Newbies - want to share your trees?

[Anthony]

In the beginning - Tamarind 2011

 

[Elihatt]

A trumpet vine I dug this weekend and a boxwood someone removed from a hedge last week. Fingers crossed for the boxwood but I think the vine will be fine. There’s about three inches of buried trunk on the boxwood and probably a 6 inch diameter flared base.

 

[AussieBonsai]

My first attempt at styling from scratch. Be kind

 

[AussieBonsai]

How Long would people suggest waiting before repotting after styling? The soil is very poor and in hindsight, I should have done things the other way around

 

[Clorgan]

I like this thread. I just caught up today, with pages 1 - 10. I'm late enough to the party that I won't comment on any one tree I can't post on the same page with that tree, or the immediate subsequent page.

I want to say I admire and enjoy all the enthusiasm.

@Woocash & @Clorgan - your dialects are nothing. Back in 1988, before it was "cool" to go there, I ended up in Newcastle on Tyne for a week. My host was an American working with a pack of Geordies, especially after a couple pints they were friggin' unintelligible. Four more pints and I understood everything, LOL. At the time Newcastle was definitely a working class town, but a great jumping off point to visit the northern counties. Visited many spots along the Hadrian Wall. Fun trip I remember to this day. My only tour of the UK.

Thanks for the kind words Leo! My partner (and therefore myself too) supports Newcastle United (football - or soccer as you might say?) We try to get up to Newcastle at least one game a season - always a great time! Geordies are the BEST people!

 

[Clorgan]

How Long would people suggest waiting before repotting after styling? The soil is very poor and in hindsight, I should have done things the other way around

@sorce has a lot of experience with this stuff, he's given me plenty of advice - August repot Sorce?

Nice tree btw!

 

[Housguy]

My first attempt at styling from scratch. Be kind

Very nice job, looks good. I would wait 6 months to a year after a big hair cut before you re pot.

 

[sorce]

How Long would people suggest waiting before repotting after styling? The soil is very poor and in hindsight, I should have done things the other way around

Where the hell did that long branch even come from!?

I use the health that they were when you bought em as a guide to know when they will be healthy enough to Repot again.

When it has as much folaige as when you bought it, and when it is as vigorous, then it is safe.

Sorce

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

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

Actually, I like what you did quite a lot. Very nice.

Your screen name suggests you live in Australia - you did not add your location to your profile. Please do so, it helps when giving advise.

Right now you are in winter in Australia. I would normally suggest waiting 12 months to 14 months before repotting in your spring repotting season. This is the conservative answer. Guaranteed to not kill your tree. You just have to "put up with" the crappy soil until then.

You left a fair amount of foliage on the tree, you probably only removed half the foliage. Risky, but if the soil you have in the pot is a serious problem, you might be able to get away with repotting right now. Junipers are resilient, if you are moderately competent at horticulture, you could probably get away with repotting right now. Aftercare is critical. A stressed juniper that has been styled AND repotted will not bounce back from a later insult while recovering. So it is a matter of how confident you are.

Be sure you have all your supplies you need. If you don't have a good bonsai media on hand to use, don't repot right now, get the "good stuff" first and do the repotting correctly. Its middle of winter in Australia, you have a month or two before spring growth sets in. Get your pumice, lava, Akadama if it is available in your area, or the substrates that other bonsai growers in Australia recommend.

If you are in North America, and the screen name is just a reference to where you were from, Its summer, and a good time to repot in summer is after the heat of summer has broken, for Chicagoland after Aug 15, for areas south, it will be later in the year. Or you just wait the 8 or 9 months until the normal spring repotting time.

So it is all a matter of how "brave" you feel. Wait 12 months plus the time it takes to get to the ideal repotting time for your area. Or go for broke, and risk repotting right away. Or any of the half way measures. If you are horticulturally inexperienced, I'd recommend waiting the year. If you feel competent. Go for it.

 

[AussieBonsai]

Actually, I like what you did quite a lot. Very nice.

Your screen name suggests you live in Australia - you did not add your location to your profile. Please do so, it helps when giving advise.

Right now you are in winter in Australia. I would normally suggest waiting 12 months to 14 months before repotting in your spring repotting season. This is the conservative answer. Guaranteed to not kill your tree. You just have to "put up with" the crappy soil until then.

