[Diana]

Mentha requenii is also called Corsican Mint, Jewel Mint of Corsica.
Stays pretty much flat.
Has VERY SMALL purple flowers. Almost need a hand lens to see them.
GREAT fragrance.
Wonderful planted in part shade around stepping stones. Where it gets stepped on it won't grow (so is pruned to stay off the stones by foot traffic) and crushing it releases the great scent.

Similar looking plants:
Soleirolia soleirolii, Baby Tears. Older botanical name Helxine.
Full shade.
There is a golden leafed one and a variegated one.
No fragrance, flowers even smaller.
This one is occasionally kept as a house plant, and is common in Bonsai as a ground cover.
Can get about 6" tall in a mild, damp setting.

Pratia pedunculata with lots of older names, the most commonly known is Isotoma. Blue Star Creeper. Full sun down to about half a day of sun, but won't flower in complete shade. Flowers to 1/4", almost white (Alba) to sky blue (original species), and there is a selection with richer colored flowers (County Park), somewhere between blue and lavender. Leaves are not quite a round as the other 2.

There are other ground covers with similar small round leaves, but these are the big 3, most common in the milder zones. (I am in USDA zone 9b and do most of my landscape design work in nearby zones)

 

[Diana]

Do not use 'pruning paint' or other sealant on pruning cuts.
When properly pruned these cuts will heal by themselves.
Pruning paint often does harm.

This information is over 30 years old, but companies that sell stuff (like pruning paint) still want their money, so keep on pushing it.
Like certain aquarium keeping myths, this one keeps on going, too.

http://puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda chalker-scott/Horticultural Myths_files/Myths/Wound sealer.pdf

http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/8057.pdf

And more info about Japanese Maples and related plants.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/maple.html

 

[oldpunk78]

You guys are such a wealth of information.

Check out this cactus. We've had this for like 10 years now and it's never flowered until now. We got it from my grandmother's house and she picked it off the side of the road in a dessert 60 years ago. Anyone wanna tell me what it is?

 

[lauraleellbp]

I'm still 0% help in this thread but I can't wait to see those flowers! :bounce:

 

[GraphicGr8s]

You guys are such a wealth of information.

Check out this cactus. We've had this for like 10 years now and it's never flowered until now. We got it from my grandmother's house and she picked it off the side of the road in a dessert 60 years ago. Anyone wanna tell me what it is?

What kind of dessert was it? Cannoli? Tiramisu? Zeppoli? Sfogliatelle?

 

[ua hua]

You guys are such a wealth of information.

Check out this cactus. We've had this for like 10 years now and it's never flowered until now. We got it from my grandmother's house and she picked it off the side of the road in a dessert 60 years ago. Anyone wanna tell me what it is?

If you can get pictures of the flowers after they open it would help with identifying it but I would guess that its Echinocereus “Yellow Torch”. Did your grandma get this in California?

 

[oldpunk78]

I have no idea where it came from other than the south west. It's some kind of night flowering cactus. I guess this only once every 10-15 years. Here's a crappy pic of a flower. It just opened this evening.

The smell is amazing. I'll try to get some better pics.

 

[ua hua]

I have no idea where it came from other than the south west. It's some kind of night flowering cactus. I guess this only once every 10-15 years. Here's a crappy pic of a flower. It just opened this evening.

The smell is amazing. I'll try to get some better pics.

Thanks for posting the picture. Now that its opened I think it looks like Echinopsis (Easter lily cactus). By morning the flowers will probably be shriveled up and gone so good thing you got a picture tonight.

 

[oldpunk78]

It looks like there are still more that will bloom soon. Here's another crappy pic of the whole group:

Later this afternoon