New to forum, bonsai and glad you guys are here!

[SniffingKrylon]

First of all, I’m surprised the forum is active. Seems like most forums have been left to dry since social media came along but forums are so helpful!
Anyway, as the title says, I’m new to bonsai and just wanted to post my trees somewhere I might get an opinion on what I’ve done. Don’t know if I butchered my trees or have possible done some good?
My juniper was a tree I planted a long time ago, maybe 4 years from a nursery and finally pulled it out a few weeks ago, put it I. A training pot and did a major cut back on it, this is the one I’m afraid I did too much work on.



Since this picture I’ve wired some branches down and still haven’t decided wether I want to cut the bottom branch off, cutting back and creating Jin or anything else.

I believe the hardest part of bonsai is waiting for your trees to grow with nothing to do so I got ansy and bought a small nursery stock boxwood and turned out these two little guys in some pots I bought for at the nursery. I found them in a rubble of dead branches and offered the guy 5$ cause one is chipped a bit and they were super dirty and he said sure. Haha




I don’t really know what I’m doing so any opinions, criticism or responses really are welcomed. Good day, all.

 

[AaronG]

Welcome to the forum! Full disclosure here, I still consider myself to be a beginner, so maybe others will chime in with additional advice. I think your off to a good start. Collecting can be tough and takes a bit of experience to get right, but hey in bonsai you have to get your hands dirty somehow. I wouldn't do anything else to that juniper till next spring. Cutting too much too fast can be bad for the tree depending on the time of year, and can limit where you can go with the tree in the future. As for the other two, I have found boxwoods to be very tough trees to kill, so I think that was a good choice. Good bark, small leaves, and not too fussy about soil conditions. The main down-side to boxwoods in my experience is that old branches can be tough to bend so not the best species to learn how to wire on.

My next steps would be to figure out how to make sure these two species not only live, but thrive. Since you have picked a soil and your trees have started their growth for this year, learning more about how to water properly would be my first step. It seems easy, but can be very difficult to get right especially when working with different species. That looks like potting soil, which probably came with built-in fertilizer, so I don't think you'll need to be concerned with that for this year. Finally, bonsai is art and you now have a canvas. Learn about bonsai design and decide where you want to go with them over the next year so that you have a plan for the future. For that, I would recommend Ryan Neil's Bonsai Beginner series.

P.S. It is helpful to other forum members giving advice to fill out your profile information indicating your general location and zone information. Of course, fill out only what your comfortable telling us if your concerned about privacy.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

First of all, I’m surprised the forum is active. Seems like most forums have been left to dry since social media came along but forums are so helpful!

Forums continue to be the best format for some subjects - particularly bonsai where threads can commonly track progression of trees over the course of years. Plus... you don't have to worry about privacy concerns here Unlike Facebook and Instagram, we don't use facial recognition software!

Welcome to the site!

 

[SniffingKrylon]

Welcome to the forum! Full disclosure here, I still consider myself to be a beginner, so maybe others will chime in with additional advice. I think your off to a good start. Collecting can be tough and takes a bit of experience to get right, but hey in bonsai you have to get your hands dirty somehow. I wouldn't do anything else to that juniper till next spring. Cutting too much too fast can be bad for the tree depending on the time of year, and can limit where you can go with the tree in the future. As for the other two, I have found boxwoods to be very tough trees to kill, so I think that was a good choice. Good bark, small leaves, and not too fussy about soil conditions. The main down-side to boxwoods in my experience is that old branches can be tough to bend so not the best species to learn how to wire on.

My next steps would be to figure out how to make sure these two species not only live, but thrive. Since you have picked a soil and your trees have started their growth for this year, learning more about how to water properly would be my first step. It seems easy, but can be very difficult to get right especially when working with different species. That looks like potting soil, which probably came with built-in fertilizer, so I don't think you'll need to be concerned with that for this year. Finally, bonsai is art and you now have a canvas. Learn about bonsai design and decide where you want to go with them over the next year so that you have a plan for the future. For that, I would recommend Ryan Neil's Bonsai Beginner series.

P.S. It is helpful to other forum members giving advice to fill out your profile information indicating your general location and zone information. Of course, fill out only what your comfortable telling us if your concerned about privacy.

Thanks for the reply, I’m in south Florida. Pretty much as south as it gets. Zone 10b? The soil is a bonsai mix from a bonsai nursery around me. I would go and talk to them but I haven’t had a chance because the close before I’m out of work and on my only day off. Bummer. I think it’s potting soil with perlite, peat, bark and sand. I will check out the links you’ve sent. I have an idea of what I want The juniper to look like next year but the boxwoods are basically trimmed down because it was way too tall so this year I’ll let them fill out.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Oh, it’s active...

 

[AaronG]

Thanks for the reply, I’m in south Florida. Pretty much as south as it gets. Zone 10b? The soil is a bonsai mix from a bonsai nursery around me. I would go and talk to them but I haven’t had a chance because the close before I’m out of work and on my only day off. Bummer. I think it’s potting soil with perlite, peat, bark and sand. I will check out the links you’ve sent. I have an idea of what I want The juniper to look like next year but the boxwoods are basically trimmed down because it was way too tall so this year I’ll let them fill out.

