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  1. ColinFraser

    Huge sale at California Bonsai Studio! Nov 15-17, 2019

    One of my guys had to sweet talk his way past a police blockade to water today, but we’re not on fire yet!
  2. ColinFraser

    Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa)

    Dead, sadly. Can’t remember how.
  3. ColinFraser

    Huge Jade Tree into a Bonsai - Help with cuts

    Ultimately I’d want the red stuff gone, but you could probably leave longer stubs initially to guard against any dieback.
  4. ColinFraser

    Huge Jade Tree into a Bonsai - Help with cuts

    Yours is not a particularly large Crassula, and it’s my opinion that you really do need a big-ass one to even remotely approach something quasi-bonsai (especially with the regular leaf version). The attached photo is the largest one I have worked with, and I am still hesitant to fully embrace...
  5. ColinFraser

    Too early to wire?

    Cut off one of the two “slingshot arms” and let it grow for at least a couple of years. In the meantime, hunt around on here for some good threads about developing a tapered trunk on a deciduous tree through chopping and growing - I think there’s a good one somewhere by @Smoke
  6. ColinFraser

    Too early to wire?

    Good technique discussion here, but can I just be the first to address the material itself? If the goal is to eventually have a tapered and proportional trunk, then most of what’s past that fork is probably irrelevant anyway. If you’re going to keep the slingshot and develop some kind of...
  7. ColinFraser

    Why Not Take Olive Me . . .

    Sadly, no.
  8. ColinFraser

    Why Not Take Olive Me . . .

    Thank you!
  9. ColinFraser

    Cactus Nursery Ficus

    Thanks guys!! It’s really fun to have Bonsai Nut as an archive of my progress and the progress of my trees ?
  10. ColinFraser

    Why Not Take Olive Me . . .

    Finally getting back to the one that started this thread (and went in the time capsule). Here’s a flyby summary/update: The pot is by American potter Dick Ryerson :)
  11. ColinFraser

    Cactus Nursery Ficus

    In the case of these two trees and this particular instance of defoliation - I would not have chosen to do this and don’t think it’s ideal this time of year. These were both damaged by a couple of freezing nights in a row, and most of the foliage turned black and died back. At that point, I...
  12. ColinFraser

    Cactus Nursery Ficus

    No time to stop and chat, but here’s a 2019 update ;)
  13. ColinFraser

    The beer bottle (or can) Bonsai Thread

    One of my little olives with a Vortex IPA from “Captain Fatty’s” - a great little brewery near my Alma Mater, UC Santa Barbara :)
  14. ColinFraser

    2018: the three year bonsai time capsule

    I decided to go with the former rather than the latter option. There are still some holes in it, but it does, in fact, have branches! I just carved off all of the big stubs, chopped the top back harder (went through one round of a 6-foot sacrifice for a new tapering segment), and mostly just...
  15. ColinFraser

    Sad ficus

    Seems pretty likely to me that it doesn't have much in the way of roots
  16. ColinFraser

    Sad ficus

    How long ago did you take the cutting? I've had cuttings grow new leaves and look great for months while still having no roots at all (not necessarily ficus, as they're pretty easy usually, but definitely with maples and bougainvillea).
  17. ColinFraser

    Native Junipers??

    . . . just look at a Monterey Cypress planted in a landscape and watered regularly - boring, straight, cone-shaped x-mas-tree - nothing at all like their wild, craggy, contorted, tortured-looking coastal counterparts that grow much more slowly and are battered by the elements.
  18. ColinFraser

    U.S. National Bonsai Nursery Registry

    California Bonsai Studio 4015 N Moorpark Rd. Thousand Oaks, CA 91360 www.CaliforniaBonsai.com
  19. ColinFraser

    Retirement Party

    See ya ‘round Al
  20. ColinFraser

    I'm starting to understand you pot people!

    . . . and continues! What a difference a few years makes ?
  21. ColinFraser

    Extensive article on western bonsai history

    Cool - something to file away for reading during the summer doldrums when I can't work on trees! Thanks for sharing
  22. ColinFraser

    Bad Graft?

    For starters, you graft with the same species and variety! The worst grafts are from two different things stuck together
  23. ColinFraser

    Bad Graft?

    You have to add this to my thread: Bad Grafts
  24. ColinFraser

    So, that graft will look better as it grows, right? ;)

    I thought of this thread while driving by a walnut orchard the other day: Hahahah, pretty bad, at least aesthetically. In California, growers graft English Walnut onto native Black Walnut rootstock for superior disease resistance and tolerance to local conditions - makes for great walnut...
  25. ColinFraser

    King snake ??

    What, this little cutie?
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