Bonsai anyone?

[whitehall]

It ain't as hard as it seems and there are no strict rules unless you enter a show which I never have. Bonsai is merely a tree in a pot. I have a couple of atlas spruce which I bought at Lowes for a couple of bucks a few years ago and are now pretty nice. I dug a gnarly stump of a lilac bush a few years ago and nursed it into growth and finally put it in a bonsai pot. It looks fantastic. A couple of forsithia stumps were trained in root over rock and are coming along. They produce flowers in the spring. I bought a cypress on the internet last year for a few bucks and it grew fast with constant watering all summer. I hope it makes it through the winter. I don't usually buy seeds and of course there are no such things as bonsai seeds but I learned that a species called dawn redwood is a fast grower and the saplings are expensive. It took about a year of a technique called stratefying to get the seeds to finally pop. At one point my wife found a baggie full of dirt in the crisper part of the refrig and almost threw them away. I have a little pot full of sproutlings in the house and I will be curious to see if they do well outside.

 

[TheOldSchool]

I've bought 2 plants for about $75 each. Both were supposed to be great beginner plants. The first one lasted about a year. I followed all the directions that I could and it ended up dying anyways.

For the second one I took all the knowledge I gained from the first one and it lasted about... a year. Maybe I'm just terrible with plants.

They're very cool and I would love to be able to keep one up and running but I don't know if I have what it takes.

You seem to have a lot of experience. Any solid advice for beginners?

 

[whitehall]

I've bought 2 plants for about $75 each. Both were supposed to be great beginner plants. The first one lasted about a year. I followed all the directions that I could and it ended up dying anyways.

For the second one I took all the knowledge I gained from the first one and it lasted about... a year. Maybe I'm just terrible with plants.

They're very cool and I would love to be able to keep one up and running but I don't know if I have what it takes.

You seem to have a lot of experience. Any solid advice for beginners?

Buy a couple of plants at Lowes or Home Depot. Actually I pick them up dirt cheap (pardon the pun) in the late summer when they want to get rid of them. Either way it's only a couple of bucks. I've lost a few broad leaf plants over the winter (Va.) but the pines and needle firs are hardier and easier to deal with. The first thing you do is trim the roots and lightly shape the plant. Keep the roots wet while you do it. Put them back in a pot rather than a bonsai container for a season and the next spring you can put them in a smaller container or a bonsai pot. Don't try to bring outside plants indoors. They stay outside all year but in a sheltered space during the winter.

 

[Sherry]

I will always and forever associate bonsai with Karate Kid. If they need regular watering, then I'd kill it.

 

[whitehall]

I will always and forever associate bonsai with Karate Kid. If they need regular watering, then I'd kill it.

It's a shame that society relies on hollywood for every freaking aspect of life but I guess that's the way it is in the wonderful world of pop-culture. People can't even enjoy a centuries old quiet dicipline without referring to a movie.

 

[chikenwing]

I am good with plants ,and have had no luck with them,several failed attempts.

 

[TheOldSchool]

I've bought 2 plants for about $75 each. Both were supposed to be great beginner plants. The first one lasted about a year. I followed all the directions that I could and it ended up dying anyways.

For the second one I took all the knowledge I gained from the first one and it lasted about... a year. Maybe I'm just terrible with plants.

They're very cool and I would love to be able to keep one up and running but I don't know if I have what it takes.

You seem to have a lot of experience. Any solid advice for beginners?

Buy a couple of plants at Lowes or Home Depot. Actually I pick them up dirt cheap (pardon the pun) in the late summer when they want to get rid of them. Either way it's only a couple of bucks. I've lost a few broad leaf plants over the winter (Va.) but the pines and needle firs are hardier and easier to deal with. The first thing you do is trim the roots and lightly shape the plant. Keep the roots wet while you do it. Put them back in a pot rather than a bonsai container for a season and the next spring you can put them in a smaller container or a bonsai pot. Don't try to bring outside plants indoors. They stay outside all year but in a sheltered space during the winter.

I've always kept them inside. Maybe that's the problem. I haven't tried any pines or 'firs. Any good indoor ones you recommend? I'd like them as a decoration if possible.

 

[whitehall]

I've bought 2 plants for about $75 each. Both were supposed to be great beginner plants. The first one lasted about a year. I followed all the directions that I could and it ended up dying anyways.

For the second one I took all the knowledge I gained from the first one and it lasted about... a year. Maybe I'm just terrible with plants.

They're very cool and I would love to be able to keep one up and running but I don't know if I have what it takes.