That is good news that you are in south Florida. The bonsai community down there seems fairly active. I'd check for bonsai clubs in the area that may meet after work, and I'd check out Adam's Art and Bonsai Blog.

 

[LanceMac10]

Howzz' the krylon sniffing treatin' ya'?





......welcome aboard......now go get yourself a Brazilian Raintree!!

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Krylon, you are in South Florida, forget about those boring plain green trees like boxwood and junipers. You are in the land of flowering trees and houseplants gone wild. Ixora, Carissa, Grewia, Bahama berry Nashia, mangosteens, guava, jaboticaba, pouteria, sapote, passiflora, vireya rhodies, Aphelandra, and thousands of other tropical and sub tropical flowering and fruiting trees you could grow outdoors without fear of frost.

Break out of the boring frost limited mindset the rest of us poor saps have to limit ourselves too.

Don't forget bougainvillea too.

 

[LanceMac10]

Ixora and Grewia in particular!!

 

[SniffingKrylon]

Krylon, you are in South Florida, forget about those boring plain green trees like boxwood and junipers. You are in the land of flowering trees and houseplants gone wild. Ixora, Carissa, Grewia, Bahama berry Nashia, mangosteens, guava, jaboticaba, pouteria, sapote, passiflora, vireya rhodies, Aphelandra, and thousands of other tropical and sub tropical flowering and fruiting trees you could grow outdoors without fear of frost.

Break out of the boring frost limited mindset the rest of us poor saps have to limit ourselves too.

Don't forget bougainvillea too.

Junipers are what I saw first and they’ve always reminded me of graffiti the way they grow and the way they are trained. The boxwood I got purely on impulse since I had those little pots I had bought earlier. I want a bougainvillea, and a ficus next but now I have a whole list to look through which will probably end up a shopping list, thank you very much. Lol my boss just gave me a big juniper I don’t know what to do with. It’s like 5ft tall! Im literally sitting in front of it clueless which is why I’m on here now.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Junipers are the ''modelling clay'' of bonsai. A juniper can be made to take any shape, any style, and to mimic the shapes of a thousand different trees. Yes, even in the land of flowers, one should learn juniper. No criticism. Just wanted to make sure you included more of what is possible.

Boxwood. - personally, I just don't like them. I find them supremely boring. Yet they are much like junipers in that they can be made to take on any style, any shape. Others will have to help you with boxwood, I would be likely to tell you to fertilize with rock salt, as rock salt is guaranteed to kill 'em dead. But that is my personal taste.

The juniper in front of you has 4 or 5 long straight branches with only a little branching in each. So the question becomes, what do you want it to become? Wire should be done later in the year, right now you might cause bark to separate from the wood if you try to wire. But you could make each of those straight branches as twisty as you like.

here are some of the options that could be done with your tree:

twisted up, gnarly tree

linear, angular, larger tree

Multi-trunk almost broom style tree

single trunk, more of a classic pine tree

dwarf it with major cut back to less than 6 inches tall

minor cut back to keep more toward 24 inches tall.


SO - what do you want? How tall? Fat trunk, skinny trunk? twisty or not? Answer, then you can begin to decide what you need to keep and need to cut off.

 

[SniffingKrylon]

Junipers are the ''modelling clay'' of bonsai. A juniper can be made to take any shape, any style, and to mimic the shapes of a thousand different trees. Yes, even in the land of flowers, one should learn juniper. No criticism. Just wanted to make sure you included more of what is possible.

Boxwood. - personally, I just don't like them. I find them supremely boring. Yet they are much like junipers in that they can be made to take on any style, any shape. Others will have to help you with boxwood, I would be likely to tell you to fertilize with rock salt, as rock salt is guaranteed to kill 'em dead. But that is my personal taste.

The juniper in front of you has 4 or 5 long straight branches with only a little branching in each. So the question becomes, what do you want it to become? Wire should be done later in the year, right now you might cause bark to separate from the wood if you try to wire. But you could make each of those straight branches as twisty as you like.

here are some of the options that could be done with your tree:

twisted up, gnarly tree

linear, angular, larger tree

Multi-trunk almost broom style tree

single trunk, more of a classic pine tree

dwarf it with major cut back to less than 6 inches tall

minor cut back to keep more toward 24 inches tall.


SO - what do you want? How tall? Fat trunk, skinny trunk? twisty or not? Answer, then you can begin to decide what you need to keep and need to cut off.

It's kind of funny how someone can ask you something and your imagination runs wild but when you want it to go off it won't. I hadn't really thought of what I wanted to do with the tree. I was more along the lines of, what does the tree want to do? Maybe I can get a mixture of both. Since that picture I cut off some of the top incase because I felt it was too tall but not so much that limited my options later and figured I'd let it grow some branches and figure it out next year when I maybe have a better concept of bonsai and hopefully more skills and knowledge to apply.. I'm not sure what I'll do but I have an idea now after going through many stock photo of wild trees.

