Hi,
I just wanted to show some pictures of my passiflora bonsai.
Maybe not completely professional and looking a bit messy, but it's the very first time in my life I managed to get a self grown bonsai tree flowering.
Started as a seed in april 2006 and grown on hydroponics to make it more unique. The plant is the regular passiflora caerulea, but I 'm keeping the Constance Eliott nearby to get some nice fruits on it later this summer (unfortunately they're not flowering simultanuously)
My cat acting as cheerleader ;)
The flowers
Side view
Picture of the stem
guess it was an ugly bonsai
No, it is not an "ugly bonsai" I think you did great. The bloom was pretty too.
Looked like the cat got all pooped out with her cheerleading and had to crash.
Do not give up there is someone that is going to notice, I did. I have started a silk tree
and a rose of sharon, dogwod seedling this year in pots and I am sure that they are
not up to snuff. But if you are happy, That is the main thing. I did the ones with the elm trees and I never got too many comments but I love my little trees. I believe I will try to do passiflora.
down here we call them "maypops" Hang in there. Yours is an inspiration to me. Thanks
Thanks very much, your reaction is very encouraging to me :)
At the moment there are three plants being trained into bonsai.
The first one is the passiflora I showed here
The second one is a 18 year old tangerine tree, which I sowed the day I learned about dark and light germinating plants during the lessons biology on school. It's a living memory of my childhood and therefore invaluable for me although it never bears flowers or fruits.
The thirth one is the Nangka tree. It doesn't grow in my climate, and it is too big for in a greenhouse. So I apply bonsai tricks to the plant so I can keep it in my greenhouse and hopefully see some fruits on it sooner or later. At the moment 4 feet high and growing very well on hydroponics.
So very glad to have encouraged you. My Mom sent me my Elm seed a year or so after I got married. I lost my Mom about 10 years ago but I still have my trees and It helps me not to miss her so much. It is nice to have plants to help us remember people who we know and love. That tangerine tree may give you a bloom one of these days. We will wait and see. Here is a picture of my Elm trees. Hope you enjoy them.The elms trees are sitting in the foreground in the square pots. The oldest one is on the left. The one in the right pot is sort of a baby yet. The tree on the left is about 20 years old. The one on the right is younger but I really don't remember how old. I keep them pruned and they keep growing back.
Thanks for sharing the beautiful bonsai pics :)
My plant collection also helps not to miss my mother too much (she died three years agoo from cancer.)
However there are quite a bit plants I took over from her so the memories are kept alive with my plant collection. One of the most important ones is a cutting of an oleander she gave to me while pruning the plant, a few months before she passed away. I hope I can keep it alive because I lost many of her plants during the exceptional cold wave last winter when I didn't managed to keep the frost out of my greenhouse. But these are no bonsai trees, although I might try it with the oleander when it gets older and bigger.
I believe if you look, you may even find an oleander that has been bonsai. I think the blooms are small enough and it sure wouldn't hurt to try. have you tried (I know this sounds crazy) a Grape vine? I have one that I keep in a pot with a miniature rose and it does pretty good. I trim it a couple times a year. I got an old wild one from the woods around here. I guess anything would work. Would give you something to practice on and won't cost a lot. I will try to get a pic. tomarrow for you.
Not yet tried grapevine, but the purple trumpet vine might get involved in my future experiments if I can keep it alive till then. There's also an oleander tree here, but it grows very slowly and is continuously balancing on the border between life and death. Maybe it might turn into a fossile bonsai if it keeps growing that way...
There will be also Davidia involucrata added to my bonsai collection. I bought it to plant in the garden, but suddenly my father (I still live in parents house) refused to add another tree so the only choice is to keep it in pots and eventually transfer it into bonsai.
I haven't pics of them because the purple trumpet vine is still a small branch with some leaves on it while the Davidia is shredded by a hailstorm and looking very ugly this year.
The Davidii will probably come back, just have to give it time. Silk trees, do you have them in Belgium? I got one and put it in a pot and it is so neat> will send you pic.
Those are small plastic pots, it is about 4 or 5'' tall, Just planted it this spring. I have Oleander but it is a shrub. You will have to keep Davdia in small pot or it will get pretty good size, but I am sure you know that> Maybe I could seed mimosa(silk tree) seed withour any problems, you think. Someone will let us know.
I don't have silk tree (anymore). I have brought a cutting from a plant from Indonesia in december 2006 but in august 2007 it was killed by spider mites. I see them sometimes in garden stores, but I'm focussing on other plants at the moment because the greenhouse is allready as full as it can be :) Hope it will be as full as it is now at the end of next winter ;) I guess you have to overwinter alot of plants too since you have zone 8b? I'm also living in a 8b here.
Really?? Wow! that is interesting, I'msure it is different. I hope your greenhouse will be as full as you want it to be. Our here this little tree is also called a Mimosa tree. It has ver long taproot and it takes a lot to kill it. But on the other hand, the limbs can bequite brittle. But it is a lovely trr in the summer with it's fluffy blossom.
Wow...beautiful bonsai.
I am interested in the hydroponics aspect.
Any suggestions for a place to buy the supplies
Hugh
I am looking to trade for nightblooming cereus or staghorn ferns.
photo is of my blooming night bloomer.
h
Beautiful bloom.I'm not trying to run you off, but to find a night blooming cereus you may have to try the Cacti and Succulent forum.
Thanks for the "wow" I owe you one for your beautiful bloom.