You seem to have a lot of experience. Any solid advice for beginners?

Buy a couple of plants at Lowes or Home Depot. Actually I pick them up dirt cheap (pardon the pun) in the late summer when they want to get rid of them. Either way it's only a couple of bucks. I've lost a few broad leaf plants over the winter (Va.) but the pines and needle firs are hardier and easier to deal with. The first thing you do is trim the roots and lightly shape the plant. Keep the roots wet while you do it. Put them back in a pot rather than a bonsai container for a season and the next spring you can put them in a smaller container or a bonsai pot. Don't try to bring outside plants indoors. They stay outside all year but in a sheltered space during the winter.

I've always kept them inside. Maybe that's the problem. I haven't tried any pines or 'firs. Any good indoor ones you recommend? I'd like them as a decoration if possible.

I was strictly into creating outdoor bonsai and I was having a lot of fun trying out inexpensive stuff and my wife bought me a "jade" tropical plant and I nursed it into a decent sized potted plant. When I had to trim it I tried root growing hormone on the cuyttings and by the end of the summer I had five jade plants. I decided to try them in all sorts of ways including planting one in a small geode with limited soil. Another one with exposed roots and still another one on a flat piece of limestone. They all did well. I put all the jades out on the deck in the summer and I bring them inside during the winter and they do fine.

 

[Sherry]

I will always and forever associate bonsai with Karate Kid. If they need regular watering, then I'd kill it.

It's a shame that society relies on hollywood for every freaking aspect of life but I guess that's the way it is in the wonderful world of pop-culture. People can't even enjoy a centuries old quiet dicipline without referring to a movie.

Excuse me for polluting your thread with such a horrid reference...that movie actually inspired a lot of people who would have never known and/or been motivated to develop an interest in it.

 

[whitehall]

Let me make it clear that I'm no expert and I don't pretend to be anywhere near to being an expert. I just like fooling with trees in a pot as well as growing a bunch of tomatoes. Get a couple of Bonsai books and go to Lowes or Home Depot or even Walmart and invest about $20 and bring home half a dozen likely candidates, take the advise of the Bonsai books and relax.

 

[Marie_Archer]

How much do you trim the roots on the new plants? I have never had any luck even with already bonsaied plants because I'm not sure if I am supposed to dig them up once a year and retrim or what.

 

[whitehall]

How much do you trim the roots on the new plants? I have never had any luck even with already bonsaied plants because I'm not sure if I am supposed to dig them up once a year and retrim or what.

Every potted tree or bush you are likely to get in the inexpensive outlets will be completely rootbound to the point that there is little soil left. You have to trim the roots but don't try to jam the plant into a tiny bonasi pot. Put it back in a pot that's a little smaller with potting soil. Get a pail of water and soak the rootbound mess while you cut the thick tap root and about a 3rd of the length of the roots. Trim the foliage at the same time. If you dig up a local plant try to keep as much root material as you can.

 

[editec]

It ain't as hard as it seems and there are no strict rules unless you enter a show which I never have. Bonsai is merely a tree in a pot. I have a couple of atlas spruce which I bought at Lowes for a couple of bucks a few years ago and are now pretty nice. I dug a gnarly stump of a lilac bush a few years ago and nursed it into growth and finally put it in a bonsai pot. It looks fantastic. A couple of forsithia stumps were trained in root over rock and are coming along. They produce flowers in the spring. I bought a cypress on the internet last year for a few bucks and it grew fast with constant watering all summer. I hope it makes it through the winter. I don't usually buy seeds and of course there are no such things as bonsai seeds but I learned that a species called dawn redwood is a fast grower and the saplings are expensive. It took about a year of a technique called stratefying to get the seeds to finally pop. At one point my wife found a baggie full of dirt in the crisper part of the refrig and almost threw them away. I have a little pot full of sproutlings in the house and I will be curious to see if they do well outside.

I bonzai-ed a pot plant once.

After harvesting the buds and cutting the then 4' plant down to something suitable for a banzai, I repotted it into a shallow tray, put the plant back into growth cycle.

As the stem now looked more like tree bark than pot plant, and as the original plant had a very tree like structure since I'd kept it from reaching normal height, it developed into a banzai pot plant that looked like a tree that was about 20" high

And then some month later after it revegetated I put it into blooming lighting cycle and sure enough I ended up with what appeared to be a bonzaied tree covered with very delicate pot flowers. It was truly beautiful.

Sadly it died because an ice storm killed my electricity for a week that winter.

That week was some of the saddest pot smoking I ever did.

