Pruning at the tips of the branches will make your tree ramify (branch out) better. However, in your case I would allow the tree to grow unhindered for a while. Your soil looks like plain potting soil, so you should repot it when the weather starts getting hotter into a shallower dish with proper bonsai soil. Keeping it in a greenhouse will provide aerial roots over time, giving a banyan style to the tree that is very natural. Good luck to you and here's a link to a real ficus expert. Chris Here is a link that might be useful: Jerry Meislik bonsai

Someone contacted me and asked for an update on my pawpaw transplants and suggested others might be interested also, so here it is: I dug up and relocated a total of 7 wild pawpaw trees (I did 3 more about a week after my last post above). All 7 lived about 6 weeks. Unfortunately, the 2 largest ones started to die after about 6-7 weeks, in spite of the fact that they actually put on new growth about a month after the transplant. I must admit that it was very dry here this summer and I didn't do a great job of keeping them watered, so it could be my fault or it could have been the cut tap root or other factors, but living 6-7 weeks makes me think more about the lack of water than tap root, but who knows. Now for the good news: The other 5 that I moved were (2) about 3 feet tall, and (3) about 2 feet tall and they are all 5 still alive and well. Two are in the ground and 3 are in 4 gallon pots ever since being moved. They are alive and seem fairly healthy, BUT they put on almost no new growth at all this whole summer. That doesn't mean they are unhealthy....they have the same amount of foliage as they did early on, and they actually still look pretty healthy...they just didn't grow any at all, which is unusual to me but may be common for slow growing pawpaws. The 2 three-foot wild transplants in the ground were in full sun, and the 3 wild transplants in the pots are mostly in the shade. As for my Petersons, I got 2 10 inch plants from edible landscaping-Susquehanna and Shenandoah. I made a shade for them and babied them more than my transplants since they were closer to my house (and water). In spite of this, one of them died and the other has only one sad leaf left on it and looks like it is dying for certain. I have read many places that pawpaws cannot be moved, but that just doesn't seem to be true based on my limited experience. Even if they should die this winter I will have a hard time blaming it on the move...surely 5-6 months of life after transplant is enough to overcome transplant shock and the fact that some are still alive and well (though not growing much) bodes well for the possibility of relocating wild pawpaws in my book, though I'm certainly a rookie! One last note: If you have watched my post you know I looked a long, long time before I found a pawpaw patch, and I was thrilled when I did. The most exciting news is that just this past weekend I returned to the patch for the first time all summer to see if any fruit set there. IT DID!!!! I counted a total of about 14 pawpaw fruits in the whole patch. They were about the size of a roll of quarters now and hard as a rock, but I was thrilled to see them. My fingers are crossed that at least one or two of them will survive to get ripe so I can finally taste pawpaw for the first time in my life! If so, I will be willing to share some seeds. Priority will be given to those people here who have been helpful to me and answered my fruit tree questions this year (you know who you are) and if they don't want them then I'll share with anyone else who asks. It will be way of giving something back to this forum which has been so good to me. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself....lets see if I actually get any wild fruit and if so, how good it is. Then we can see who wants seeds (if anyone). Thanks all.

Punk, We are a couple years away from being able to completely retire and snowbird in Sedona. These chairs are intended for that house, so I won't be using them for a while, but couldn't pass them up for that price! MM, I will see how they clean up before I decide. They are a warm cream color and would work well in almost any setting if they come clean! If not, then I will look for some fabric for them. Janet, thanks. It is actually "Restor A Finish" no e on restore. I bought it at Ace Hardware and it is a one step rejuvenator for wood finishes. Works quite well. Jeanne, thanks, I hope they clean up too! At first, I was thinking of redoing them and painting the wood some accent color, but they are really quite nice and I think I would prefer not to ruin the wood finish. Nana, I seem to see something similar in almost every decorating magazine. DH wasn't too thrilled, but I just told him its my house too, and I liked them! (period, end of sentence!!) LOL Marlene, that TS usually has amazing prices on their furniture. I bought a large 6' tall bookcase for $2.97. It was composite board, but I wanted it for the basement and dish storage, so the price was right. Unless it is something very current and really high quality, they rarely put any high prices on the furniture. However, that being said, these chairs are custom made, very sturdy, and I saw similar ones on ebay for anywhere from $400 to $1100 per chair!! PM, Restor A Finish is great! Also, I have reupholstered tufted headboards, wing chairs, sofas, loveseats, benches, you name it. For me the worst part is pulling STAPLES, tacks are relatively easy compared to staples! I haven't pulled put the steam cleaner yet, so no decision made regarding what I am going to do with them. Thanks everybody! I admit, I was feeling pretty excited about this purchase. It really felt like I scored big on this one! And that is part of the thrill for me of shopping at thrift stores!! TTFN, Candy

Amazon prime days got a waterpik at 56 % off. Went to a garage sale down the road yesterday. Lady just wanted to get rid of her late hording husband's things. Got two new large fall wreaths with tags marked $50 each for $2 each, 33 pieces of slate for $5, and two new pkgs of Christmas boxes for free.