Newbies - want to share your trees?

[frodo1968294]

Hi and welcome aboard!

You get an A for effort on these guys!

Wiring itself is a learning experience. Couple that with knowing the rules of wiring and most folks can put on wire adequately.

The act of Bonsai wiring is an art because:

You must envision your design on an imperfect tree, then know

what to prune​

what to wire​

how to bend properly​

to create the design​

on an imperfectly designed tree.​

​

I know this because I'm learning how!

Cheers
DSD sends

​

Appreciate the kind words. Its definitely a huge learning curve.

 

[JoB]

Finally got around to getting a pic of this wild tree your one juniper reminded me of, albeit a pretty crappy pic with my crappy phone camera that has crappy zoom. It's the one near dead center of the frame. Not sure why, but this tree has always caught my attention. I think it's the simplicity of character.

here is the current status ... it had a repot into decent soil this spring and has really started to grow now ... what do the more experienced guys think ? .. I am thinking of just letting it run this summer and see what I have to try to save my massacre a little next year - maybe putting some wire on the truck to get some more movement where I have marked yellow ?

 

[rawlyn]

Went to get cut paste and saw this hibiscus, another non-popular bonsai choice to add to the collection! I like it, particularly the trunk and nebari. Not sure it's got good bonsai potential, but I like it and the flowers look lovely!

Thankfully I did remember to get cut paste too!

Edit - I'm guessing it's not ideal that the two main branches are coming from the same point?

I would imagine if you grow this one tall enough, you may be able to develop it as a twin trunk style. It's got a pretty nice looking base.

I've got something similar that I dug out of my yard and stuck in a pot a couple of years ago - Rose of Sharon (hibiscus syriacus). It, too has a questionable first branching, that I'm hoping to address with some loops of plastic covered wire screwed into the sides of the grow box - but I'll not be expecting any miracles. (It's also in serious need of a trim - even though I just had it looking tidy a few weeks ago).



From what I've read, the problem with these is that the leaves and flowers are so large (and don't reduce), so they need to be grown to be very large.

- Mike

 

[rawlyn]

Most of my trees:



From left to right: cotoneaster, flowering quince, barberry, Jack pines, bougainvillea, boxwood, Chinese elm (mallsai rescue being trained for root over rock), San Jose juniper, Rose of Sharon, pomegranate (probably deceased)


Top shelf: tamarinds and mangoes - all grown from seed
Middle shelf: Japanese maple cutting, poinsettia (not intended to ever be bonsai)
Bottom: another barberry

Bald Cypress (one year old from bare rooted whip)




Calamondin orange and "Mimi" azalea (kaempferi?) that I'm trying to fatten up.



The azalea in flower.

Mostly, a bunch of stuff that is several years away from anything resembling refinement. But, hopefully some will get there.

- Mike

 

[Carlslaw]

Hi there forum from Brisbane Australia. I’m now hooked on bonsai and need more knowledge, hence the signing up to this page. I love everything about bonsai and thought I could share some of my starters. I went from 2 bonsai to around 100 various seeds and starters in 2 weeks hahha.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Hi there forum from Brisbane Australia. I’m now hooked on bonsai and need more knowledge, hence the signing up to this page. I love everything about bonsai and thought I could share some of my starters. I went from 2 bonsai to around 100 various seeds and starters in 2 weeks hahha.

Well, welcome aboard Mate!
Looks like you have a nice start towards smaller bonsai!
Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Harry Bushwhacker]

While I may not be a super newbie to the page, I still consider myself a newbie. This is a tiger bark ficus that I’ve been working on for a little bit. I’m going for a windswept look

 

[rawlyn]

Hi there forum from Brisbane Australia. I’m now hooked on bonsai and need more knowledge, hence the signing up to this page. I love everything about bonsai and thought I could share some of my starters. I went from 2 bonsai to around 100 various seeds and starters in 2 weeks hahha.

Nice looking collection. Are any of those Aussie natives? (Maybe a bottle brush?)

Most of my in-laws live in the Sydney area, and last time we visited, we spent an enjoyable few hours at the National Bonsai and Penjing museum in Canberra. You've got some really neat material to work with over there.

- Mike

 

[Clorgan]

I would imagine if you grow this one tall enough, you may be able to develop it as a twin trunk style. It's got a pretty nice looking base.

I've got something similar that I dug out of my yard and stuck in a pot a couple of years ago - Rose of Sharon (hibiscus syriacus). It, too has a questionable first branching, that I'm hoping to address with some loops of plastic covered wire screwed into the sides of the grow box - but I'll not be expecting any miracles. (It's also in serious need of a trim - even though I just had it looking tidy a few weeks ago).

