I have heard or read that satisfactory trees can be made from dried Sedum plants. What do you do to prepare the “stalks” so that they do not deteriorate?
Thanks for any help.
On my last layout, I made dozens of trees from sedum, ranging from towering ones to small shrubs. All I did to make them was to spray the “trunks” with brown or gray paint; then I sprayed the tops with various shades of green and dipped them into containers of ground scenic foam. If I do say so myself, they looked pretty good. Check 'em out for yourself at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~wxtoad8/index.htm
Under “model railroad topics”, choose “my biggest model RR” and scroll down through the pix.
Good luck.
so, where does one get Sedum?
Kevin
grow them in your flower beds or get them from neighbors in the fall when the plants dry up for the winter
This is a good time to pick flowers and weeds. I hope to show my collection in a few days. I have good birch and I think one sedum will give me good pine trees. Walk in the woods or along roads, or in gardens with your railroad eye, and you will see trees everywhere.
To dry them, I hang them stem up with clothes pins until they are dry. Then a little paint and proper flocking, if necesary, and plant them. Some take more trimming than others.
what do they look like? any pics of the plant before and then after its turned into a “tree”?
thanks
Kevin
I looked at my wife’s sedum and they looked too “heavy” for HO. The shape is not bad, but the scale is off. I will include some pics later, I hope.
Sedum is great for HO trees. The best variety is Autumn Joy. If you know anyone that is into gardening, they’ll know all about it. If you don’t have any, ask around work and such, it is a very popular plant.
I guess I would like to see a pic of sedum growing naturally also. I live in the great white north and am not sure if it even grows here[:-^][:-^]
bjdoublb, I live in southern Ont. and it grows here. Lots of gardeners have it and the fools through away the flower stalks. Thats the part you want. It looks like a small tree, 8" to 10" tall with lower groud cover foliage.
Here’s a tutorial I posted on another forum on how I make trees using a couple of different methods, one of which is using a weed like plant similar to sedum.
I’m working on a scenery module for my layout and am at the point to where I’m making a batch of trees, so I thought I would document that process for others who may be interested.
I make two basic tree types - one is made using a weed as the base, and the other is made using a real twig as the trunk with a leaf canopy. So, here we go.
Tree Type 1 - Weed Trees:
The weeds I use are purchased in a “bouquet” from a craft store (I got mine at Hobby Lobby) and are marked as “Broom Bloom”. The package sells for $2.99 and will make a LOT of trees. The below pic show one bunch from the package, which is probably only 1/10th of the total package.
Here’s a detail shot of the weed.
I cut the branches of the weeds into tree sized pieces and then stick them in a long piece of styrofoam. I then spraypainted the entire weeds with a dark brown, and misted flat black and gray primer over that. The intent is to get a believable trunk color:
Close-up of the tree trunks:
Here are the basic supplies for this type of tree. Two types of Woodland Scenics ground foam: (1) Medium Green Coarse Turf, and (2) Green Blend Blended Turf; and spray adhesive. I’ve used both the Krylon and Elmers, both work equally as well, I think, although the Elmers seems to be a little more “misty” when coming out, i.e., not as forceful as the Krylon. That’s good, because you want it misty so it doesn’t blow away the foam.