I Have A Dream...

I do! My dream is to have a compact and obedient abutilon hybrid devoid of any plant-related problems. Showy flowers. Sturdy stature. Easily pruned and propagated. The dream is still a dream...

Meanwhile, I've been looking into ways to improve my plants' life. One of them was mentioned in the previous post -- clay! I've started adding clay to soil, about 20% of the total amount. Here's what it looks like:

Some compound soil components

Yummy! Abutilons love it!

Then, to improve the pruning procedure, I started removing the big leaves which use up too many nutrients and hinder the development of the adventitious buds.

In addition, I started practicing root trimming while re-potting the plants. This is what it looks like:

Extra rings of roots need to be removed, or they may rot

I shear the extra roots off

It's perfect. The abutilon plant won't even notice the loss.

Finally, I understand that it might sound stupid to the learned scholars of botany, but I dream of propagating abutilon via leaf grafting. So far I managed to get the roots, but then the leaf would wither and die. I do hope I can do something to make it live and develop an adventitious bud. Mother Nature is a very rational woman: why would a leaf develop roots if it wasn't going to survive?..