You left a fair amount of foliage on the tree, you probably only removed half the foliage. Risky, but if the soil you have in the pot is a serious problem, you might be able to get away with repotting right now. Junipers are resilient, if you are moderately competent at horticulture, you could probably get away with repotting right now. Aftercare is critical. A stressed juniper that has been styled AND repotted will not bounce back from a later insult while recovering. So it is a matter of how confident you are.

Be sure you have all your supplies you need. If you don't have a good bonsai media on hand to use, don't repot right now, get the "good stuff" first and do the repotting correctly. Its middle of winter in Australia, you have a month or two before spring growth sets in. Get your pumice, lava, Akadama if it is available in your area, or the substrates that other bonsai growers in Australia recommend.

If you are in North America, and the screen name is just a reference to where you were from, Its summer, and a good time to repot in summer is after the heat of summer has broken, for Chicagoland after Aug 15, for areas south, it will be later in the year. Or you just wait the 8 or 9 months until the normal spring repotting time.

So it is all a matter of how "brave" you feel. Wait 12 months plus the time it takes to get to the ideal repotting time for your area. Or go for broke, and risk repotting right away. Or any of the half way measures. If you are horticulturally inexperienced, I'd recommend waiting the year. If you feel competent. Go for it.

Thanks for the detailed response! I’m based in Singapore, which can be a curse and a blessing.. Monsoon season is coming and I want to get it out of the clay it’s currently in and so I’ll wait as long as possible and repot.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Ah, you don't have winter, not summer. Just rainy season and less rainy season. You can probably get away with repotting any time of year. You are pretty close to the equator. It probably would be best to repot just before the monsoon. That way the mix will be open and free draining through the monsoon season. You might still have to get it out of the rain for a few days a week during the monsoon. But my only visit to Singapore, was when it would only rain at 3 to 5 pm every day, then again sometime just before or around Dawn. Clear sky's and intense sun the rest of the day. That was back in 1994 maybe.

 

[AussieBonsai]

I think I’ll just bite the bullet and repot tonight. The clay it’s in is probably doing more damage in this climate, than what I would do repotting it.. ultimately I bought it to practice wiring, etc and so if it doesn’t make it, it’s not the end of the world.

 

[Clorgan]

Couple of photos of the garden, numbers are growing! Shelf arrived, will do for now but will definitely need some form of reinforcement when Autumn comes

 

[Bonsainoob88]

Here are my future projects that I am currently working on killing!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Some more azalea where i got a bit brave (or reckless).
View attachment 309977View attachment 309978

A couple of azalea i got this spring but was not really confident enough to join the Competition but thought i could join in from home
The first two i ordered on line fron a garden centre... Arrived with the flowers All squashed and not looking healthy so did not cut them back too much.. But i like the movement they have... Both looking much more healthy now, i did try to reduce all new shoots to pairs where the shoots where coming from one place. View attachment 309949View attachment 309950 Again... Comments /Critique very welcome

Great!
It looks to me that you’ve got the perfect starter azalea for the competition in either of the first two trees you posted. I encourage you to take a shot at it.

Others that have entered have azaleas comparable to yours. The point of the contest to me is not so much a contest, but an opportunity to watch others try out different strategies and doing and studying up myself. Through this I hope to learn how to improve my azalea thinking, growing and pruning skills.... and hopefully create a nicely styled tree to boot!

Think it over, we are all behind you!

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

This is a great thread! Thanks so much for starting this @Clorgan I decided to chip in with hopes of helping encourage even more noobs, however new, to post just for fun.

I’m a rookie, or noob, and am proud of it. It gives me another great learning opportunity and I get FREE knowledgeable help, an awesome library of techniques and and perhaps some fun static occasionally!.

A retired Coast Guard Officer and also a Science teacher. I came into bonsai via a death in the family, an auto accident, and a major operation in the last 18 months. Can’t say I’m grateful for any of these, but it sure gave me lots of time to study bonsai, acquire lotsa good books (and a few not so good), and take bonsai empire courses while I was limited to carrying less then a gallon of milk. That’s all over, I hope! (...and that’s the last time I’ll tell that story here.)

