Parallel Roots

MY BALETE BONSAI (Ficus microcarpa) has been my keeper of sanity this past week. It is ready to hit the backyard any day soon, but something must to be done first: transform a branch into an aerial root that is parallel with the others and a column of darkly colored soil.

A branch was obstructing the view of the aerial roots.

So I bent it downwards and wired it to an old aerial root.

Removed its foliage and planted it in a pot made from a water bottle filled with black Long Island compost. By the end of summer, new aerial roots will emerge from the branch to be directly planted in and feed on the earth in the ceramic pot. If it doesn't work, I'll use sphagnum moss instead.

A Growing Paranoia

I HAVE IDEAS FROM South America this growing season, but my wife says there is something creepy about this indoor bonsai (Myrciaria jaboticaba) that I'm planning to buy, after she saw pictures of the tree fully grown in Brazil. Would you? Or does it look like namumutiktik sa bundat na garapata?

Blue (And White) Maspeth, 2015

SINCE THERE WILL BE NO Memorial Day parade in Maspeth this year, I'm going back to this pomp five years ago when NY Dem bigwigs descended on Grand Avenue near Mt. Olivet Cemetery, for a semblance of the normal. From Queens Gazette. Cheers!

Grand Marshals WW II Army veterans 88th Infantryman James Desio and Staff Sergeant William Aronowicz

The NY Shields Police Pipes & Drums

US Senator Chuck Schumer

Queens District Attorney (then Borough President) Melinda Katz

State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr., former Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley, former Assemblywoman Marge Markey, Attorney General (then Public Advocate) Letitia James and Congresswoman Grace Meng