I got a fukian tea bonsai in 2011 as a gift and I have managed to keep it alive so far... really, I just kept it trimmed but didn't do anything to it. I recently started looking into bonsai with a little more intent and it is pretty neat. Eastern leaf has been a good youtube channel. I am still learning about the different aspects of styling and such. I just ordered a 1 year Japanese cork bark black pine which is supposedly one of the more challenging varieties to grow. This will be a new challenge and I can start a tree from scratch. Does anyone else grow bonsai?
I recently got one for my wife as a symbol of love and the care required for making a marriage work. A much better symbol than cut flowers on life support. I’m very new to it so following if anyone has any tips. Mine is a ficus. I will check out that YouTube channel.
Yes I am into bonsai. I recommend the bonsainut forum, for researching your trees, although they can be a bit snobbish to newcomers at times... they are certainly no FHC as far as friendly comradery. I have tropicals, like ficus, that have to be kept indoors or well above freezing. And temperate trees that I keep outside year round like JBP(although some varieties can be less cold hardy depending on what region they are from). My indoor ficus I keep in a hydroponic LED fish tank, though not required, it allows me to go weeks or more without watering them. Some supplemental light, like an LED or T5 fluorescent does increase the vigor for them. Outdoor trees generally like as much sunlight as you can throw at them. Then there is the “soil” or bonsai substrate, a topic that can spawn “soil wars” because different strokes for different folks not to mention different climates. The “modern” substrate is generally considered to be same sized (sifted) aggregate like pumice. The standard is Boon mix 1/3 lava(scoria), 1/3 akadama(Japanese clay soil chunks), 1/3 pumice all sifted to the same size. Others succeed with turface(fired clay particles) and pine bark. Brent Walston has a great primer which links to some great articles if you are really interested in bonsai and feel like doing some reading: Evergreen Gardenworks Bonsai Beginners Page probably more info than you were looking for, so I’ll leave you with some pics of my trees. A hemlock I recently tuned up, a ficus and a juniper.
For A small JBP, I recommend planting in an Anderson flat and letting it escape into the ground periodically. Growing in the ground in some form or another is about the only way to get one into bonsai shape within a human lifetime.. and read about sacrifice branches. Failing to plan a sacrifice is sacrificing a plan or something. Mine isn’t a true corker but it is a little corky. I got from a friend who air layered it about ten years ago. It’s still got a ways to go before it is ready for a real pot, but I figure these sacrifices will help beef it up and work on the taper in relatively short order
Yes! Saying the bonsai blogs are snobbish is a great understatement. I had also looked around and quickly learned that my tree was garbage and I was doing everything wrong. I guess I enjoy that long-term aspect of bonsai. It might take 40 years to turn into something... Ok! I better start soon! Thanks for the info, you have nice trees.
That's neat. I have also seen a blog for jbp where he would raise it out of the soil an inch each re-potting. That technique gave the example tree a very good taper.
Bonsai Tonight Is a good resource for advanced topics. Here is more recent pictures of my JBP. And my double stack to keep on topic
Ficus b. (too ugly) One last post, but I’d be happy to take questions. Here or over on Bonsainut with the same username(MrFancyPlants). Here is a ficus that I have taken on a journey. Two photos were from today and one from 2012.
Thanks! I have heard good things about John Naka's book Bonsai Techniques. Any other books I should check out? I haven't been able to find Naka's book online so I may actually purchase it... I am looking forward to this spring. I have some juniper, jade, maybe willow and red maple I am going to propagate. It should be a great season. I also built a greenhouse last year and I plan on taking full advantage of it. I think the tropicals will do quite well. I would post pics but my trees aren't much to look at.
I like Nick Lentz’ book “Bonsai from the wild” Mainly because there is surprisingly thin published info on U.S. Native trees. I’m not sure if he has a section on Ruberum. It is a non-traditional subject but there are some nice ones out there. Because the petioles are large, it is hard to get it look natural to scale as a small tree. Growing your subjects out well would be a good plan.
Here is a good youtube channel. I used to live near Hiro and his bonsai nursery when I lived in California years ago. He is very helpful and unpretentious and has a lot of useful videos.
