What is this tool? Seedling waterer? Bonsai?

June 5, 2009 4:27 PM

Looking for a gardening tool & have no idea what it is: seedling waterer? bonsai tool? It's a metal rosette like you'd see attached to a watering can, maybe 3" across, with a pencil-sized metal pipe leading to a squeezy rubber bulb on the end.

The rubber bulb allows you to directly slurp up water through the rosette into the tool itself, and conversely, when you squeeze it, it comes out in a lovely light misty sprinkle, which leads me to believe it's for watering hyperdelicate seedlings. What is this thing, and more importantly, where can I buy one? Bonsai watering cans don't seem to have the rubber bulb thingy on the end. Thanks!

posted by bitter-girl.com to home & garden (11 comments total)

I'm not sure what the gardening tool is called, but an alternative might be a bulb syringe, available in the baby care section of the drugstore.
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:36 PM on June 5

Hi MonkeyToes, yes, the end does look like a bulb syringe, but I need the whole shebang with the bulb AND the metal rosette on the end.

Although I'm pretty sure it's probably a gardening tool, I actually will be using it for a craft in which I need to sprinkle fine amounts of water over a surface and suck up the excess on the table as needed...the first time I saw one, a student of mine brought it to a class I was teaching but she'd gotten from another teacher and had no idea what it was called or where it was from, or...
posted by bitter-girl.com at 4:47 PM on June 5

A bottle top rose attaches to a plastic water bottle. I've only seen them on UK sites, though.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:56 PM on June 5

I'm kind of a plant nerd and I have never seen such a thing. I definitely don't know everything, but is it possible that the one you saw was homemade from a turkey baster and a rose from a watering can?
posted by killerinsideme at 4:56 PM on June 5

Oh right, you want to suck up (!) the water as well.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:56 PM on June 5

I found it in reference to feltmaking but in the UK: http://www.winghamwoolwork.co.uk/images/bulb_spray.jpg
posted by rhizome at 4:58 PM on June 5

OK, I did a search for "rubber bulb sprinkler" and found one from Lee Valley.
posted by oneirodynia at 5:00 PM on June 5

That is EXACTLY it, rhizome, and exactly what I want it for (wet felting). I've sent them an email to see if they do any bulk ordering, but if anyone else has spotted these on a US site, or knows what the hell they're really supposed to be used for, I'd appreciate it!

The MeFi hivemind rules!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:05 PM on June 5

That Lee Valley one has a smaller rosette but same principle at work -- thanks for additional Google-fu, oneirodynia!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 5:08 PM on June 5

Ballbaruses. Found here.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:15 PM on June 5

Awesome. (Clearly, though, they were originally designed for something else? it's not like there are THAT many wet felters out there, eh?)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 11:04 PM on June 5