I have both ends of the bonsai spectrum for trees. I inherited a dozen partially needy older trees and acquired a literal forest of sticks to experiment on.

So let’s take a look at the newer stuff as I’ve posted some of the older trees on separate threads. (Remember, I’ve have plenty of time more to work on my trees then some other new folks.)

First off there’s the “Stick bench”. Lotsa experimenting is done here. Its mostly maples, with an occassional azalea, hornbeam, ume, crabapple, Hawthorne and the like. I really like maples and azaleas! Pines and Junipers are fun, but I’m finding the vagaries of these trees are really challenging me.

Right now, I’ve experimented with pruning the top most new growth of the maples a bit In the hopes of encouraging a lot of back budding lower, especially on the trunk, then leave the trees alone to grow out. My thought was that this would result in many more opportunities for the tree to create photosynthetic surfaces all over the tree, improving growth lower faster and overall improving the energy flow in the tree once this was accomplished. So far it’s working out with every maple! Even my intensely leggy Ibo Nishiki is finally responding.


Here’s a an example of this procedure a triple trident. Now I’m I’m thinking about tossing it in the ground for a year or two. Not a fan of huge Nebari, likely I’ll pull it out in a couple years and see what I can do from there.


Last fall got a bunch of seedling Autumn Blaze maples cheap (of course) and stuffed these in a forest just for fun. I wired them a little, but pretty much all I do now is beat the big leaves back with a pair of pruners once in awhile.


Since I’m really very interested in azaleas, satsuki especially, I figured I’d try my hand at growing out some whips from various Kurume and Satsuki cuttings. Looking good so far. I also have 10 Satsuki growing out In the ground and a number of Kurume too. This late blooming satsuki is “Taiho”, showing it’s very first bloom today.


My wife is a orchid person, but she is also mucking about with some quince. This little guy is a Chojoba.


My next project, besides working together with other folks on an Azalea reference, is to figure out what to do with this Zundert (Ghost) Mugo Pine. (First I’m reading through Lord Mugos outstanding references on Mugos before I start a thread on this guy!) I‘m thinking cut low!


Well, that’s all for now except to tell you that I lurked the site for quite awhile, then decided, what the hey and posted. It was then I found folks like @Leo in N E Illinois , @sorce, @Forsoothe, and many many others to numerous to name were very responsive and helpful. So jump on in the pool fellow noobs and give it a go!

Cheers,
Deep Sea Diver sends

 

[Clorgan]

This is a great thread! Thanks so much for starting this @Clorgan I decided to chip in with hopes of helping encourage even more noobs, however new, to post just for fun.

I’m a rookie, or noob, and am proud of it. It gives me another great learning opportunity and I get FREE knowledgeable help, an awesome library of techniques and and perhaps some fun static occasionally!.

A retired Coast Guard Officer and also a Science teacher. I came into bonsai via a death in the family, an auto accident, and a major operation in the last 18 months. Can’t say I’m grateful for any of these, but it sure gave me lots of time to study bonsai, acquire lotsa good books (and a few not so good), and take bonsai empire courses while I was limited to carrying less then a gallon of milk. That’s all over, I hope! (...and that’s the last time I’ll tell that story here.)

I have both ends of the bonsai spectrum for trees. I inherited a dozen partially needy older trees and acquired a literal forest of sticks to experiment on.

So let’s take a look at the newer stuff as I’ve posted some of the older trees on separate threads. (Remember, I’ve have plenty of time more to work on my trees then some other new folks.)

First off there’s the “Stick bench”. Lotsa experimenting is done here. Its mostly maples, with an occassional azalea, hornbeam, ume, crabapple, Hawthorne and the like. I really like maples and azaleas! Pines and Junipers are fun, but I’m finding the vagaries of these trees are really challenging me.

