The butterfly bush was put into the ground this weekend. It is now a very happy butterfly bush that has put out new growth. Hopefully this will not harm it and it will come back next year.
My mums... or mum... whatever, it is doing very well. Unfortunately after my mom complemented it she said that they have had bad luck planting them and getting them to live. I was not a happy camper when I heard this. I need to do some research to see if there is any way to try and coax it into living through the winter.
Other then that we had a rather large wind storm last night. The wind was stronger near the tops of the trees so all the leafs are still in the back yard. All the warm weather that we had been having seems to have left with the storm. my co-workers were joking about the snow coming soon. :-(
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Wild Grape as Bonsai pt2
I tried popping onto Google for trimming advice. A lot of what I found was for killing wild grape vines and people saying that they were invasive. This boggles me to no end because they are a natrual species.
Oi.
So I'm getting around in the same circle. I don't want it to louse its shape. I also don't want it to try putting out fruit before I really know what I'm doing. What I want it to do is put out a few more suckers lower down the mail trunk to bulk it up. But what I want is not necessarily what will happen.
Oi.
So I'm getting around in the same circle. I don't want it to louse its shape. I also don't want it to try putting out fruit before I really know what I'm doing. What I want it to do is put out a few more suckers lower down the mail trunk to bulk it up. But what I want is not necessarily what will happen.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Mystery fungus
Don't you just love these sot of things?
The mystery fungus was bright orange and created lots of little points on the underside of one of my poplars. Said poplar is now residing in the trash waiting for garbage day. My dad insisted on tossing it, I was pretty pissed but agreed.
I'll just skip over the giant argument of were the poplar got infected and if it would come back if the sapling was defoliated.
Fortunately we have a lot of poplars in the yard so even thought I lost a whole growing season on one plant, I can still not loose the time I spent working on it. That knowledge doesn't make me any happier though. :-(
The mystery fungus was bright orange and created lots of little points on the underside of one of my poplars. Said poplar is now residing in the trash waiting for garbage day. My dad insisted on tossing it, I was pretty pissed but agreed.
I'll just skip over the giant argument of were the poplar got infected and if it would come back if the sapling was defoliated.
Fortunately we have a lot of poplars in the yard so even thought I lost a whole growing season on one plant, I can still not loose the time I spent working on it. That knowledge doesn't make me any happier though. :-(
Friday, October 8, 2010
Fall Bonsai Care pt2
My new and improved list of things I need to do just got longer and shorter at the same time.
1) Watering.
I seriously have to adjust how I water my plants. I thought I had lessened my watering enugh untill I picked up my Cotoneaster and spilled a ton of water about. Because it's tray is attached to it's temp pot I had to tip it to drain the built up water. This is what I get for not useing the chopstick method for watering.
The chopstick method is to take a cheep take-out chopstick and stick it in the soil of your pot. Some people say to go for the root ball and others say the edge. Right now I place it in between the root ball and the edge of the pot. This works very well for real bonsai soil.
2) Move bonsai to a new location or more protected location.
This makes sense to me just because I have frozen a pot and watched it slowly brake apart during the winter. my dad has put pots in the ground to prevent the roots of the plant from dieing. But due to my inability to keep things alive I found I have mostly saplings. I'm still not sure were I'm going to put with my Cotoneaster yet.
3) Plant saplings outside to encorage growth.
I have a nice spot on the side of the house. Almost everything I have is going to be planted there. I have marble tiles in the basement that I am going to put under them so I don't have to dig deep when they are ready to be truly worked on.
The whole 'put it in the ground and forget it' advice shtick is heavily thrown in your face if you are brand new or not sure when you should start to gently guide your plants. I have seen people post such a response on some forums and nothing else or seem to get hostile. If you have been in this situation then just play with your tree in a pot. you will get a feel for it and know when to stick it in the ground. :3
4) Protecting the plants in the ground.
At my house we have bunnies, moles and chipmunks that will eat anything they can reach during the winter. My dad has some finer chicken wire that they should not be able to get through so I am going to make a good sized cover from it. Tall enough to protect the tops after I stick the thing as deep as I can the the little buggers can't dig in to get them.
Beyond the four things I have listed I'm not sure what else I can do. I wish I could stick things in my basement because it's cold enough to let them go dormant, but I just don't know.
