Mike - I wanted to talk a little about sealing tree wounds because I think you had questions after one of Dorie's posts the other day. The late Dr. Alex Shigo practically revolutionized the way we think about trees when he presented us with his findings on how trees react to injury. He called it the CODIT system. CODIT is an acronym for Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees. He discovered that trees have their own natural defense against injuries and decay, essentially creating barrier or boundary zones that help prevent the spread of decay through these zones and into other tree parts. He also discovered that the WAY we prune was far more important than how we treat wounds after pruning. He didn't speak out strongly for or against treating wounds, but he did say that treating wounds was of no value insofar as curbing the spread of disease is concerned. He taught us that cuts flush to the trunk inhibited barrier zones from forming or greatly dininished their effectiveness, which allowed the spread of disease into the tree's interior. In nature, trees die primarily from mechanical injury or the effects of mechanical injury, including insect injury. Eventually, these injuries result in structural failure of tree parts. Trees rot - the wind or snow loads break them - the tree ends up with too little photosynthesizing surface to sustain it, and the tree starts using more energy than it is making, making death inevitable. We needn't worry much about wind or snow breaking our containerized trees. Actually, structural failure is rarely an issue for our containerized trees. Even if the center was to rot out of out, the cambium will still go happily about its business of making wood. Most of our trees won't live long enough for structural failure from natural causes to be any consideration at all. So - on containerized trees only - not on trees in the landscape, I generally seal any wounds with a product most bonsai practitioners use, called 'cut paste', or I use a twig as a 'paint brush' & seal them with waterproof wood glue. What does this do? On small trees in containers, and especially when we make cuts flush to the trunk (not recommended but common practice to avoid ugly scars/lumps) the cambium can dry out and die back a significant distance from the actual cut. Sealing that wound prevents the cambium from dying back, this allows callus and wound wood to begin forming quickly and the scar heals faster. Note I'm not approaching this from the perspective of disease prevention or helping to keep decay from spreading - I really don't care about that in containerized trees. I'm approaching it from the perspective of aesthetics. Also, I do a LOT of succulent cuttings, lopping stems in half that are anywhere from 1/4" to 1-1/2" in diameter. I ALWAYS seal these wounds to prevent tissue from dying back as far as 1" from the cut site. You've seen this plant many times Looking closely, you can see that after I chopped this plant off, many new buds emerged directly out of the cambium at the wound site (where I chopped it). If I hadn't sealed the wound (waterproof wood glue), those branches would have emerged from latent buds up and down what was left of the stem/trunk, and the particular way I manipulated the Aeonium wouldn't have been possible. Just wanted you to understand my thinking, in case you were wondering. Al

I wouldn't think full sun in Michigan would be a problem. I have quite a few clematis in full sun in NC. I am going to bet having purchased your clematis at Lowes that you have a type two clematis which are prone to wilt. Relocating the clematis is just going to set it back even more, especially now that summer has arrived. Continue to tend the plant as if it were alive, keep it mulched and watered, and cut off any vines that have browned out.

Greg- I hear what you're saying. I had a golf outing Saturday afternoon and it was sunny and 77. Totally comfortable. That's the weather you guys get in the winter. A lot of northerners who only go to Florida in the winter have no conception of how hot it gets down there in the summer. Of course my palms all grow in the high 70s but when we get a stretch for even just 3 or 4 days when it hits the 90s they just explode. I try to imagine how fast they would grow down there. JL Florida- Any palms you would try to grow up here will need varying degrees of winter protection. Sabal Minor, Needls, Trachys. I would suggest ordering the book "Palms won't Grow here and other myths". It's very detailed and will help. It may be a little late in the summer to try. Half of our Michigan growing season is over.

Slow growing it is, it's only managed to put out a bunch of good size leaves and ONE lateral branch since I got it. That's about it for growth. I don�t think I�m doing anything special really. It's been mostly an indoor plant ever since I got it last September. Only been out in full sun several times. This is going to sound weird but I occasionally take it in the bathroom. All that steam from the shower can only benefit it. Having two little ones at home, I also have one of them cold air humidifier that runs all day in the house but it's probably rated at 1% efficiency at this point. So I boil a big pot of water every other day to raise air temperature and humidity in the house instead of running the heater. Thus far, I haven't found any humidifier that can out do my water boiling :) Anyways, all my house plants benefit from this. The only ones that seem to hate it are my Adeniums, they're much happier now being outside getting all dry air. Stan: aren't they subject to root rot in standing water or too much water? I think Jay said he knew of someone literally have their plants in standing water but I can't be sure. Tim