This is a planting that I made during a bonsai workshop. We had a guest artist, and the plants she brought were really limited in variety and unsuited to either bonsai or saikei (planted landscapes). I'm pretty sure she just picked up a bunch of 3-4" pots at a big box store & separated the plants in them. I couldn't 'sit out' the workshop, so I had to plant 'something'. This is what I ended up with, and it never really interested me beyond confirming to myself that I could keep these plants healthy indoors, and that I had already posted one reduction and figured it would be interesting for you guys to see how the plant responded. This is the second major reduction the planting underwent. No root pruning on these because roots still had room in the tray. The picture was taken in early May, before the hornbeam I was layering the top off of leafed out, so oven though the plant had been putting on growth (overgrowth) the plant was about ready to start growing in earnest. I think the main reason I kept the plant around was because I had previously posted a picture of a reduction very similar to this one. All that foliage you see upthread occurred in the year subsequent to that first reduction. I really had no hopes that the planting would ever really look attractive, but I kept it because I thought I might find it useful here on the forum. I finally got rid of it after I had a few shots fired over my bow on the home front. I cant remember who I sent the ferns to - someone on this forum. I think I just tossed the China Dolls. This is what the planting above looked like 3 months later: Al

Mountaintop, I agree with you that ferns are rarely eaten by deer. Of course, there's a big difference between 'rarely' and 'never'! It appears the deer in your area don't know that they aren't supposed to eat ferns! I'd be upset too as I also enjoy seeing them. In the area where my tree farm is located, there are vast monocultures of ostrich fern growing in wet ditches, including right out in full sun. Quite the sight to see, let alone the more varied woodland types which can also be seen. Not a lot to be done about it at this point, beyond hoping for better luck next year. Here, I'm assuming this was winter feeding? Of course, where I'm at, ferns would be safely buried under snow during that season. It must be a different set of challenges to have the ground layer exposed all winter. +oM

Dave in NOva, no chance of me getting another pic now, it's about an 8 hr trip to get there. I just thought if you go there often that if you recognized the tree's shape when you went you could look at the leaves and see what it is, but there are many trees there, and it'd be hard to pick out the one. I will look online and see if the tree is in a picture, it is a really large tree, by the shape I thought for sure it was an oak. davidrt28, no I didn't know there were Redwoods there, I wish I would've known. I looked up the 2 plants you said got removed and not replaced, the Pine was surely huge if it was a mature one, they should've tried to replace it if they could'nt avoid removal, but the strawberry tree is pretty interesting, I think I saw a couple of them there, they were small, but I remember seeing those strange fruits, so i do think they've replanted a couple more. I wish I could plant one but it says zone 7b on Daves garden.

Mangos are like the most common fruit tree here in St. Pete. I see them everywhere. They're way more common than any citrus. Some of them look ancient. The one in the old tread below isn't far from my house. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/huge-mango-tree-central-florida-dsvw-vd~4173398 Another tree that becomes mammoth here is lychee. I've seen some with canopies bigger than any other tree in the neighborhood. I think I remember seeing mature rambutans here too but I'm not absolutely certain. I've definitely seen smaller ones planted out and they're often sold at my farmers markets along with many other exotic trees, rollinia, jackfruit, soursop, etc.