FYI, Whitehall, if you want a shortcut to growing some wonderful bonzai?

Look for very stuunted trees growing on the sides of steep rocky cliffs where they've become accustomed to surviving without much dirt.

Nature has already bonzaied that plant, and they'll do very well if you're careful to get enough root out of the side of the cliff.

 

[whitehall]

It ain't as hard as it seems and there are no strict rules unless you enter a show which I never have. Bonsai is merely a tree in a pot. I have a couple of atlas spruce which I bought at Lowes for a couple of bucks a few years ago and are now pretty nice. I dug a gnarly stump of a lilac bush a few years ago and nursed it into growth and finally put it in a bonsai pot. It looks fantastic. A couple of forsithia stumps were trained in root over rock and are coming along. They produce flowers in the spring. I bought a cypress on the internet last year for a few bucks and it grew fast with constant watering all summer. I hope it makes it through the winter. I don't usually buy seeds and of course there are no such things as bonsai seeds but I learned that a species called dawn redwood is a fast grower and the saplings are expensive. It took about a year of a technique called stratefying to get the seeds to finally pop. At one point my wife found a baggie full of dirt in the crisper part of the refrig and almost threw them away. I have a little pot full of sproutlings in the house and I will be curious to see if they do well outside.

I bonzai-ed a pot plant once.

After harvesting the buds and cutting the then 4' plant down to something suitable for a banzai, I repotted it into a shallow tray, put the plant back into growth cycle.

As the stem now looked more like tree bark than pot plant, and as the original plant had a very tree like structure since I'd kept it from reaching normal height, it developed into a banzai pot plant that looked like a tree that was about 20" high

And then some month later after it revegetated I put it into blooming lighting cycle and sure enough I ended up with what appeared to be a bonzaied tree covered with very delicate pot flowers. It was truly beautiful.

Sadly it died because an ice storm killed my electricity for a week that winter.

That week was some of the saddest pot smoking I ever did.

FYI, Whitehall, if you want a shortcut to growing some wonderful bonzai?

Look for very stuunted trees growing on the sides of steep rocky cliffs where they've become accustomed to surviving without much dirt.

Nature has already bonzaied that plant, and they'll do very well if you're careful to get enough root out of the side of the cliff.

Stunted trees that had a hard life on the sides of cliffs is the traditional way to find bonsai. An easier way is to look at the edge of bush hogged fields for beaten up shrubs and small trees. The problem is finding likely local specimens with small leaves. We have wild juniper all over the place that the locals call cedar and I tried a dozen times to get one to grow in a pot but no luck. Old hedges and forsythia are good and I have an ancient stump of a lilac tree that only had one or two roots hanging from it when I cleared an overgrown part of my property. I nursed for two years in a big pot and sure enough it came back to life. This year it has buds. The point is don't shell out big bucks for a bonsai. It's more fun to find an ugly stunted tree in Lowes or Home Depot or even Walmart and turn it into a neat looking plant. If you lose one try again.

 

[Rozman]

I am good with plants ,and have had no luck with them,several failed attempts.

I tried a few times.
Hard to grow indoors though.
I was fortunate to see quite a few of them, 50-60 year old ones at the Brooklyn
Botanical garden but they were in a greenhouse where the conditions were perfect for them.

 

[whitehall]

I am good with plants ,and have had no luck with them,several failed attempts.

I tried a few times.
Hard to grow indoors though.
I was fortunate to see quite a few of them, 50-60 year old ones at the Brooklyn
Botanical garden but they were in a greenhouse where the conditions were perfect for them.

Maybe that's the misconception that turns people off to bonsai. You can't keep outdoor plants in the house for much longer than a day. They will wither and die unless you give them special humidity treatment. You leave outdoor bonsai outside all year long. Give them shelter from the cold wind and snow in the winter but let them go dormant. There are tropical plants that lend themselves to indoor bonsai but you have to check.

 

[boedicca]

Eek!

 

[whitehall]

Eek!

Pickled cat. Quite tasty I'm told.

 

[KateLatierra]

Love bonsai. Although I don't think I have the patience for this gardening art.

 

[whitehall]

Love bonsai. Although I don't think I have the patience for this gardening art.

Actually it takes more patience to grow a tomato plant. What you do is get a leftover stumpy mal-formed short evergreen that nobody wants for an ornamental plant but is hardy like an atlas cedar for about $6.00 at Lowes or Walmart and get a $6.00 book on bonsai on line or a discount book store and do what you think you don't have the patience to do.