Right now, I’ve experimented with pruning the top most new growth of the maples a bit In the hopes of encouraging a lot of back budding lower, especially on the trunk, then leave the trees alone to grow out. My thought was that this would result in many more opportunities for the tree to create photosynthetic surfaces all over the tree, improving growth lower faster and overall improving the energy flow in the tree once this was accomplished. So far it’s working out with every maple! Even my intensely leggy Ibo Nishiki is finally responding.
View attachment 311646

Here’s a an example of this procedure a triple trident. Now I’m I’m thinking about tossing it in the ground for a year or two. Not a fan of huge Nebari, likely I’ll pull it out in a couple years and see what I can do from there.
View attachment 311640

Last fall got a bunch of seedling Autumn Blaze maples cheap (of course) and stuffed these in a forest just for fun. I wired them a little, but pretty much all I do now is beat the big leaves back with a pair of pruners once in awhile.
View attachment 311637

Since I’m really very interested in azaleas, satsuki especially, I figured I’d try my hand at growing out some whips from various Kurume and Satsuki cuttings. Looking good so far. I also have 10 Satsuki growing out In the ground and a number of Kurume too. This late blooming satsuki is “Taiho”, showing it’s very first bloom today.
View attachment 311636 View attachment 311635

My wife is a orchid person, but she is also mucking about with some quince. This little guy is a Chojoba.
View attachment 311638

My next project, besides working together with other folks on an Azalea reference, is to figure out what to do with this Zundert (Ghost) Mugo Pine. (First I’m reading through Lord Mugos outstanding references on Mugos before I start a thread on this guy!) I‘m thinking cut low!
View attachment 311670

Well, that’s all for now except to tell you that I lurked the site for quite awhile, then decided, what the hey and posted. It was then I found folks like @Leo in N E Illinois , @sorce, @Forsoothe, and many many others to numerous to name were very responsive and helpful. So jump on in the pool fellow noobs and give it a go!

Cheers,
Deep Sea Diver sends

Thanks so much for sharing your projects! It's lovely to see that you found such great passion in bonsai, I'm sorry to hear that it came about from some really difficult life events though. Hopefully it has brought you lots of joy in a difficult time, it looks like it has!

You really sound like you've done lots of homework! I think it's great that you're experimenting, reading about your back budding experiments was interesting.

I really love your azalea, that flower is lovely! Would also be really interested to see how your trident maple progresses!

Thanks again for your great post!

 

[bluecat]

I finally found some Blue Atlas Cedars from RHS plant that weren't stupid money (£25 each for a 2l pot). A little expensive but healthy little grafted plants.

I love the blue colour as it brings variety to a bench and there's something a about cedar foliage I really like. It's a pain to wire though because it's so spiky.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

This is a great thread! Thanks so much for starting this @Clorgan I decided to chip in with hopes of helping encourage even more noobs, however new, to post just for fun.

I’m a rookie, or noob, and am proud of it. It gives me another great learning opportunity and I get FREE knowledgeable help, an awesome library of techniques and and perhaps some fun static occasionally!.

A retired Coast Guard Officer and also a Science teacher. I came into bonsai via a death in the family, an auto accident, and a major operation in the last 18 months. Can’t say I’m grateful for any of these, but it sure gave me lots of time to study bonsai, acquire lotsa good books (and a few not so good), and take bonsai empire courses while I was limited to carrying less then a gallon of milk. That’s all over, I hope! (...and that’s the last time I’ll tell that story here.)

I have both ends of the bonsai spectrum for trees. I inherited a dozen partially needy older trees and acquired a literal forest of sticks to experiment on.

So let’s take a look at the newer stuff as I’ve posted some of the older trees on separate threads. (Remember, I’ve have plenty of time more to work on my trees then some other new folks.)

First off there’s the “Stick bench”. Lotsa experimenting is done here. Its mostly maples, with an occassional azalea, hornbeam, ume, crabapple, Hawthorne and the like. I really like maples and azaleas! Pines and Junipers are fun, but I’m finding the vagaries of these trees are really challenging me.

