Assembly Line Plants...

It's that time of year again.  I have to harvest the seed pod branches from the Nandina.  I don't think that I have ever shown you what the plant looks like.  It is also called Heavenly Bamboo...It is not really bamboo, but the leaves look like it.

This one is about four feet tall and bushy.  It has been here almost as long as we have been in this house...It just keeps going.

I will cut all of the bare branches that you see and it will immediately start growing new ones.

These will have to dry.  I will use last year's branches for the flowers that I am making now.

Let the assembly line begin.

I gathered a bunch of terracotta pots.  I cut floral foam into chunks.  I put white glue in the bottom of each pot and then forced the foam down into the pot and trimmed it even with the rim.

Next I poured out some railroad ballast in a couple of colors on a paper plate.  I covered the top of each piece of foam in the pots with white glue and then upturned them into the piles of dirt.

Before they could dry and harden, I broke branches from the Nandina and stuck them down into the pots.

I now have the basis for a lot of plants....but...No leaves.

I do have a lot of leaves punched, but none of them are formed.

I have four different sizes of geranium leaves cut. These are all from the same paper.  One side was lighter than the other.

In order to shape them(left to right, top row)  I cup them with the larger end of my stylus.  Then I flip them over and poke down a little off center of the leaf to get the distinctive geranium leaf shape.  I add color with either pens or pencils at this point. If I do it before, the color wouldn't necessarily be in the right place.

I am doing this on a three layer pad of rawhide leather.  I find that this holds them in place while I am working with them, better than a mouse pad or other type of pad.

I also dumped out a bunch or oval leave and have the lighter color geranium leaves waiting on the side.

I will probably be doing this for the rest of the day...So tomorrow I will put the leaves on the plants. 

I always think that I need less than I actually make.  Then I have to go back and make more.  Somehow, that's how everything works in the mini world.

Gotta go  poke at leaves for the rest of the day.

See you tomorrow.