View attachment 314126

From what I've read, the problem with these is that the leaves and flowers are so large (and don't reduce), so they need to be grown to be very large.

- Mike

Oh nice! Cheers for the input and the pic, I like it! Yeah we'll see where it's at in a few years!

 

[Clorgan]

Crape Myrtle and a strange furry looking specimen

(Chops need sorting - on the crape and the dog if he carries on trying to eat it)

 

[Carlslaw]

Nice looking collection. Are any of those Aussie natives? (Maybe a bottle brush?)

Most of my in-laws live in the Sydney area, and last time we visited, we spent an enjoyable few hours at the National Bonsai and Penjing museum in Canberra. You've got some really neat material to work with over there.

- Mike

Hey Mike, correct there is a bottle brush or 2 in my collection. Also have Qld bottle trees and some banksia varieties. Definitely got some good plants to play with. Playing the waiting game now.

 

[Balbs]

Repotted and pruned my dwarf jade today. I was inspired by a thread by @just.wing.it . Sorry for the ugly pictures.

 

[AussieBonsai]

I posted my juniper design here a couple of weeks ago and the subsequent cockup of not repotting it first. I thought I’d follow on by saying that the tree was indeed repotted and is doing well, thankfully. Two branches were lost near the crown, which weren’t potting related, but rather twisting at the collar when wiring and something I found out is a common problem/mistake made with these. Also, I’ve learnt I need to wire much less tightly.. Thankfully they made nice jins.... I’ve thinned out abit more and now looking for a suitable cascade pot.. On a side note, nursery stock here in Singapore largely comes from China and are potted in a clay, as this is the only way they can transport them via container ships without drying out.

 

[rawlyn]

Hey Mike, correct there is a bottle brush or 2 in my collection. Also have Qld bottle trees and some banksia varieties. Definitely got some good plants to play with. Playing the waiting game now.

Good luck with them. The banksias and bottle brushes were definitely highlights at the museum. Please post updates as yours progress, for the benefit of those of us who can't see them in our own landscapes.

- Mike

 

[rawlyn]

I posted my juniper design here a couple of weeks ago and the subsequent cockup of not repotting it first. I thought I’d follow on by saying that the tree was indeed repotted and is doing well, thankfully. Two branches were lost near the crown, which weren’t potting related, but rather twisting at the collar when wiring and something I found out is a common problem/mistake made with these. Also, I’ve learnt I need to wire much less tightly.. Thankfully they made nice jins.... I’ve thinned out abit more and now looking for a suitable cascade pot.. On a side note, nursery stock here in Singapore largely comes from China and are potted in a clay, as this is the only way they can transport them via container ships without drying out.

Very nicely done. Good luck hunting for the pot.

 

[Kanorin]

Here's a little project I started last year with my 5 year old. We collected a bunch of acer rubrum seeds last november and put them in the fridge in baggies with damp paper towels. Somewhere around March we noticed shoots starting to emerge from many of the seeds and planted them in a tray in an inch of potting soil.

I'm also wondering if these will be ok in the inch of soil until next spring?
The goal is to use them to start 1 or 2 group plantings in a year or two.

 

[LemonBonsai]

Just bought this nursery grapefruit tree and will be repotting shortly into a proper
pot!

 

[Lumaca]

Despite the heavily damaged cotyledons, the 2 baobabs kept on growing fine. The peel method I used seem to have caused the damage but the seedlings don't seem to care.

The small one had a dead cotyledon which fell off when I tried to inspect it (it seemed to be blocking the seedling from growing). Under the dead leaf was the true leaf trying to grow sideways horizontally, which would have been interesting.

 

[treesnpots]

My first attempt at styling from scratch. Be kind
View attachment 311124View attachment 311125

This looks fantastic! Nice job cleaning and styling a rough piece of material. Having that super long branch looks fun to work with. As it develops, you can get a some height on the trunk and establish more of an apex. What is the variety?

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Despite the heavily damaged cotyledons, the 2 baobabs kept on growing fine. The peel method I used seem to have caused the damage but the seedlings don't seem to care.

The small one had a dead cotyledon which fell off when I tried to inspect it (it seemed to be blocking the seedling from growing). Under the dead leaf was the true leaf trying to grow sideways horizontally, which would have been interesting.View attachment 314929

Nice! Please us posted so we can all see how this works out for you.
btw: Please edit your profile and you approximate location and USDA zone so as you need assistance we can tell what area and climatic zone you are in.
Cheers
DSD sends