Herby,
I believe that is several ficus tree saplings woven together. Several different species of trees will fuse together when the trunks touch. Ficus and Maple are a couple of these species.
I went to a friend's house today and helped dig up about 20 mature Bald Cypress. We then flattened out the root base and planted into plastic training trays.
Trunks on them ranged from 5" diam to 1 1/2".
They'll make great bonsai in a couple of years.
International Bonsai Exhibition here - some pix
Mondavid:
Thanks for the information...I just bought some Japanese green maples I just might try "fusing" some of them together it really is a lovely effect. Bald Cypress is a really nice looking tree I would bet that fusing that many together would really look nice. I can not wait to see what I have going in five years...lol.
my three year old juniper bonsai is getting kind of yellow--i only water it once a week but it has gotten hot and sunny some days --it is in the sun for the morning--is it too much sun maybe
Plano Lin,
Once a week sounds not nearly enough water. Especially in Texas. When it get warm here, I water most of my trees once a day, especially the ones in small pots. Use a chop stick and stick it in the soil daily. If it comes up sorta dry, WATER. Too much water is bad but too little is a sure killer for Bonsai. Juniper do nto give you much warning. They will just keel over and die.
All, go to Dugzbonsai.com, this guy has some really innovative ways of creating old looking trees out of young stock.
thanks--i will water more and hope that i am not too late~!
I've been following this thread on and off and I'm happy that it has been useful to others as I see the exchanges going on nicely. It may trigger my interest too in the coming months... if things on the homefront support such a one. [long story]
What a great Bonsai time of year! Here in San Diego we just went from cool to warm to stormy, wet cool to, all of a sudden 85-90 degrees yesterday.
The deciduous trees are really popping some buds. maples are coming super fast, grapes are already showing teeny bunches of grapes (super tiny), pines have candles coming out all over and all the evergreens have new growth to the point where I am already pinching them back.
Deserts here in the Southland are also looking just gorgeous. We had a nice, wet winter (for a change) and the desert plants and seed in hibernation are responding magnificently.
I just love the new beginnings this time of year brings.
Sproing!
CMoxon, I'm also in z5a (about 30 or so miles from you). I purchased a number of tiny Japanese Maple grafts last fall, when they were already going dormant. I overwintered them in my unheated detached garage, and two of them are now staring to show swelling buds. A lot of people on the JM board had me convinced that I would kill them all and was nuts as an amateur just starting out to buy tiny 1-3 year old grafts. The all look alive, although the 'Emerald Lace' seems to have some winter damage, which is ironic because it is supposedly the hardiest of the bunch!
For me, I did not intend to use any JM specifically for bonsai, but my 'Ariadne' and 'Jerre Swartz' just look like ideal candidates. I ordered another eight JM's this year (and will probably buy more in the fall) that will arrive in mid-late May after they go through the spring flush. I plan on getting a few bonsai books from the library this weekend and just going from there. I'm not so interested in keeping things tiny, I like stuff in the 2-3' range, but from everything I've heard there is so much bonsai can teach for general container growing and tree care.
I hate to break it to you, but you're probably going to have to look outside our immediate area for plant material sources! There are lots of wonderful mail-order supply companies, though!
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for the info on your JM grafts. What a great idea! I love JMs too, but have not had tremendous success with them in my garden because I think I get too much sun. I moved last month though, so this new garden may be better for them, although I am now rural and have deer to worry about. Did you use a particular mail order source for your JMs? I order most of my garden plants from Bluestone Perennials, plus a few from some specialty fruit suppliers like Raintree and One Green World. Are you going to try doing any training of the branches on your JMs to get them to take a certain form? Even if you don't keep them necessarily bonsai-small, you could probably still do some neat things with encouraging their shapes.
So you are in Iowa City? That's about 135 miles I think....
Ooops, I had Urbandale confused with another town.
I ordered my baby grafts last year from Mendocino Maples. I was very happy with the service and product received, as well as "support" when I panicked and thought I killed them all by not bringing them into the house during our long hard winter. I live directly in the city, so deer are not a problem, but rabbits and squirrels are.
