There's an art to staging plants for photography. In situ, one needs to balance the natural appearance of the subject plant with good framing to get an image that focuses on that plant's characters. A book I recommend to people for good examples of in situ careful cleaning, twig removal, etc, is Plants of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, by H. Wayne Phillips. These images are all of native species. Wayne uses scissors, pruning clippers, and brushes to clean away stray leaves (stray grass leaves and long conifer needles are especially annoying in otherwise excellent closeups). He often takes 30 minutes to clean up a site around one plant for one final image, then takes 30-50 images with 2-3 cameras. I tend to move faster, and inevitably find the branch, clump of grass, one dead leaf from the tree above on a flower, etc, only when reviewing images later at home. In a yard or greenhouse, it's easy to take shots and then check them on the computer, and go back out to do it better. This is a great personal training practice: take the pictures, study them, figure out how to do them better, and go back out and take them all over again. With potted plants, people clean up just as much as they feel is needed to show the plant at its best, with the added advantage of being able to move the pot for optimal light and viewing angles. Some people use water misters and cloths to polish leaves, prune off dead leaves, etc, all to show the plant off. We look forward to seeing your new images. Kathleen, from the SW Washington Coast, where it's rained 2.4 inches in the past 17 hours, and 4 inches in the past 3 days, with more rain coming.