Summer Bonsai Care

Summer seems to finally be here and now is the time to start moving all your bonsai outside.

So, everyone keeps telling you to put your bonsai & other trees outside. The reason is that the plants just grow better outside. You will have to watch them a little bit so that You can get used to them being out there.

Things to watch out for:
- Too much sunlight. Indoor plants can get sun-burnt.
- Too much water. You still have to watch out for this.
- Not little water. You can't just trust that it will rain when ever the plants need it.
- Squires, chipmunks, deer or other animals that might think your plants are toys.
- Small children. Sometimes they just want to help. Make sure they know when they can and can't help.
- Over feeding/fertilizing. This can burn the roots and cause a tree to grow really long and thin branches.

This is probably when you will be most tempted to over work your trees. You can cause a tree to burn itself out from having to keep re-growing leafs and branches. Some types of trees handle this better then others, but it's still not a good thing to do.

Also, watch out for wind storms. If you can't strap down your smaller trees then you will want to take them inside for a bit. Unless you would rather risk the tree blowing away or the pot getting smashed from falling off the work bench.

Happy working and don't forget the sunblock.

Ficus update

So... I forgot the stupid thing in a glass of water and it grew roots.

I had meant to put it in rooting hormone and starter soil... and I totally forgot about it. but this seems to have don it good and it is now in a pot of bonsai soil. so i don't know how much to water it nor when i should let it start to dry up. It is now hit or miss time again!

I also did an early re-potting of the larger ficus because I suspected the root were dead. It turned out that most of them were. Fortunately there looked to be a few living roots. At the end of an insanely long larger root that is. I had to coil it in the bottom of the pot. If I can't get more roots growing up higher then I will probably make this into a root over rock bonsai.

This is such a love hate hobby.

Willow Tree Bonsai

Or willow tree cuttings... Right now I have cuttings.

My dad went fishing and he brought them back. My mom had a fit but she got over it... kinda.

With a lot of luck they will grow roots and I can stick them into pots and everyone will be happy.

With luck that is.

Spring Bonsai Care

 Basic advice? Watch your watering, check for swelling or blooming buds and start planing how you are going to wire last years growth and what you might want to do with this years new growth potential.

So, this will be my second spring with trees in the works. This does not necessarily bode well for the trees.

I have gone through them and removed some of the obviously dead branches. I also trimmed back my mulberry bush a little. I also cut back the grapevine.I checked everything for swelling buds and they seem to be ready to put out leafs.

I had a good amount of frost damage. By keeping things in my Florida room I had hopped to avoid this, but because of the "freeze, thaw and oh look it's below zero again" weather we had I am not surprised. What did surprise me was how many things I didn't get to prepare that survived.

The junipers I'm not too sure about because they can be dead/dieing and not show it. Two look purple so they are the ones i think might have died. the third is a different variety and looks like it is alive. so it's a toss up with them.

I have a few seedlings that look like they survived the winter. Some are the last ones I have of one plant variety.... I might try looking in Lowes for another one because they look nice and grow fast. but I don't want to spend a lot, or any, money.

Ficus pt2

So the little ficus that I was afraid of loosing... is doing better-ish. I say ish because I am not sure if it will continue to do so.

In my mad dash to try and save the tree I cut it back. Trimmed the hell out of the leafs and stuck it in water until I could get the supplies to root it. Cue a visit from my sister, family stuff and work stress... And it was still in the glass of water.

Upon checking it last night it has some roots starting to grow.

All of the new roots are on only one side of the tree. Which I'm not worried about. I just want the thing to live. I am going to wait until the roots actually look like roots before I put it into real soil. No it won't be the right soil. Yes, I'm a sinner.

So, providing it lives I at least know I can root branches I trim and maybe sell the babies later on.

Bum Bum Bum Another One Bites the Dust

It is not suposed to look like this. I'm checking with my favorite bonsai forum to look for advice. :-(

My Stupid Beech Bonsai

And it really is stupid. We had on day last week of 50 degree weather and The tree opened up the a few buds. Then we were back down to 22 degrees and the newly opened buds look bad.

The good news is I know it survived the winter.
The bad news is the tree is stupid.

Over all this shouldn't do anything harmful to the tree. Beeches are very strong growers and it should bounce back. I was constantly cutting back new growth that was longer then what I was looking for. Plus I defoliated the hell out of it and it was still growing fine.

If I was smart I would try and make this into a large bonsai. However I attempting to make this into a small to medium sized bonsai in the root over rock style.

I think If I happen to find another beech that I can easily pull out of the ground then I will try for a large bonsai. But for now I wait for spring.