As it sits now..


And possibly transforming it in to something similar to this (with a fuller canopy)..


I just don't know where to even begin.. or when.. Lol I started looking for information on twisting trunks but haven't found anything yet. I will keep trying though.

 

[AZbonsai]

Get yourself in contact with a local bonsai group. Dont be in a big hurry to cut things up. Get used to keeping them alive before you start killing them.

 

[sorce]

what does the tree want to do? Maybe I can get a mixture of both

Yes!

You gotta work WITH them just like horses.
But you also MUST make them do what you want, but they have to want to do it too.

Sorce

 

[flor1]

Call and talk to Wigerts in N. Ft. Myers take a class and save a lot of cash and grief.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The greater Miami area has a number of bonsai clubs, and a few commercial firms that have bonsai as part of there product line. Weigert's is the one of the few bonsai only nurseries, and is an excellent resource, hell I even visited their nursery, and was very favorably impressed. They have classes, you should spend time there.

As a beginner, when I was in my teens, I was arrogant enough to believe I could learn it all from books and photos, and later, when Al Gore invented the Internet (that is a joke, he merely sponsored the enabling legislation), I thought I could learn all I needed to know from the internet. Fast forward 30 years, I always had a few trees in training since 1971, I looked at my oldest tree, a pomegranate I had been growing for 30 years, kept it alive that long. And I realized my 30 year old tree looked like crap. Why? Obviously I missed something important in all my years of being self taught. There is the 3 dimensional aspect of bonsai you will never get from 2D media. Also, basic horticulture is the tool box that makes bonsai possible. There are many techniques to get a ordinary tree or seedling, or cutting ready to become pre-bonsai. These are almost never shown on the net, or in books, because they are boring, happen to material that is not interesting. The books and web pages are all full of the flashy, showy, easy to photograph techniques that are done on NEAR FINISHED bonsai trees, trees that have already become bonsai. The most difficult aspect of bonsai to learn is the TIME SEQUENCE, of the stages of development of a tree. Actually the 4th dimension, if you want to sciency it up. 2D media can not convey 4D information effectively.

So back in 2004 I joined the Milwaukee Bonsai Society, because it struck me as a friendly, blue jeans & flannel shirt crowd, and my bonsai improved tremendously. Now the oldest tree in my collection is no more than 12 years in my care, but looks thousands of times better than my 38+ years old when it died pomegranate. I took classes, joined workshops, and did a series of ''study group'' sequences, where 3 times a year, for 3 years a small group of 6 of us would meet with a teacher like Ted Matson, or Peter Tea. All these things are the sort of learning experiences a club can bring you.

I realize all of us are busy, work, family, kids, or no kids, but aging parents, or other demands may make ''club participation'' difficult. At least try to hit the club shows, maybe one or two meetings a year when they have a guest artist come in. That will really help.

I do this hobby as a relaxation, and the amount of time I put in would vary over the years. now that I'm retired, bonsai has expanded to a larger part of my life. I love the doing, the action of caring for the trees is the reward, of course, I want them to look great, but that is not the main reward, it is watching the changes, the progress, the changes, that is my main reward, and flowers of course. (I love the azaleas, and blooming trees, and orchids).

So check out your local club options, and at least attend their shows regularly.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Back to the Juniper. I often will pick up nursery material, pre-bonsai, or yamadori, or what-ever, and keep it on the bench until I make a plan. I have one of those ''friggin'' boxwoods that I have been just letting grow for 8 years now, as no ''plan'' has revealed itself to me. More normal, material with a few good options, leaving it on the bench for a year or two really helps.

As you grow this tree, keep asking yourself, what is the most attractive feature of the tree. Which side of the trunk, or branch is the most attractive. Which side of the tree is the root spread most attractive. Where it the foliage most attractively arranged. I actually make chalk marks on the pot, or stick bamboo skewers in the pot to mark the point to view attractive features. Most trees, there will be markers on several sides of the tree. If your lucky one side will have multiple markers, and this is likely to become the front view of the tree. Sometimes the marks for different attractive features will end up being on opposite sides of the tree. This is common, the best views of the tree are on opposite sides, which become the front and back. Often through the life of a bonsai, trees are re-styled to switch front and back.

So take your time, it is perfectly normal to take a year or two to decide on preliminary styling, and normal to refine the plan every year afterward. So don't rush into doing anything.

If you feel the urge to do something, rather than torture one tree, pick up a dozen more. That way each week one of them will need to have something done, and you can let the others grow and recover.

 

[SniffingKrylon]

@Leo in N E Illinois I’ll let it grow and come back to it later along. I also contacted a group, the Bonsai Society of Miami, they haven’t updated their page for a year but hopefully they still meet. Also going to a local bonsai nursery tomorrow, Miami Tropical Bonsai, I’ll take some pictures, and maybe, hopefully, if the wife lets me, buy a small tree. Lol definitely asking about lessons or meetings.

 

[Underdog]

Welcome to the Nut.
There is a wholesale place in Davies you can pick up some pre-bonsai cheap and fun.