Two New Additions to my Collection

[Hawke84]

Hey all,
So trip to the garden centre today and came back with 2 new trees. I believe I have a Jasmine Orange and Chinese Elm (please confirm im correct in my IDs) Please with them. there are a few wire rust marks. I've re-potted the Elm, just planning on repotting the Jasmine to remove the crappy soil it came with.

what do you guys thing? any tips or hints? any way to remove the wire rust? would love to hear your comments.

 

[AZbonsai]

Yipee! Always fun to get new stuff. Plants look pretty healthy! Good move to repot. You have any place outside they can go. They generally need that.

 

[Hawke84]

I was going to put the elm outside after its had chance to recover from the repotting.
The jasmine has to be kept warm so gonna keep him indoors in a south window.

I choose the pot for the elm and I'm really happy with the choice

 

[AZbonsai]

Looks great. Interesting wire technique. You might want to check out how people hold their plants in place when there is 1 drain hole. Keep the ugly wire off your pot.

Here is one technique. There are others.

 

[Hawke84]

is it ok to un-pot them and do the wiring after settling them in?

 

[petegreg]

The first one is carmona, pretty sure. Have a fun with them.

 

[RichS]

First one is fukien tea

 

[AZbonsai]

Sure. Better now if you just reppoted. You may just be able to push the wires through and remove some of the soil on top. Wrap the wires around the roots and refill.

 

[Hawke84]

First one is fukien tea

im not sure actually. i was sure it was murraya. this is a close up of the flower. they are fairly fragrent


EDIT: bum! i think you might be right oh well fukien tea was one i wanted on my list anyway. still indoor so im still happy

 

[RichS]

They are pretty cool trees. Easy (in florida) to care for. A good tree to learn on. As far a keeping alive. The s curve is sort of a stigma to most. But most have started with on ? myself included.

 

[Hawke84]

I look forward to practicing on them, glad I have an indoor tree.
I quite like the S I have had a fair few upright or informal upright so the S is a nice change to me, feels more generic bonsai.

One thing I like about my Fukien Tea is the exposed roots, when I report I'm going to see if I can get a rock under there.

I really like the moss covering in it but I know under it will be basically clay soil

 

[coltranem]

glad I have an indoor tree.

Not sure what you mean by this. Are you equipped to grow this indoors. A sunny window is a bare minimum. This tree is going to need humidity too. Winter is going to be the toughest. Ideally you need a nice light setup and some sort of method of maintaining humidity if you want it to thrive. Otherwise you will just be getting by and it will be very hard to get this tree to gro enough to do any work on it.

 

[Hawke84]

I have it on a tray which i was planning on filling with stones and water to maintain the humidity plus warm misting daily.
I dont have a light setup but the window it is on gets east, south and west sun so basically sun all day. im hoping this will be enough for the tree to do well.

 

[coltranem]

Just remember the light coming through a window pane is not as intense as being outside in the sun.

Will you tree survive maybe... will it thrive probably not.

I dont mean to discourage you just want you to understand the challenge.

 

[just.wing.it]

Humidity tray is not a real serious way of increasing the local humidity around your tree...
Most people think that it's a total joke, I use a rock filled tray under my tropicals to catch the overflow of watering...which does evaporate, but I don't think it's significantly changing the Relative Humidity of the area.

 

[Hawke84]

Not sure what else to do. I take all of your points. I can't move it outside unless I move it back in during the evening which I think will be worse as the temperature dips too much

 

[just.wing.it]

Not sure what else to do. I take all of your points. I can't move it outside unless I move it back in during the evening which I think will be worse as the temperature dips too much

Yeah, I keep mine inside until I'm sure night temperatures won't drop below 45f.

You may be overly concerned about humidity, I think I was the first year I kept tropicals indoors...
Now I disregard it, and haven't seen a problem....
But if you're sure you need additional humidity, I'd use a small humidifier from a pharmacy or Walmart type store.... something you'd see in a young child's room, to keep humidity up in winter....

Something like this:

 

[Hawke84]

I'd use a small humidifier from a pharmacy or Walmart type store.

i love this idea. i have an oil humidifier i was given for free which i could you. never thought of that!

45F is cold! i thought these things needed a minimum of 68F? i read that the slightest cool draft and they are gone

 

[just.wing.it]

i love this idea. i have an oil humidifier i was given for free which i could you. never thought of that!

45F is cold! i thought these things needed a minimum of 68F? i read that the slightest cool draft and they are gone

Yeah, above 50f would be better...
I have a ficus, a spekoom, and a bougie....
All are small and lame....
Spekboom is the best one... waiting to put it out and get some strong growth, then repot it this year....same for ficus.

 

[RichS]

I haven't heard the term spekboom in a long time. A guy I met from South Africa told me that was their word for what we call the portulacaria afra I believe. Or jade tree?