I looked in my bonsai garden this morning. Things are going good, most everything is growing hard and heavy.

I looked at the grape I bought while I was in San Diego . Seems like such a long time ago, but it was barely a month ago. My mom still gets a kick out of recounting the purchase of that grape. The vendor was very excited about the grape's vigor and proudly showed off the grapes that this vine was producing. I agreed with him, that the grape showed lots of vigor, purchased the grape, then asked him for his tools to do some trimming. The vendor dug around the back and finally produced an oversized pruner. The vendor's eyes nearly burst from his skull as I lobbed off all that vigorous growth and the bunch of grapes that he was so proud of. I was left with this stump that had hardly any growth on it, and I marched off, my prize stump in hand, the vendor's pride tossed like so much garbage in the refuse bin.

That grape stump has *EXPLODED* with growth! I left two branches on the stump. One grows horizontally, almost at ground level. The other branches off almost straight up, but with interesting movement. Each of these branches has growth now that is 4-5 feet in length. Overall width of this stump is now about 8-10 feet. Bernie was outside while I was in the garden, so I brought over "Stumpy" so she could see. I happened to catch her as I rounded the corner, so I showed her 'Stumpy' in front of my other grapes. "Yes," she agreed, "it looks fantastic, but why aren't those growing?" she asked, pointing to my pathetic looking grapes that I planted in front of the house.

My poor, pathetic grapes. There they sit in front of the house. Defiant of the heat, desert conditions be damned! Of the original 3, only 2 ever grew. And these two are barely clinging. The leaves are lime green, small, and they look downright pathetic compared to the thick, dark green, verdant growth found on 'Stumpy'. It's a wonder that they even grow at all, considering that they are baked under the full desert sun all day. The sun is relentless; there for the grace of God (and shade cloth) goes 'Stumpy'. And that is the reason that my grapes are not growing. Full desert sun is a killer. Full desert sun, filtered by a shade cloth is fantastic for plants, as long as they can deal with the heat.