bwaynef's brimming-backyard barrage of burgeoning bonsai

[bwaynef]

I got this Stewartia about Mid-March or early April of last year. At the time it had a full canopy of leaves so I’d just missed repotting season so it stayed in its nursery container. I bought a nice cream Reiho(u?) oval for it thinking that’d look nice in winter (and not bad in summer).

The more I considered, I thought it wise to have a deeper pot in case it’s recently-collected rootball couldn’t be jammed into such a shallow pot. I prepped the Reiho, but had a deeper oval on hand.

The base wasn’t awful but I knew pretty early which pot it was going into. After sawing a good bit off the rootball, I was able to whittle it down further with recently-purchased Root-pruners. Where have THOSE things been all my life. I managed to flatten it out a little more after I took the pruned picture.

Of the eventual surface roots, one sticks up a smidge high at the angle it’s situated so there’s ever-so-slight mounding there. That will be corrected at the next repot into a shallower pot.

 

[bwaynef]

I didn’t get a before of this trident but it’s been posted before. Maybe even on this thread. I was pleased with how it turned out. I managed to find a little extra unexpected width when I removed the soil.

(This before was from a few months ago. Little has changed.)

 

[bwaynef]

This Amur maple went into the cheapest pot I own because I wanted the pot it’s in for something else. No before (because look at it), but it had a really nice rootball. I basically want this one to run rampant and build strength this year.

 

[bwaynef]

Working in the driveway was a bit cumbersome because there was a slight breeze most of the day and by noon-ish, I was in the sun. My garage is currently filled with contractor's tools and a bathtub, a toilet, and a vanity. I spent a good bit of the morning rounding everything up that was hidden behind/under stuff.

As a result, apologies for the clutter in the background of the pictures, ...or the highlights blown out.

 

[bwaynef]

Some of you may remember a trident that received a pretty cool welcome a while back. I mentioned it had the beginnings of a nice nebari buried, along with some taper and a perfectly flat base.

That nebari didn’t develop like I’d hoped, and the roots above continued to strengthen so I had to take corrective action.

 

[bwaynef]

My wife is a gifted writer, and apparently she's been paying attention. I enjoyed this, and you may or may not, ...but since this is my thread, I'm sharing it.

Many years ago when my husband and I bought our first house, we inherited the most beautiful yard full of Camellias, Bald Cypress, Daffodils, Roses, Wisteria, and Lantana. And one gorgeous Japanese Maple. My husband, who has a much greener thumb than I, quickly began to research how to best care for all of these plants, especially that one maple. This research was the beginning of what is now his passionate hobby, bonsai. Bonsai is an unique art form that expands far beyond simply keeping a plant alive (which is hard enough for me). Though you may see them sold in nursery sections of big box hardware stores or as decor for a home, these miniature trees in pots actually take lots of intricate care (which means those you often see sitting in someone’s home likely end up dead). Bonsai trees are best grown outdoors. In fact, my husband checks daily that they are getting adequate light and water. He spends time specially choosing, mixing, and sifting the soil so that it provides nutrition while also preventing disease and then fits in time right between winter and spring to begin repotting them . He plucks needles periodically in order to encourage the tree to fill in thicker in desired areas and influences where the tree spends its energy growing . He cuts off full branches in order to get just the right shape. He spends hours applying wire around the branches left so that the tree develops a perfectly aesthetic form. The ultimate goal of this tedious and precise work is that the art imitate life, that the tiny tree in a decorative pot mimics the magnificence of nature. Bonsai artists take captive the essence of the wild.

Not bad at all for someone who's almost completely plant-blind (unless there's a flower).

 

[BuckeyeOne]

I had to take corrective action.

I don't feel so bad for what I did to a recently collected Hornbeam after seeing what you did to this trident!!

Hornbeam 1

I was given permission last fall to collect hornbeams from a property near my home. This is the first one collected yesterday. It was kept in a tub with about a inch of water and covered with a trash bag overnight. The grow box is 15" X 15" X 7" deep. I am using a layer of Hydroton on the bottom...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[AlexFlost]

Wow an incredibly beautiful garden!