1) Watering.
I seriously have to adjust how I water my plants. I thought I had lessened my watering enugh untill I picked up my Cotoneaster and spilled a ton of water about. Because it's tray is attached to it's temp pot I had to tip it to drain the built up water. This is what I get for not useing the chopstick method for watering.
The chopstick method is to take a cheep take-out chopstick and stick it in the soil of your pot. Some people say to go for the root ball and others say the edge. Right now I place it in between the root ball and the edge of the pot. This works very well for real bonsai soil.
2) Move bonsai to a new location or more protected location.
This makes sense to me just because I have frozen a pot and watched it slowly brake apart during the winter. my dad has put pots in the ground to prevent the roots of the plant from dieing. But due to my inability to keep things alive I found I have mostly saplings. I'm still not sure were I'm going to put with my Cotoneaster yet.
3) Plant saplings outside to encorage growth.
I have a nice spot on the side of the house. Almost everything I have is going to be planted there. I have marble tiles in the basement that I am going to put under them so I don't have to dig deep when they are ready to be truly worked on.
The whole 'put it in the ground and forget it' advice shtick is heavily thrown in your face if you are brand new or not sure when you should start to gently guide your plants. I have seen people post such a response on some forums and nothing else or seem to get hostile. If you have been in this situation then just play with your tree in a pot. you will get a feel for it and know when to stick it in the ground. :3
4) Protecting the plants in the ground.
At my house we have bunnies, moles and chipmunks that will eat anything they can reach during the winter. My dad has some finer chicken wire that they should not be able to get through so I am going to make a good sized cover from it. Tall enough to protect the tops after I stick the thing as deep as I can the the little buggers can't dig in to get them.
Beyond the four things I have listed I'm not sure what else I can do. I wish I could stick things in my basement because it's cold enough to let them go dormant, but I just don't know.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Fall Bonsai Care
I started moving some of my non-blizzard tolerant plants into the Florida room. It's basically a porch closed off with sliding glass doors so it isn't temperature controlled. But it does offer a bit of protection until i can set something up inside.
Yes, I'm committing the cardinal sin of bonsai. Keeping the plant inside!
My hope is to clear out my shelves in the garage again. It worked last year for the maple and juniper. I think I'll sneak them into my dads boat so they get a little more protection. This is far from the perfect situation, but I still live at home and my mom doesn't like plants inside.
Which doesn't stop me from taking them inside any how.
Fortunately the Sequoya will be safe in the kitchen along with my lavender. With the orchids and other things that haven't died on me yet. I have a few poplars that I am going to put in the ground. They are far too small for anything right now. with luck the rabbits and moles won't eat them.
Yes, I'm committing the cardinal sin of bonsai. Keeping the plant inside!
My hope is to clear out my shelves in the garage again. It worked last year for the maple and juniper. I think I'll sneak them into my dads boat so they get a little more protection. This is far from the perfect situation, but I still live at home and my mom doesn't like plants inside.
Which doesn't stop me from taking them inside any how.
Fortunately the Sequoya will be safe in the kitchen along with my lavender. With the orchids and other things that haven't died on me yet. I have a few poplars that I am going to put in the ground. They are far too small for anything right now. with luck the rabbits and moles won't eat them.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Grapevine Bonsai
I-er don't have on per say. What I do have is a ill kept grapevine in a pot. It is very scraggly if you peek at it past the leafs that it put out this summer.
See, in the beginning I did surf around looking at what few I could find on the internet. At around $65 a pop I decided that I would try and cultivate my own. Silly me believed that it wouldn't be all that hard.
My first problem was locating a Grapevine that I could dig up. Second to that was finding the roots to dig up. Ad to that one that was legal to did up because I did not want to spend money on permits and the such. Fortunately my boss suggested digging up ones that were growing in our court yard that was being dug up. I ended up getting several plants from there. A mulberry, several mystery plants and one itty bitty twig of a grapevine with a smattering of roots. Since it had roots growing in two sections I had to stick it into a deep pot, which isn't much use for a bonsai's shallow pot.
So my next brilliant idea was to root cuttings.
