So, this is a four year old dish garden from the national AV convention in 2006. It's almost all original materials except for the tallest element in the back of the garden. It's so tall that it makes the dish out of balance.
It seems like a good time to see what's going on with the plantings and refresh it for spring!
Ahhhh, when I pull the back edge out of the pot it has a massive amount of roots and everything is quite tightly packed together. I want to take the Aralia out of the pot because it's grown too tall and doesn't have enough lower branches to fit into the "landscape" without looking lanky and out of place.
See the larger white roots by my thumb? I have to extract the tall Aralia's roots from the rest of the soil ball. Note the whole thing came out of the pot like it was a sponge not loose soil. Maybe a tad overgrown? I have to insert a "Lemon Cyprus" in a very small space. It's hard to get a fresh plant's roots tucked into this mess.
As you can see, the final dish is still quite full but it's cleaned up and good looking again. The "spider" plant came out because it was too large, and the fern got cut back more than it might appear. The new tall element in the back (a Lemon Cyprus) is nice and fluffy (and considering how the roots were disturbed, let's hope it continues to stay nice and fluffy) and a couple of bird-embellishments for some fun and we're set! It could also have a bit of Easter decoration inserted and it could easily be seasonal decoration in any room.
Click on the photos to make them larger.
