Post by newbieho on Oct 8, 2021 12:10:45 GMT -5
Got this from an email from NMRA (somehow, they have me on their list 
)
"Right now the Hydrangeas are nearing their harvest time, (for making trees) If you are alert you won’t need to grow your own. Lots of business’s have Hydrangeas in their landscaping, and the blossoms are starting to die off. I used to stop and ask if I could have any of the old dead blossoms, they always let me pick some……after all, the blossoms were dying. If you start watching, you will see Hydrangeas all over the place. The Hydrangea is a very easy plant to grow, it takes no special care and they are quite disease resistant.
If you pick the blossoms too soon, (while they are still green or have fresh flowers) they will tend to curve and wither when they dry, if you let the blossom die on the plant, it becomes somewhat ’woody’ and will hold it shape after the petals are removed. If you remove the blossoms and wait too long to remove the flower petals, they will also dry down and seem to anchor themselves with a ‘woody’ stem and it makes them harder to remove. There seems to be a window of about a month or two in the harvesting of blossoms for trees. I usually set at night, with a cardboard box lid (about 1” to 2” deep) and just cut the individual flowers off the stems with a little pair of scissors, a pair of large tweezers also works well, just grab the flower and give a twist. At first it looks like you will never get the armatures cleaned, but as you watch TV and play with the flowers, first thing you know you will have a half dozen armatures. It makes your evening of setting in front of the tube a lot more productive.
To keep everything orderly, I bring in a half dozen blooms that are stuck in a chunk of 2” styrofoam, it keeps the blooms from crushing together and loosing their shape, then as each armature emerges from the bloom I put them back in the styrofoam to hold them upright. I leave them in the styrofoam, as I finish each tree, it goes back into the styrofoam and is held upright, I store them that way. Then when I’m ready to plant the trees
I take them from the styrofoam and plant them. I cut a sharp chisel end on them and they push down into the styrofoam and are held rigid. All the trees on my layout are just pushed into the styrofoam ‘ground’, I can remove any or all of them at any time. My ground forms are sheets of styrofoam, shaped, and then covered with a skin of drywall joint compound, its cheap and always ready to work with when I buy the 4 gallon size container. If you buy the one gallon size, its a lot more expensive. I used eight (8) gallons of joint compound on my entire railroad. I found that no matter what I was doling, if I needed to reshape an area or just patch something that I have ripped up previously, I just popped the lid, grabbed a putty knife full of joint compound, and slathered it on, it was dry the next day or even later that day if it was only a thin patch. My entire railroad is made from Joint compound and latex caulk, over top of shaped Styrofoam, with a little wood underneath it all."
)"Right now the Hydrangeas are nearing their harvest time, (for making trees) If you are alert you won’t need to grow your own. Lots of business’s have Hydrangeas in their landscaping, and the blossoms are starting to die off. I used to stop and ask if I could have any of the old dead blossoms, they always let me pick some……after all, the blossoms were dying. If you start watching, you will see Hydrangeas all over the place. The Hydrangea is a very easy plant to grow, it takes no special care and they are quite disease resistant.
If you pick the blossoms too soon, (while they are still green or have fresh flowers) they will tend to curve and wither when they dry, if you let the blossom die on the plant, it becomes somewhat ’woody’ and will hold it shape after the petals are removed. If you remove the blossoms and wait too long to remove the flower petals, they will also dry down and seem to anchor themselves with a ‘woody’ stem and it makes them harder to remove. There seems to be a window of about a month or two in the harvesting of blossoms for trees. I usually set at night, with a cardboard box lid (about 1” to 2” deep) and just cut the individual flowers off the stems with a little pair of scissors, a pair of large tweezers also works well, just grab the flower and give a twist. At first it looks like you will never get the armatures cleaned, but as you watch TV and play with the flowers, first thing you know you will have a half dozen armatures. It makes your evening of setting in front of the tube a lot more productive.
To keep everything orderly, I bring in a half dozen blooms that are stuck in a chunk of 2” styrofoam, it keeps the blooms from crushing together and loosing their shape, then as each armature emerges from the bloom I put them back in the styrofoam to hold them upright. I leave them in the styrofoam, as I finish each tree, it goes back into the styrofoam and is held upright, I store them that way. Then when I’m ready to plant the trees
I take them from the styrofoam and plant them. I cut a sharp chisel end on them and they push down into the styrofoam and are held rigid. All the trees on my layout are just pushed into the styrofoam ‘ground’, I can remove any or all of them at any time. My ground forms are sheets of styrofoam, shaped, and then covered with a skin of drywall joint compound, its cheap and always ready to work with when I buy the 4 gallon size container. If you buy the one gallon size, its a lot more expensive. I used eight (8) gallons of joint compound on my entire railroad. I found that no matter what I was doling, if I needed to reshape an area or just patch something that I have ripped up previously, I just popped the lid, grabbed a putty knife full of joint compound, and slathered it on, it was dry the next day or even later that day if it was only a thin patch. My entire railroad is made from Joint compound and latex caulk, over top of shaped Styrofoam, with a little wood underneath it all."
. However, now we all know who to ask for hydrangea clippings!!! 
