rule in gardening, its unnatural!

Thanks! If it's not really a rule of the plant but just an old wives' tale, absolutely, I'm on a mission to smite and destroy as many of them as possible and share as much of it as people are interested in seeing/reading.

If you see a pic of your plant growing out in the sun somewhere warm, it means that your plant could do that too, if given the chance.

The incredibly slow speed at which a was-inside-for-months-or-longer Dracaena must be acclimated to direct sun is an understandable reason for that to which I think you refer - that this plant can't handle direct sun. There was an awkward sunburned phase involved and some older leaves had to be sacrificed. (Prob. a pic of burned LL leaves in "sunburned leaves" discussion.) I wasn't going to let fear of that temporary setback hold the whole plant back from a life of more vigorous, perky, healthy growth if I'm able to provide enough sun for it to look like one planted in a landscape. If being right near an unobstructed E/S/W window for winter isn't an option, acclimation attempts every spring could be more trouble than the limited benefit would justify.

The oddest part of your collection is how you combine seemingly incombatible Plants and they seem to like it!

I've got D. "Song of India" which is similar to yours, except the margins are more strongly yellow. Now and again when I'm in a hurry mowing it gets hit by the lawnmower because a lot of it is flopping over the ground. This time I cleaned up the pieces and put them in water. They're quick to take root. But those with stems less than about 15mm just rot. In use rain water, it's our wet season now. Incidentally, it's got a lot of berries with seed but they take ages to grow up. Cuttings are so much better.

Tiff, I just had an image of you flash by, chased by a crowd of angry old wives with broomsticks and rolling pins, LOL.

LMBO!! TY for the chuckle, Tropic! I mean them no harm, but the plants deserve better.

15mm = a little over 1/2 inch? I usually use a piece about 1/2 meter (2 feet/24 inches.)

I've heard Dracs will take root in water but I don't remember doing any that way, just right into a pot. Good luck with yours! if you get a chance to show us a pic of some berries, that would be fun. And this flopping, occasionally mowed plant!

I dropped them into water because I didn't have time to start potting them up. After the mower chopped them up I thought no point wasting them as I'm always looking for extra plants to fill in around the garden. This is the one that keeps getting in the way of the mower.

These are the cuttings (mutilations) that I saved. The longest is about 40 cms, the short one to the right is about 15 mm. The white spots on the stems are the new roots forming. Length of cutting was "mowers choice".

The fruits only have one seed inside (I mistakenly thought they were berries). Left side is the fruit surrounding the seed. Bottom centre is the seed and above it part of the fruit removed to expose the seed. To the right are the whole fruit.

Fascinating and informative! TY so much for the efforts! I think you invented a new kind of cuttings, "mower's choice." :+)

I love this thread it's so informative. Tiffany, did you get your false aralia to branch by cutting the tipoff? I just bought a Galaxy today. Not tall enough for pruning but planning. Do you find them to be slow growers?

This thread is so fun! Tiffany, I didn't know you could combine different houseplants into one pot as you've clearly done so often. But of course now I think about it outdoor container gardening does this constantly. Thanks for the insight!

TYVM!

Chipped, yes, but not enough to be noticeable, just the tiny new leaf forming at the tip. Then, much later in time, doing the same thing for the resulting 2 branches. Yes, glacially slow.

Training this pair of Scheffleras into a basic bonsai, shrunken tree. Had for 7-8 yrs.

Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina) with a quasi-braid. It doesn't follow a strict pattern, I adjust branches once every couple months. What's cool is they stay in place with no ties or other mechanical means. Eventually as this lower foliage is lost, the "knotted section" should be visible.

Looks like a tangled column, maybe a vine, from farther back.

Tip: try to make sure the base of the tree is broader, even if you have to add more cuttings to help you form a conical taper. Make sure you avoid an hourglass shape - it will look very unnatural. If you DO end up with an hourglass figure (;-)), you can, at a later point in time after the trunks have fused, cut the top back so the constriction at the center of the hourglass becomes the top.

Al

I see what you are saying & like the suggestion. It is a single-trunk entity. I'm getting visions of a maypole-type swirl of several additional trunks, that flare out at the base and become part of the knotted/braided section a little higher up. Nothing that would ever emulate a real bonsai but it would be a sturdy oddity, like something a tornado created. That's the key word goal for that individual, oddity, in the spirit of Alex Erlandson.

Loop-de-loop.

Any updates on your false aralia? I purchased one earlier this year and want to play around with it.

Yes, it went dormant over winter, not sure if it got too cold or dry, or both. Luckily it was just dormant, not dead, and most of the branches are still alive. The stick worked to create more distance between the 2 main branches, and now a rock is guiding a secondary branch to not grow so close to the main.

Update on Ficus "loop" from 4/28. I removed one of the clips and the circle seems to be holding. So I used the clip to start another.

Some current pics of funky Dracaena trunks from what is the current backside of this pot, after many years of leaning in various directions, and some manual guidance on my part:

The big air plant wedged between the trunks is on its' own. It does what it wants and is not actually touching the soil. Also photobombing is an diminutive Alternanthera ficoidea cultivar.

Current status of "windswept palm" and loop-de-loop Ficus.

Some of the loops on this Ficus. Pondering cutting some of the leaves away from the central trunk area...

A branch threaded through a loop.

Quasi-braid.

False Aralia (Dizygotheca/Schefflera/Plerandra elegantissima.) I guess it's time to give up on that nub to the right & trim it off at the juncture below it.

The same things being done to the Ficus were/are being done to this in-ground maple.

Inosculation has occurred.

When the leaves fall off, this will be easier to see.

I'm not sure anyone is following this but I will be removing a LOT of leaves from this Ficus soon. The curiosity has been maddening.

I took the clips off of these two loops last weekend. They seem to be secure on their own now.

Has anyone else been doing any tree training / manipulating?

Mmhmm ..... ;-)

Al

I have a dwarf schefflera that I've been messing with for a few years...I will try to get some pic of it in the next few days.

I have a Bursera fagaroides that had a rather long and unruly branch that I wanted to train to grow in a loop but didn't know how so pruned it back and now it's gone :(

It smells incredible though.

Before.

Other side:

After, 10 mins. later:

I watered it after cutting off the leaves so the sap would stop dripping.

An acorn happened to sprout in a mini garden about this time last year, in a perfect spot right at an edge. As soon as it started to grow past the first set of leaves, I cut the tip out & have been constantly picking at its' leaves, tearing them in half. It has not gotten any taller than it was, about 3" tall, and now has 3 branches. The naturally smallish leaves of this species seems perfect to cultivate as a real mini tree in a mini garden. I have no idea how many yrs it will take until it starts to look like a real, shrunken oak tree...

An update on the tree from the first post of this discussion. Finally, I think it will be time to take a few cuttings this summer so the canopy is more even at the top.

False Aralia stem clipped sideways. IDK if it will stay this way, but expecting that this will inspire new branches to form at the high point of the bend.

An update on the Ficus last pictured 2/23/18. I think it has more leaves now than before I cut all of them off.