I will probably try some training on my 'Ariadne' and 'Jerre Swartz'. They were each grafted in 2006 so it is probably time. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, though, I'm going to check out a few books from the library this weekend and see if I can get a few ideas. My neighbor orders a lot of things from Bluestone, I'm just not that impressed with that company. For woody material, especially really specialty items like JMs, I prefer to order from nurseries who have a passion for what they produce. Just my two cents, though!
Elizabeth
This is a good time of year for air layering. if you have some JM's in the ground or large ones in pots, you can get some great trees off the branches that you may be thinking of lopping off anyway. maples take air layering really well and hey, you end up with more mature trees right out the gate.
I have 3 bonsai plants. one is a ficus which I bought in a glued-down pot a few years ago. This year I took a screwdriver and pried up the glued rocks . They came off cleanly in 3 pieces leaving undisturbed soil. I started 8 seedlings of jasmine a few years ago. Leaving them out on my patio[ protected from wind] during summer. They are now down to 3 sturdy plants and I have tried twisting them but so far they have not fused. They also haven't bloomed because of pinching back. I have a lemon tree which I started from seed [ lemon from the grocery store] which i've allowed to get about 3 feet tall. I'm going to keep cutting it back, however. It also lives on the patio during summer. My 3rd bonsai is from a huge stem which I pulled up to show the roots. I cut off the branches and it is now full of beautiful round leaves. The secret to bonsai is soil mixture, water and sunlight. I have a probe to insert in the soil to tell me if it needs water. I use this for my orchids,also. It is worth the investment. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Hi Kaytucci,
Nice to see another Iowa lemon grower. I have 2 lemons, 2 limes, a limequat, and an orange. I love putting them out in the summer and watching the fruits develop.
I'm interested in your jasmine - maybe I should try that! I didn't know they could come indoors.
Claire
My lemon has not bloomed. Is it because I keep pinching it back? cmoxon, how tall are your fruit trees?
My orange is the tallest at about 4 feet. It only had 1 orange last year.
My lemons and my lime are about 2 to 2.5 feet tall. This year one had 3 lemons on it and they got HUGE! The lime had a couple on it too. The kumquat that I have is smaller. I just recently bought a variegated lemon and it's tiny yet but I love the leaves. I got most of my citrus from Four Winds citrus mail ordered from California - really good quality plants.
The flowers do appear at the tips of the branches so that might be a reason yours isn't blooming.
Here is a blog post I did on my lemon in October of last year. You can see the size of it compared to a regular coke can.
http://chooksiniowa.blogspot.com/2008/10/when-life-gives-you-lemon-use-it.html
wow, they are beautiful, I especially love the one with a forest full of trees...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=4227758
I love them all. It is very interesting to see all this pictures.
Thank you all for showing. Bonsai Envy, here. ☺
Book Marked*
Good it is moved to here. Now I'll be glad more people will be able to see this collection.
Dinu, thank you for having initiating this thread, thank also goes to DG's staff for moving this thread over here to this forum. I just know there are people that admire 'bonsai' art, but don't feel at ease with the topic. But like Mondavid already mentioned above. One can learn so much more about plants/trees in general while caring for a 'bonsai'. Keep that love of nature burning. I'm. Thanks once again, Dinu.
Kim
Hello again, Kim. Many thanks. I love watching the Bonsai someone has grown, because of limitations of several things from my side. My intention is worth if someone enjoys my sharing of things that are not my own. It's really a pleasure. Bonsai is a rather tricky subject, so it is no surprise about the response.
Is there any bonsai growing tips ya'll wouldn't ind sharing to a bonsai newbie? I'm really excited about trying this out
I wished I could, but I am also a novice. I'm just a gardener who loves to grow 'plants in pots'. lol
Thank for re-open this thread. It has been 4 years since last post. Welcome to DG site bonsai_ninja.