Right now, I’ve experimented with pruning the top most new growth of the maples a bit In the hopes of encouraging a lot of back budding lower, especially on the trunk, then leave the trees alone to grow out. My thought was that this would result in many more opportunities for the tree to create photosynthetic surfaces all over the tree, improving growth lower faster and overall improving the energy flow in the tree once this was accomplished. So far it’s working out with every maple! Even my intensely leggy Ibo Nishiki is finally responding.
View attachment 311646

Here’s a an example of this procedure a triple trident. Now I’m I’m thinking about tossing it in the ground for a year or two. Not a fan of huge Nebari, likely I’ll pull it out in a couple years and see what I can do from there.
View attachment 311640

Last fall got a bunch of seedling Autumn Blaze maples cheap (of course) and stuffed these in a forest just for fun. I wired them a little, but pretty much all I do now is beat the big leaves back with a pair of pruners once in awhile.
View attachment 311637

Since I’m really very interested in azaleas, satsuki especially, I figured I’d try my hand at growing out some whips from various Kurume and Satsuki cuttings. Looking good so far. I also have 10 Satsuki growing out In the ground and a number of Kurume too. This late blooming satsuki is “Taiho”, showing it’s very first bloom today.
View attachment 311636 View attachment 311635

My wife is a orchid person, but she is also mucking about with some quince. This little guy is a Chojoba.
View attachment 311638

My next project, besides working together with other folks on an Azalea reference, is to figure out what to do with this Zundert (Ghost) Mugo Pine. (First I’m reading through Lord Mugos outstanding references on Mugos before I start a thread on this guy!) I‘m thinking cut low!
View attachment 311670

Well, that’s all for now except to tell you that I lurked the site for quite awhile, then decided, what the hey and posted. It was then I found folks like @Leo in N E Illinois , @sorce, @Forsoothe, and many many others to numerous to name were very responsive and helpful. So jump on in the pool fellow noobs and give it a go!

Cheers,
Deep Sea Diver sends

Nice post, thank you for sharing.

I like your mugo, it has potential. I see the tree as being made from either just the branches at the first whorl of branches, or the first and second whorl combined. I think it could make a really nice small pine.

I am "known" for being somewhat overly detail orientated when it comes to names. I had learned a little German in high school, so it caught my eye. 'Zundert' is the number 100 in German, it does not mean ghost. The name 'Zundert' in Dutch is the name of the town in which Vincent van Gogh was born. In Dutch, Zundert can mean "sings". There is a large conifer wholesaler Boskopf in the Netherlands, and I suspect they may have named the mugo after the city where van Gogh was born. Although our BNut member @Wires_Guy_wires is a native to Netherlands, he can tell me if I am correct in my "translations". One of the USA wholesale nurseries might have decided to trademark the 'Zundert' clone under the trade name 'Ghost', because they think 'Ghost' will sell better than 'Zundert', but I did not dig far enough to determine if that is what happened. Do keep calling it 'Zundert', unless you have the nursery name tag, and it shows the name 'Ghost' with the 'TM' trademark icon after the name. It is my dose of mostly unimportant of detail for today.

 

[tinusje]

Nice post, thank you for sharing.

I like your mugo, it has potential. I see the tree as being made from either just the branches at the first whorl of branches, or the first and second whorl combined. I think it could make a really nice small pine.

I am "known" for being somewhat overly detail orientated when it comes to names. I had learned a little German in high school, so it caught my eye. 'Zundert' is the number 100 in German, it does not mean ghost. The name 'Zundert' in Dutch is the name of the town in which Vincent van Gogh was born. In Dutch, Zundert can mean "sings". There is a large conifer wholesaler Boskopf in the Netherlands, and I suspect they may have named the mugo after the city where van Gogh was born. Although our BNut member @Wires_Guy_wires is a native to Netherlands, he can tell me if I am correct in my "translations". One of the USA wholesale nurseries might have decided to trademark the 'Zundert' clone under the trade name 'Ghost', because they think 'Ghost' will sell better than 'Zundert', but I did not dig far enough to determine if that is what happened. Do keep calling it 'Zundert', unless you have the nursery name tag, and it shows the name 'Ghost' with the 'TM' trademark icon after the name. It is my dose of mostly unimportant of detail for today.

Hi,

100 in german = hundert.

Zundert is a town here in the Netherlands, about 20 kilometres (14 miles or so) from my home. Zundert does not also means 'sings'.

Boskoop is also a name of a town and also a very large wholesaler. I'm pretty sure they've picked the name. Well, if you can link anything to Van Gogh...it's business. But, the area around Zundert is known voor its nurseries. Sandy grounds mostly. As in my backyard.

I've made your unimportant detail even more unimportant, sorry for that!