Ficus Bonsai

I got one last weekend. It is very dinky. It will be a very long time before I can style it. I also am going to try and remove a knob from it's side that is causing reverse taper.

The seedling I also got is very dinky also. This one could turn out very interesting in 20 or so years.

Unfortunately neither are labeled very well. I am also committing the sin of sins in the bonsai world and keeping them in my room. I am afraid that I will over/under water them. I will have to try and keep a better watch of them. So far it looks like they are doing good.

English Ivy

I totally killed my English Ivy.

I was hopping that it dropped it's leafs due to the winter and not because of me. The internet said that it was supposed to be evergreen so that answered that. Apperntly they like to dry out a little and I kinda over watered it.

After the new years I'll try taking in one of the little pots with baby succulents in it. I have no idea what type they are but they seem to be hardy little things. I managed to grow the babes from planting their leafs. So there is hope.

I also got an orchid for a gift from one of my bosses. It is doing well. So far. It is tiny and cute and still has flowers. Here's hopping.

Weird Vine & Gourd

So I 'saved' a weird vine at work a few weeks ago and no it has thrown out roots. So far they seem to just be on one side of the plant. I think they are starting to show on the other but I won't hold my breath. I am going to keep it small. with luck more branches will pop out this spring/summer. that would be very nice


Now.. the gourd... is dead.

And by dead I mean almost rotten to the point of my nose running away. I think tonight I'll hit a craft store and get the right powder to dry it out. the only problem I foresee is cleaning them out so nothing rots again.

Traumatized Gourd

I am in the proses of traumatizing a hapless gourd.

Why?

My computer at work has been down for over a week. Monday was the last straw for my ADD and I started to poke one of my decorative gourds with a needle. I had wanted to take it home to hollow and dry but kept forgetting it.

Now it has salt and tissues in it. I blame my limited resources at work.

So... If this works I might be doing the same to the other five gourds on my desk. The office is very dry so the mold has been kept at bay. So I can wait to see what happens before I have to worry about the others.

Oi...

So, at my parents house we have several burning bushes. They are very nice and one had a smaller bush that was about 3 feet talk when I noticed it over the summer. I heard they back bud wonderfully. Even on old wood.

Imagine my surprise when I wander over to talk to my dad so he doesn't cut it. Only to see the guilty look and lo! It has been chopped in half. I think he forgot it was there when he was trimming the bigger bush. Which is fine since now it will be easier to dig up and handle. If only we could have one more good weekend to work out side prior to snow fall.

I don't want to style it as a broom but the trunk is strait as a pencil. Maybe after I get it out of the ground something will jump out at me?

Butterfly Bush & Mums

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. :-(

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.