Out of about a dozen different cuttings only one survived. A few died right off the back. The one that lived didn't have a visible root for around 3 months. That lone root is now growing feeder roots like it was going out of style. As soon as there are enough roots I'm sticking it into a pot. Right now the roots are at the base of the cutting and would be very shallow. Sadly it's a very twiggy looking cutting.
As of right now I am on the side of Grapevines not making very cheep nor very good bonsai. Maybe in a few years I'll look back and change my mind.
See, in the beginning I did surf around looking at what few I could find on the internet. At around $65 a pop I decided that I would try and cultivate my own. Silly me believed that it wouldn't be all that hard.
My first problem was locating a Grapevine that I could dig up. Second to that was finding the roots to dig up. Ad to that one that was legal to did up because I did not want to spend money on permits and the such. Fortunately my boss suggested digging up ones that were growing in our court yard that was being dug up. I ended up getting several plants from there. A mulberry, several mystery plants and one itty bitty twig of a grapevine with a smattering of roots. Since it had roots growing in two sections I had to stick it into a deep pot, which isn't much use for a bonsai's shallow pot.
So my next brilliant idea was to root cuttings.
Out of about a dozen different cuttings only one survived. A few died right off the back. The one that lived didn't have a visible root for around 3 months. That lone root is now growing feeder roots like it was going out of style. As soon as there are enough roots I'm sticking it into a pot. Right now the roots are at the base of the cutting and would be very shallow. Sadly it's a very twiggy looking cutting.
As of right now I am on the side of Grapevines not making very cheep nor very good bonsai. Maybe in a few years I'll look back and change my mind.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Bonsai Master
I had a wonderful conversation with a master named Danny on Saturday. I never realise how much you could only understand in person.
Best conversation ever.
I didn't get advice so much as why certain things are done. The internet is full of how to do this but not why it's done and why it works. In the one hour that I talked with Danny, we covered so much, things just started making sense.
He has even purchased a bonsai from Japan.
He did not tell me what he spent on it. But he did tell me that it was over 300 pears old when he purchased it. There was a ream of paper work documenting every single person that had ever worked on it. He also said there were fees and paper work to get the tree into the US. When he got the tree, he met the son of the former owner for a moment. The son had carried the tree on the plane on his lap from Japan to Seattle (Danny is from New York, another round trip plane ticket.) to hand it off. Then he hopped onto another plane back to Japan. This was added to the price of course.
Then after all this, his wife found out what he had spent on the tree. That ended up costing him a diamond necklace with matching earrings.
Now, what he did tell me was what it is/was insured for back in the day when he bought it. $25,000. He said that today the tree is worth more then what he insured it for. I just about dies at the price. He laughed at my reaction.
The conversation just covered so much in that one hour that I was a little over whelmed. I am going to do my best to go to the bonsai sociaties meeting in October. It will be their auction meeting so I'm going to bring a very limited amount of cash with me. He said the lowest price he usually see's is around $350. but who knows? Maybe I can walk away with something everyone gave up on.
Best conversation ever.
I didn't get advice so much as why certain things are done. The internet is full of how to do this but not why it's done and why it works. In the one hour that I talked with Danny, we covered so much, things just started making sense.
He has even purchased a bonsai from Japan.
He did not tell me what he spent on it. But he did tell me that it was over 300 pears old when he purchased it. There was a ream of paper work documenting every single person that had ever worked on it. He also said there were fees and paper work to get the tree into the US. When he got the tree, he met the son of the former owner for a moment. The son had carried the tree on the plane on his lap from Japan to Seattle (Danny is from New York, another round trip plane ticket.) to hand it off. Then he hopped onto another plane back to Japan. This was added to the price of course.
Then after all this, his wife found out what he had spent on the tree. That ended up costing him a diamond necklace with matching earrings.
Now, what he did tell me was what it is/was insured for back in the day when he bought it. $25,000. He said that today the tree is worth more then what he insured it for. I just about dies at the price. He laughed at my reaction.
The conversation just covered so much in that one hour that I was a little over whelmed. I am going to do my best to go to the bonsai sociaties meeting in October. It will be their auction meeting so I'm going to bring a very limited amount of cash with me. He said the lowest price he usually see's is around $350. but who knows? Maybe I can walk away with something everyone gave up on.
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