 

[bwaynef]

Wow an incredibly beautiful garden!

You must be lost. Thanks for the kindness though.

 

[LeftHandLuke]

My wife is a gifted writer, and apparently she's been paying attention. I enjoyed this, and you may or may not, ...but since this is my thread, I'm sharing it.



Not bad at all for someone who's almost completely plant-blind (unless there's a flower).

Very nice. If pressed to describe my hobby, my wife would simply say, "He's out there with those trees again."

 

[bwaynef]

So, this happened. I’m thinking it may have been hit with the traffic thru my garage lately. I was just brushing it with a hemp broom and that part flicked off. I can’t quite tell if there’s a fracture at that spot or not. More inspection later. One of my otter pots.

 

[bwaynef]

Here’s a JBP ‘Bansho sho’ that was liberated from the cementy-est clay ive seen. I could barely lift the pot ...much less move it.

(I’m leaning hard on the “it’d safe to repot jbp until the cherry blossoms fall” idiom @Adair M shared. )

 

[Adair M]

This fall, wire it out. Splay out those branches so that they all get sun. You’ll get back budding, and you’ll be able to shorten everything. It might take a couple years, but it will happen.

Here’s a small JBP, that was (still is) leggy, but now that it’s been splayed out, the backbuds are coming. I’ll have to let it grow for a year before I can cut back to them.

 

[bwaynef]

This fall, wire it out. Splay out those branches so that they all get sun. You’ll get back budding, and you’ll be able to shorten everything. It might take a couple years, but it will happen.

That's the plan. I got it last fall and pruned it to what you see. It opened it up considerably but it was just a CHORE to do anything with because of how heavy it was. (I'd toyed with the idea of grafting new roots on it so didn't do too much to it.). I may not get to prune it this year, but it'll probably be safe to wire it this fall.

 

[bwaynef]

It’s going to be chilly the next few nights so a bunch of my trees went on a field trip to the greenhouse or garage. (Others went under benches or simply onto the ground.)

Here’s hoping.

 

[Mikecheck123]

Is alliteration a bannable offense?

Ever wonder why you can call it a brimmable backyard barrage but not a backyard brimmable barrage?

 

[bwaynef]

I’ve been checking this Stewartia for wire bite since it sprouted it’s first leaf. I hadn’t noticed any bite but it was getting so dense I couldn’t really check it thoroughly very easily ...so I decided I’d go ahead and I wire it.

 

[bwaynef]

Also, welcomed a new tree temporarily into the fold, but it’s got one trunk that is particularly weak. Out of laziness I didn’t move it to my garden area and just put it on the picnic table next to the driveway. It was the closest resting place I could sit it down.

Playing single dad this weekend, after I got the kids settled after dinner, I went out to look at it. It hadn’t had its bark removed/cleaned in a while so I felt like that would be a good way to get familiar.

My gut for the poor health was the soil, but I figured I’d check for spider mites.

 

[bwaynef]

Here’s a bit of citizen science ...or at least citizen microscopy.

You can probably guess which ones the mature juniper foliage piece. Not sure what those eggs are, but I’ve got my suspicions.

Any guesses what the other third (I think) picture is?

The last one shows a mite on the edge of my paper, for a little perspective on size.

 

[bwaynef]

I’ve been busy but haven’t taken a ton of pictures to update this thread. Here’s a tall Japanese maple making its debut. It was dug from the field late winter and potted into an Anderson flat. I cut it back once already this spring. After returning from a trip and requisite automated watering 2x daily ...along with near daily afternoon thunderstorms, things were really growing when I got back. On a whim I just sheared this tree. I came back the next day and decided I could remove some of the extraneous stuff. Then once I got in there I saw a couple large branches that needed positioning to reveal/accentuate some movement. I put it on the table tonight and guy wired those two branches into position/out of the way. I’ve added one more piece of wire after this picture to decongest that first branch on the left.

It’s a start.

As always, apologies for the clutter of the garage. There’s a story but it’s mostly an excuse now.