Any Luck Making Trees,etc out of Landscape Plants?

[bigB]

Anyone had any luck making trees and shrubs for HO out of their flowering plants from their yard?

I have a couple butterfly bushes and other perennials that put out spent flowers/branches that look alot like store bought trees.

Anyone had any luck converting these to scenery for their layout?

I was thinking that I could either dry them out and spray paint them or I could just spray them right away with spray paint or clear coat.

Anyone had any luck doing this?

 

[grove den]

Try Spirea bumalda 'Anthony waterer'
or Sedum spectabile
cut them in start autumn and let dry for some weeks inside and remove the leaves...
also roots of many maples, beaches oaks or Buxus sempervirens can be very useful to make "frames" for trees...

Jos

 

[bigB]

Great thanks.

Yeah i have a agastache bush which has perfect bottle brush type spent flower blooms on it right now. looks alot like pine conifers. also have a butterfly bush, sedum autumn joy, spirea and several other plants that look like they should be useful.

 

[kenw]

the seed branches of the Nandina make fabulous trees.

 

[cicsos2]

Mostly I use the seed branches from my Nadina but I also have a few from a butterfly bush - taken with the permission of the owner - early September.

I allowed a week for drying, sprayed with hair spray, sprinkled with fine ground foam, sprayed again and planted. They have a "good" side and a "not so good" side.

 

[bigB]

I did notice that the butterfly bush blooms do have a "good" or full side and a less full side. Ive found that for the fullest blooms and therefore trees you have to pick the blooms that grew almost vertically so that the sun hit them pretty much equally on all sides.

Hey, do you guys just use hair spray to glue on your ground foam or some type of spray adhesive?

Thanks...

 

[Rico]

I use a lot of tree roots as well, particularily Maple as Jos mentioned. They grow like weeds around here. A small tree 6" to 12" is a good start if you can carefully remove the dirt without removing the small roots.
They make great dead trees when painted and look great in swamps!
I don't have a pic of the finished product but here's a couple of a "for now" kind of tree.

 

[cicsos2]

Hey, do you guys just use hair spray to glue on your ground foam or some type of spray adhesive?

Thanks...

I get the cheapest kind I can find - unscented and made with lacquer - usually found at a Dollar General store - for an initial spray during the drying and then as a final spray. Usually I'll dip the "tree" in diluted white glue - but for the butterfly bushes - I used an extra heavy dose of hair spray -

Have fun.

 

[grove den]

May be not exactly "on toppic"but it is made of an old garden plant: Buxus sempervirens...
I stripped the bark and this came out: a beautiful HO olivetree "sculptered"trunk...
Now only I have to add the branches and foliage!

Jos

 

[saronaterry]

I use goldenrod spray painted a light green then dusted with ground foam/ dyed sawdust:

Hope it helps.
Terry

 

[Beachbum]

I use dried sedum from the flower bed in front of my place. Dip it or spray it in whatever adhesive is handy and shake WS ground foam on it.

 

[starc]

Here are some pictures of a tree I made with an old dried out weed and some sedum from the garden.
Not really done yet, have to be painted etc...

 

[starc]

Forgot to mention in my last post, I am modeling in On30.

Starting another one today that I want to build a tree house in.
It is just a branch pruned from a tree. I remove the bark with a knife.
I drilled some holes and added more branches where needed.

 

[Cjcrescent]

We in cetral Alabama are actually lucky in regards to using natural materials for trees. We have a plant here, called Wild Oak Leaf Hydrangea. Its a perennial, that in the autumn its flowers turn brown, and it releases seeds for its pods that are close to the blooms. When I say it grows wild, it really is all over the place.

They are real easy to process, you get a pair of scissors, cut off the blooms, and you're left with a very nice armature. These can be dipped in glue, and ground foam applied, or the colored "netting", (vines?), from WS can be stretched out over the tree and glue sprayed on to it with ground foam then shaken on to it.

There are many other ways to handle the "frames", as there are ways to come up with new trees. These can vary in length from 6-12" in height.

 

[starc]

Trees painted, no leves yet though...still thinking about that.

 

[starc]

Started the tree house.

 

[montanan]

I have been using sagebrush for years.

 

[logandsawman]

Hey, some neet trees on here.

Here is one using goldenrod, which is a common weed in most of Northeastern US. The stems can easily be cut up to make authentic sized saw logs for MN or WISC as well.






I have instructions for the logs on my thread "alternative materials",

http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?32293-Alternative-materials/page5. (post 43)

logandsawman

 

[starc]

A little more done...

 

[gseritt]

I'm really diggin what I've seen so far! Thanks for all the tips on trees and Starc, I'm looking forward to seeing the construction of the tree house. Looking good!