Josh, you're not the only member here who has planted house plants in the ground. :) Karate. Planting in the ground has its pros and cons, unfortunately, more cons than pros. Pros...plants will grow like weeds. Con. Depending on the plant, it might grow too big. For example. One spring I planted two, 1' Musas/Banana Trees in the ground. By autumn, they stood over 15' tall, 7-9' wide. Because of their sizes, I had to leave them out to die. I also planted a 7" Brugmansia. By autumn, it stood 3-4' tall. I dug up the Brug..many roots broke, but not enough to kill it. The following spring, I planted the Brug in ground again. It grew another 2-3', and bloomed profusely. From then on, it was kept in a large container. I also planted a few palms and a hardy Citrus. The palms didn't put on much growth, but foliage was full, compact and very green. Some of your plants would do okay in ground, but don't forget the cons.. Cons: Broken roots, bugs, disease. If you decide to plant in the garden, when you dig up, hose entire plant, including roots. Some of your plants that could be planted in the garden: Jerusalem Cherry Ardisia Elephant Ear Canna Opuntias Most of your other plants would do fine outdoors, in pots. Be very careful with the Pothos and Philo. Leaves could burn. Keep us posted..Toni

Lots of plants flowering in the yard right now. Canna 'Ripples' Canna 'Angele Martin' Canna 'Gigundo' Canna 'Bengal Tiger' Longan tree Tecoma 'Sparky' Tahitian pummelo - Finally showing signs of new growth all over the tree. I've been worried about this big guy for over a month now. All my citrus trees have already flushed new leaves and are done flowering except this guy until now! All its been doing is dropping leaves. I'm guessing it's still stressed from being uprooted and replanted to my yard. Mango 'Lemon zest' flower spikes all over. My new Dwarf Namwah Banana corm finally pushed a new leaf out. The 90f temps probably helped out a lot on waking this guy up. Green and red sugarcanes - lots of new canes coming out.

What it's like to have a good hair day for a S.A. succulent bulb and find way into the misfit onion collection here. Any cosmologist would be proud of the up do style on (IMO) better stakes ( an update on a prior pic) Two shoots have growth that stretches to 35 feet from end to end Bowiea volubilis is ready for the town. Some of the other items that are called Misfit onions in the collection include Ornithogalum caudatum It use to have very very long growth w that just got in the way A fast wack and little more fatter it becomes. AKA The AKA "False Sea Onion is faster at pup/ baby making than anything else though. apx 180-200 of them over the past five years some are tossed in pots and mixed in with other sun loving suxs ( Euphorbia cuttings mostly most have been tossed as PIGs it's kind of a bummer that there not zone hardy A sweet fragrant flowering spike fills the late winter air inside. Host: Fast forward 35 or so years for that little one & you should have something that looks like this. You might not get yours to develop the split personality though. A little thirsty today while getting it's peeling back as I want the top to be self supporting Schizobasis intrica soon to come into flower Not always but can sometimes flower tiny little stars from it's tips twice with in a 12 month cycle

Thank you, Beth - the kind words are appreciated. I apologize for not getting to your message. I'm easily behind by more than 100 replies to forum members, so you're not the only one. I'm soo busy at work, and I'm trying to get all my tropicals repotted - less than 10 to go, I think. I'm off Fri & Mon, so won't have trouble getting the repots done this wknd, but I'll never catch up on the mail. You really need to cut those long branches back very hard. In a 2D photo, it's difficult to get a sense of how much the tree is leaning. In the top image, the lean doesn't look bad, but it could be a misperception due to lack of depth perception - no way for me to know. If the lean isn't horrible, it can easily be corrected by simply changing the planting angle during the next repot. So, I suggest you put a wedge under the pot and tip the plant to a spatial position that looks good to you, then do your pruning based on that. For demos, we do that to extremes when we style bonsai trees that need radical changes in the planting angle to bring out the best in the tree. Witness: See the 'before' image below The hardest part of the pruning is going to be choosing your apex (top). Right now, your apex doesn't exist, but I can arm you with the knowledge of where it WILL exist in short order. More on that in a sec. You want your tree to eventually be a dome - like a mushroom cap that is maybe as high as it is wide. So, the lowest branches should ALWAYS be the longest, or at least branches need to become successively shorter than branches immediately under them as their position on the trunk gets higher. Nature makes sure it happens just so, as a way to ensure the lower branches don't get shaded out by the stronger/higher branches. So, the really long branches @ the top need to be brought back into the fold by pruning them back to 1 or 2 healthy leaves. The lower branches that are really long need to be brought back so they sort of fit the mental image of a dome that you need to keep in your mind's eye as you prune. I'm guessing you'll be removing well over 50% of the canopy volume - maybe as much as 75%. Where branches will appear and in what direction they'll grow is very predictable. You can see that the branches will start growing from the axil (crotch) formed by the leaf and the branch, and grow roughly in the direction the leaf is pointing, not considering the effects of phototropism (growing toward the light). After branch pruning, to determine where the apex should be, just look for a leaf facing upward on the tallest branch. The leaf should be right above the point where the trunk exits the soil (with your tree tilted as you like it), or it should be pointed in a direction that ensures it will grow toward that point. Cut the branch off just distal to that leaf. Within a week or two, you'll see a bud erupt, which will grow into a branch. You can even help guide that branch into the most appropriate position. I'll be in Chicago in mid-Aug. If you're not too far from Deerfield, I could stop on my way to the hotel (Thu, Aug 17) and prune it for you. I've done that for forum members several times, and even repotted about 10 large plants for a wheelchair-bound lady in SW MI. Al