Re: Brachychiton acerifolia as container plant?

At 02:43 PM 10/28/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>There is a photo of a perhaps head-high tree in an absurdly small pot at
>
>  www.cactusedintorni.com/ sterculiaceae.htm
>
>-- 
>Diane Whitehead  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Diane:

The image of that tree reminds me of my Salvias in mtheir 2.5 inch pots.
Right now, many are 2 feet tall or taller.  Of course, they are rootbound,
but they ship well that way, and resume growth once repotted.  Seriously, I
usually don't let them get that big, but pots full of roots but not potbound
are the most durable and ship quite well.

With summer's long rainy season (6 weeks of near constant rain), it was hard
to cut back the plants and avoidng a lot of root rot.  I use ProMix, which
holds a lot of moisture (an asset during the usual droughty summers), and
needed to keep a good amount of foliar surface to respire moisture.  With my
2.5 month long move to Star, NC, I had no time to cut them back.  Since the
end of the rains, they have been in flats in shade, and a lot of the lower
foliage has dropped off.  I now have to carefully cut them back to stimulate
both foliage and new root growth, then repot as needed.  When I get some
time, I'll develop a looser medium with sand and ground bark added to
provide air to the roots.

Salvias from Latin America are seepage plants that frequently endure drought
and tend to grow in disturbed soils, so they endure my semitropical
conditions well and I can be somewhat careless in both pruning and
repotting.  Mediterranean plants like European and Californian sages do not
fare half as well.  The most durable stock plants of this group are those
that are slightly potbound.  Extended rains and dark winters will kill newly
potted cuttings in heavy soils.  Bottom heat helps a lot, bout this is an
expensive solution.

Richard F. Dufresne
1216 Okeeweemee-Star Road
Star, North Carolina  27356 USA
910-428-4704
Roy's cell 336-708-1178
World of Salvias:  http://www.eclectasy.com/gallery_of_salvias/index.htm
Salvia email list:   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Salvia
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