Recent content by Leo in N E Illinois

The genus Diospyros includes maybe 100 species, most are tropical. This genus includes the "true ebony" species. Even American persimmon, if near 100 years old will have about 4 inches diameter of true ebony heartwood in the lower portion of its trunk. Though it's very rare to see old growth...

About the American persimmon tree, Diospyros virginiana, they are monoecious, meaning each tree is single sex, either all male flowers, or all female flowers, at least for 98% or so of the population. So the tree that flowers but doesn't fruit, it's a male. Keep it. Plant a batch of seedlings...

Well done, and looking good. That design works well.

I've seen a fair number of these types of projects started over the last 20 or more years. I don't recall seeing many 5 or 10 year updates. The trees with a simple twist seem like it should work. Lack of follow ups suggests people run into problems down the road. Please update even if it is a...

Interesting factoid If you prune an Encore azalea in late winter, removing most if not all the spring flower buds. As the azalea grows over the spring and summer, you often get a fairly decent flush of flowers in the late summer. But of course, you missed the spring flower show. So generally...

If you are in Rochester, NY you are lucky to have a great resource, Bill Valavanis and the International Bonsai Arboretum. Do call, visit if you can Bill has been doing bonsai for maybe 50 years and has tremendous knowledge...

Over in "Flowers" Gabler posted flowers of Acer x freemanii - if you are interested. Not as red as Acer rubrum, but more colorful than Acer sacharinum flowers https://www.bonsainut.com/attachments/img_1121-jpeg.535715/

I think sugar maple, Acer saccharum, is a species that needs to be worked with, and collectively we should document our successes and failures because I think this species could make an excellent bonsai. The point of bringing up JM was to demonstrate by comparison what traits we look for in...

Roy Minarai pots are great, this tree will deserve one soon.

Just watched your video. You are an excellent grower. You have a professional looking nursery. Very Nice, And great work propagating all those maples from one tree in less than 5 years. (first post in this thread was 2018, so I assume you were working with this maple only about 5 years)

I should try my hand at a few sugars. Not really trying to rehash the first couple pages when choosing a tree to put the effort into to bonsai, one should think about the "bonsai traits" of the tree. For example Japanese maple, Acer palmatum (JM) leaves that reduce well, especially with...

A couple thoughts. @Thundie - first off, I have to call "foul" on referring to Japanese bonsai as "green helmets". Obviously you never visited Japan, and your reading material choices were poor choices. There are some very mediocre "Introduction to Bonsai" type books and articles on internet...

Dendrobium orchid, for the orchid insiders Latouria section hybrid. Individual flowers will last 4 to 6 months, sometimes longer. Sadly they are shy, tend to look at the floor, and have no fragrance. Easy to grow with half day sun and frequent water, no dry rest.

Sorry didn't mean to hijack this thread.

I dug some photos of the Ficus from Chiapas mainly to see if I could, they were from 3 computers ago, and a little difficult to remember where to find. These photos are not of a tree at its "bonsai best" but clearly show how it is different from a typical willow leaf ficus. The tree that...