Yamabudoudanshi
Shohin
It's already the 12th here, so I'm going to go ahead and post.
Here are my two entries for the broadleaf division. I'll decide somewhere down the road once one of them shows some promise.
1) A Shishigashira Japanese Maple from air layer: Bought from a garden center this April and started 2 air layers. It's grafted, so the plan is to pull as many air layers as I can off of it. One of them I would like to develop into a mini (under 10 cm). They other, I would like to do a shohin size. Besides starting the air layers, I have done absolutely nothing to this tree. The air layers are only around pencil thickness.
2) A Cape Jasmine Gardenia (Kuchinashi): I bought this shrub years ago from a garden center and it has survived a beetle larva attack that almost killed it the first year. Since then, it has flowered for me twice. All I have done is a few regular prunings to keep it small. No bonsai cultivation what-so-ever. The plan for this one is to repot this winter and chop it all the way down to the main burl and hope it buds out all over. It's currently pretty fat (around 2cm) Once I'm satisfied with that, I'd like to restart the nebari with a ground layer. This species is extremely popular for mame, mini, shohin sized trees in Japan, so there are plenty of resources to follow. I've posted a picture of what I would like to aim for.
Here are my two entries for the broadleaf division. I'll decide somewhere down the road once one of them shows some promise.
1) A Shishigashira Japanese Maple from air layer: Bought from a garden center this April and started 2 air layers. It's grafted, so the plan is to pull as many air layers as I can off of it. One of them I would like to develop into a mini (under 10 cm). They other, I would like to do a shohin size. Besides starting the air layers, I have done absolutely nothing to this tree. The air layers are only around pencil thickness.
2) A Cape Jasmine Gardenia (Kuchinashi): I bought this shrub years ago from a garden center and it has survived a beetle larva attack that almost killed it the first year. Since then, it has flowered for me twice. All I have done is a few regular prunings to keep it small. No bonsai cultivation what-so-ever. The plan for this one is to repot this winter and chop it all the way down to the main burl and hope it buds out all over. It's currently pretty fat (around 2cm) Once I'm satisfied with that, I'd like to restart the nebari with a ground layer. This species is extremely popular for mame, mini, shohin sized trees in Japan, so there are plenty of resources to follow. I've posted a picture of what I would like to aim for.