Does anybody know what plant is being used by the guys making “SuperTrees”. The FSCME siet cals the plan Scandinavian brush but there is no such thing:
www.fcsme.org/bcarl/how_to_make_scenic_express_supertrees.htm
It is supposed to be some kind of imported sargebrush but which one?
Help with ID would be greatly apreciated. The guys at my Biology dept are stumped!
seb
They are genetically altered plants from a super secret government program that lost its funding… [;)][:o)]
Whatever they are, they work great! I model in N-scale, and one bag of that material has already yielded me over 300 trees in various sizes. It may be more labor intensive than other (more expensive) products, but my cost per tree is pennies.
So MAbruce you state “… one bag of that material has already yielded me over 300 trees in various sizes.” Does it grow in bags [:)] Where would a person buy Scandinavian brush? I searched Google and Walthers with no luck.
Actually, the product is shipped by the box-full, not in bags but MAbruce is quite correct, this product produces the most realistic trees for mass planting I’ve ever seen and I’ve been in the hobby a long time. Homemade trees based on weeds found locally can’t even begin to compare - most I’ve seen simply look like skimpy weeds with ground foam applied. Neither can any commercially available plastic or wire armatures or masses of finished trees compare with SuperTrees.
ScenicExpress says a large box of the SuperTrees brush will yeild 300-400 trees. So far I’ve gotten about 300 finished trees out of the box I purchased and still have enough material remaining to get another 50-75 out of it, so it’s the truth. The price of a large box of the product may initially seem high but just sit down and figure out the cost of a similar number of finished pastic or wire trees. I figure SuperTrees run about $.30 per fully finished tree - not bad at all if you’ve whole hillsides to plant.
CNJ831
I looked in several gardening books thinking it was the flower off of a smoke tree (Nope) or possibly Kochia (maybe a variety of but…) I also looked in a Herb book, more posibilities but no names. What ever it is I want some!!!
I’ve asked Jim Elster from Scenic Express what it was,.,he just smiled and said its Scandanavian tumbleweed! [:D][:D][:D][:D] The best I can get from him is that it is a plant that only grows a short time of the year, in cold climates, hmmmmmmmm.
Chooch
I don’t know what they use, but if you want a really good garden plant for making trees, look at Sedum - Autumn Joy is the best. It’s a very popular garden plant (buy your wife some) and when the flower stems are cut and dried, makes great trees. Thanks to Sam Swanson for showing this to me.
Well I’ve been up the Labrador coast and the High Arctic and I’ve got a book on Arctic Fauna and I haven’t seen it[oX)] Yet.
I’ll just have to look harder next time
Actually, mine did come in a large plastic bag from my LHS. Maybe they recently changed their packaging? I hope so, because in my experience, the plastic bags seemed to cause some of the branch material to warp. This required some extra work to straighten out branches. A box would give much better protection.
I just made another batch of trees, and “planted” them on the layout last night. AS CNJ831said, this stuff is amazing! The detail holds up extremely well on close inspection. I wish I had a digital camera to post some pictures.
Jon Grant calls it “sea moss” and it is sold as Forest in a Box in the UK. Look at the first page, about 1/3 of the way don, in this thread:
http://forum.atlasrr.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30564
Andrew
I have used Super Trees for some years and have used various methods to straighten some of the crooked trunks.
What appears to work the best for you?
R .A. Senges, Editor - Rochester Model Rails
The tree that was being constructed in that particular thread ended up in this diorama.
http://uk.msnusers.com/JonGrantsRailroadmodels/103atlasproject.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=121
‘Sea Moss’ is grown in the Netherlands, and can get quite brittle when it dries out. Hair spray or sprayed on varnish can help to strengthen it.
Jon
Rasenges ask what methods others use to straighten the “trunks” of SuperTrees.
I cook all my trees in very hot , simmering water for about 30-40 minutes. They become very pliable this way. I then hang them out to dry up-side-down, weighting down the inverted tree tops with clothespins (sometimes one, sometimes several). This usually does a very good job. Those trees with really thick, heavy trunks can be largerly straightened using your fingers just after removal from the hot water, then hung out to dry with clothespins attached. Thereafter, I spray them with cheap grey spraycan paint to seal them.
CNJ831
Thanks for all the replies. Here is what I got on this but I think this person does not have it right. The pictures in the links show lichen that are very small by comparison, too small to be the same species:
These “supertrees” are species of Cladina (or Cladonia) – sometimes called reindeer moss or caribou lichen. See the following links:
Berring Land Bridge Natural Preserve
Laurentian Plant Center
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
See also this image from the UBC Botanical Garden photo forum:
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1397
Finally, for a conservation perspective, the following is a link to the International Lichenological Newsletter and their conservation biology forum:http://www.bgbm.org/ial/312/forum.htm
Douglas Justice
Associate Director
Curator of Collections and Research Scientist
The above link doesn’t work.
I think we got it:
THIS STUFF GROWS IN THE SEA!!!
Here is the information I received from a gentleman using it in his dioramas:
Hello:
here some info about sea moss, here we call it “meerschaum” in the
netherlands it´s “zeeschuim”. it is a kind of alga, so it actually grows in the sea.
you can order it online here:
http://www.shopinshop-modellbau.de
Oberbilker Allee 291
40227 Düsseldorf
Tel./Fax: 0211-7338373
at the online auction “ebay” you can find several of these kinds:
http://search.ebay.de/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&shortcut=4&query=meerschaum&Category0=22128
for instance tis one:
http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3578362632&category=31104#ebayphotohosting
i hope, i could help you!
Thanks everyone for your input
Seb
Yup, I recently had the same problem as I finally reached the bottom of the bag, and only the crooked ones were left. I followed the instructions and did the following:
Clean out and cut a plastic gallon milk container in half (or any large open mouthed container will do).
Fill it with diluted matte medium (I used approximately a seven to one mix).
Soak the crooked trees in the diluted mix for a few minutes.
Hang them upside down and attach a weight to the bottom (which is the top of the tree - just enough to straighten it out).
Let dry overnight.
I found that this took most (not all) of the bend out of the material. In retrospect, I think it’s okay (and even necessary) to have some trees that are not perfectly straight, as this often occurs in real life. I usually bunch the bent tress together and it looks natural.
I’m not familiar with super trees but I am aware the very nice trees can be made from the ROOTS of tumble weeds. At a Dept. 56 convention (the lighted houses you see at Christmas time) there was a person selling really neat trees and they were the roots of some kind tumble weed. Maybe we need to look under the various plants for the best tree material. Has anyone else seen these roots being used for basic trees?