Hello, Raised from a seed pod five years ago. It was wintered indoors and xplanted outdoors in summer. It lost one from the two of its first trunk branches to a deer its second year. First link is of earlier photos. I lost photos from its first two years. https://www.flickr.com/photos/93480093@N06/sets/72157649280971925/ Next link is images from today. https://www.flickr.com/photos/93480093@N06/sets/72157649267830602/ When I plucked the seed pod from a fully fledged and lushly flowering little tree in San Antonio almost six years ago I forgot it in my wallet. Months later I put it about an inch deep in moist potting soil wherein it seemed unwilling to sprout. Weeks went by. Gave it up for lost but left it on the sill with a notion to dump the dirt and clean the pot one day. Never got around to it, fortunately. My mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer soon thereby. I spent a few days with her in recovery and it was touch and go with an extremely dangerous case of blood sepsis from a "nicked bowel" in surgery. About the fourth day she emerged from it quite suddenly and was given a promising prognosis. I drove home that day and was recovering my wits by cleaning up around the house. I happened upon the little pot and discovered a one inch pretty green sprout lifting toward the sun. I just wept with all I had pent-up in me for the first time in weeks. Not altogether sure that it wasn't just a weed I none-the-less kept a close eye on it. But moms return to her house and the paperwork, billing, care arrangements, etc, etc, overcame my thoughts and one day I happened by the sprout to find it prostrate on the soil. I'd been away from home so much I'd forgotten it. Completely limp but yet a lively green I fought back the remorse and propped it up with a toothpick and sewing thread. It made it. I couldn't help symbolizing it with mom's recent claim on life. Mom passed almost three years later in December of 2012. She was blessed with a couple of nice years subsequent to surgery and chemo. ************ The Palo Verde is suffering my lack of green skills. I'm pretty worried for its health lately. No one at this Michigan latitude seems too comfortable with advice on this and I'm only able to glean bits here and there from the web on how to care for it. I bulk erase many photos from my camera and have lost many images of this plant over the years. But I did locate about a dozen and they are in the first link. The second link has images taken today. This summer the plant has begun to look anemic, with poorly developed leaves and really awkward looking branching. It did, however, flower for the first time but only with half dozen small yellow buds. It certainly needs re-potting. Opinion conflicts as to how large to go. Too large is worse for replanting than one or two increments above the present size? Why this? And it must depend upon species as well? I intend to keep this potted for a few years in the next pot and move it outdoors in the summer. So what size? And dimensionally.. how deep? And I'm afraid that the first five years of its life it has been raised in overly dense, overly moist, potting soil. I've read that a mixture of 1 part potting soil to 2 parts sandy soil is best for Palo Verde. Have I badly stunted its early development? What of the root exposure? This is the grayest area for me. I've been advised to carefully prune any of those exposed knots that appear to be strangling others. Then to cover them with soil upon repotting. Elsewhere I've read that burying any of these roots that have by now formed a thin resistant bark can lead to rot. Can anyone be more explicit with advice on this? Finally, I'd like to have this plant indoors primarily in a large south facing window that gets the most Michigan exposure to the sun. Presently its grown a bit ungainly unattractive. It looked so promising in its second year, but since it lost its first segment to the deer it just seems to have grown into something "scarecrow" like. It may be a lot to ask all of these questions here, but how to prune? I'd be more than willing to bring this into a local nursery to have any and all these questions addressed and implemented. Cost isn't a concern. But I'm nervous about putting it into the wrong hands. Thanks so much for any advice. Brad