Still have to go a long way until I see my first cereus blooms, but at least I have got the plant in my collection :)
But... the orbea variegata is about to bloom allready. I'm very curious...
edit: well, a little bit offtopic, but I will post more pictures in the cactus and succulent forums once the flowers pop open
This message was edited Sep 30, 2009 7:33 PM
Those are as cute as can be, Cumulus 79.
Hugh, does that particular nightbloomer have a name?
I have one but, I just got it.
You want to know where to get supplies for Hydroponics?
I believe there is a forum for that. I'll check it out.
Cumulus79, the last photo of your passiflora is great, how you trimmed it up. I fear the trimming so I'm reading alot first.
Did you see the cartoon where the woman calls the fire dept, that her cat is stuck in the tree? They come running with the tall ladder and she says, "Did I forget to mention it was a bonsai tree?"
That would be cute if you had
a little ceramic cat to glue in a tree.
I love little decorative touches,
RRM
Lol about the firedept joke :)
I might consider to glue a small cat in the passiflora tree, but I'm affraid the cat will think it's a mouse, resulting in the bonsai tree being trimmed even further ;)
Hendrik
How are you doing with your Bonsai?
Have you tried anything else?
Charleen
Well, the bonsais are now standing in the greenhouse. They do not really well in the dark and humid conditions since the Nangka tree is suffering from spider mite, the oleander tree is suffering from mealy bug, the passiflora bonsai is suffering from leaf drop and the tangerine tree has now only yellow and white leaves. But it's the same story as past winters so I don't give up the plants. If I loose one this year, it will be probably the tangerine tree because this one looks really bad at the moment.
I'm considering to put the passiflora outside again to give the tangerine and oleander some extra space. What do you think is best for it given humid winter weather with temperatures between 20 and 45F? Leaving it in the greenhouse or putting it outside as long as it doesn't go below 20F?
I have added a variegated orange tree (looks really neat with bi- colored leaves and fruits), Meyer's lemon and Buddha's fingers to my collection too. They look healthy for now and are also intended to train into bonsais.
I'm not to knowable on giving humidity. Could you put large gravel or ricks in the trays and put water on the rocks just enough so
there is enough for humidity but not to have pots sitting in water. You don't want them to sit in water , merely above it, just to have moisture.
Do they make humidifiers for GH? That would work too. but you said you had "Dark and HumidConditions" Sounds like you have the moisture, just need to add lights. They may dry things out a bit.
Sounds like you have some beautiful trees to work with.
Wish I could help you more.
Charleen
I went to look up what was Budda Fingers, is this what you mean?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/98383/
Cumulus79, How did you get your start fo the Buddha Fingers? Is it a graft? I see it has no seed, so how is one Propagated?
I have some lemon trees, but not one of these.
Charleen
WHERE THE HECK IS THE BONSAI TALK. WHEN ARE THEY GETTING BACK ON LINE. ANYONE KNOW?
The bonsai talk is the variety to know how to learn to
do the bonsai. You can't bonsai without the plant!!!
Charleen,
The Buddha's fingers are bought as a mature plant, so I don't know how the plant is 'born'. I also can't see anything that looks like a graft on its stem, but probably it was grown from a vegetative cutting or maybe even tissue culture. It's the same plant as wormfood showed in the link.
I will send some pictures as soon as I get them (they are stored on a different PC)
The greenhouse is one of the brightest places I can grow the plants in. I have even choosen for double glazed windows because they allow more light to penetrate than the often used bubble pastic on single glazed windows. But I live on a high lattitude so the sun is very weak in wintertime and we got only 7 hours of daylight in midwinter. There's a ventilator running to keep the air circulating, but it doesn't help alot against the weak health of most plants.
Well I can perfectly bonsai without the plant, but I'll need new plants then ;)
I'm now on the earlier mentioned PC so I can fulfil my promises. These are the pictures of my aspirant- bonsai trees:
This is the variegated orange tree
Close up of the bi- colored fruits. I'm expecting to harvest them in january.
Weird thing is that the tree also produces regular oranges. I will harvest two completely different kinds of fruits from the same plant. Being curious if they will taste different too...
I read where the last fertilization should be done in "Early Autumn" "to encourage the maturation of the wood and to increase the general resistance of the tree patent potash sulphate maybe given in addition." I don't know if this includes Citrus trees or not. This came out of Bonsai, the complete guide to art and Technique by Paul Lesniewicz. this book gives very good illustration of growing roots over rocks.
There are a lot of things to learn by asking and helping each other.
Charleen
Buddha's fingers. It was starting a new fruit in september but it broke off when I walked too close past the tree :( A year without Buddha's fingers I guess...
Meyer's lemon
Those are so neat. You did great and the added bonus of fruit. Let me know if the fruit are that different.
so you are doing somedthing right in that gh. Have you got any of them wired to take on different forms. I want to do that with a maple tree for a Cascade look.
I will get you a pic of it tomarrow or later in the day. I have a new Lemon Cypress that I want to work with too.
Charleen
Thanks for letting me/us know that. I have given full spectrum fertiliser until september and then I switched over to water from the greenhouse pond for some low consentration basic fertilising. Maybe it was also a lack of potash causing the weak health of the plants. I think too dark conditions are the main reason, though, but I can't afford to light every single plant day and night in the greenhouse :( Maybe if the LED technology evolves a little further there will be a solution for it.
oops, looks like our messages are crossing eachother :)
I will surely let you know how the fruits are tasting. From what I heared about the variegated orange tree, I haven't to expect a lot of it.
I'm not yet in the stage of wiring those trees, so they're still very far from bonsai. The shape of the passiflora tree came even naturally, so I have to admit that I haven't any experience with shaping bonsai trees yet *blush*
