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moss

Seed
Messages
4
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Location
Newark
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I’ve been lurking for years now- I’ve seen the excitement, vast knowledge base, random tangents, and drama filled discussions. I’ve probably logged in almost every day just to see what everyone is willing to share.

My name is Jeffri, and I’d love to join the conversation. I live in an urban setting, but have a small strip of side yard where i’ve sadly tortured and maimed generations of small potted trees for years.

Since that time, I realize that the main goal is to get a healthier tree out of whatever I’ve managed to keep alive, rather than influence it to the point that it struggles in its pot. A serious lesson for me is that it doesn’t take much effort for most trees to thrive and even less neglect that it may die.

Currently, I am interested in root reduction, branch ramification, and appropriate use of grafting.
With that said, I have a bunch of questionable pre-bonsai:

- 4 Elms with small leaves and laughable trunks
- 1 large leaf elm with almost a can sized trunk that has some potensai(sorry)
- attempting to grow primary branches on 1 ugly acer platanoides stump(never once shown the purple leaves, rather has surprisingly small leaves)
- 5 Japanese maples- but only 2 with workable “trunks”
- 2 spruces with questionable wiring
- 1 half-dollar thick privet and a tray full of its cuttings.
- 1 redbud that needs to airlayered and trunk chopped
- 1 awkwardly tapered sand cherry(prunus cisterns?)
- maybe 10 other misc shrubs/evergreens that need to go in the ground
- a tank full of ficus

I’m sure a lot of amateurs can relate to what I’ve collected. I will post more pics soon.

Sorry for long post- looking forward to the insight and banter.
 

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BigBen

Shohin
Messages
412
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408
Location
Long Island, NY
USDA Zone
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Welcome aboard, enjoy your stay.

Man, I LOVE this place!
BigBen
 

milehigh_7

Mister 500,000
Messages
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Location
Somewhere South of Phoenix
USDA Zone
Hot
I’ve been lurking for years now- I’ve seen the excitement, vast knowledge base, random tangents, and drama filled discussions. I’ve probably logged in almost every day just to see what everyone is willing to share.

My name is Jeffri, and I’d love to join the conversation. I live in an urban setting, but have a small strip of side yard where i’ve sadly tortured and maimed generations of small potted trees for years.

Since that time, I realize that the main goal is to get a healthier tree out of whatever I’ve managed to keep alive, rather than influence it to the point that it struggles in its pot. A serious lesson for me is that it doesn’t take much effort for most trees to thrive and even less neglect that it may die.

Currently, I am interested in root reduction, branch ramification, and appropriate use of grafting.
With that said, I have a bunch of questionable pre-bonsai:

- 4 Elms with small leaves and laughable trunks
- 1 large leaf elm with almost a can sized trunk that has some potensai(sorry)
- attempting to grow primary branches on 1 ugly acer platanoides stump(never once shown the purple leaves, rather has surprisingly small leaves)
- 5 Japanese maples- but only 2 with workable “trunks”
- 2 spruces with questionable wiring
- 1 half-dollar thick privet and a tray full of its cuttings.
- 1 redbud that needs to airlayered and trunk chopped
- 1 awkwardly tapered sand cherry(prunus cisterns?)
- maybe 10 other misc shrubs/evergreens that need to go in the ground
- a tank full of ficus

I’m sure a lot of amateurs can relate to what I’ve collected. I will post more pics soon.

Sorry for long post- looking forward to the insight and banter.


Thanks for finally jumping in! I hope you feel welcome this is like our second home.
 

justBonsai

Omono
Messages
1,442
Reaction score
2,595
Location
Arcadia, CA
Welcome, you have decent to start out with. Learn as much as you can and pick up more and better material over the years.

This hobby is HIGHLY addicting and least for me is my biggest passion. This forum has a wealth of information. Feel free to ask questions but be sure to check out the archives from the search engine. A lot of gold buried in this site.
 

JudyB

Queen of the Nuts
Messages
13,751
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23,250
Location
South East of Cols. OH
USDA Zone
6a
Glad you decided to start joining in the conversation here. Looks like you have a nice spruce to play with, and the forest has some long term potential if you get in there and work it while it's still young. Get some complementary movement going on between the trees while they are still flexible enough to wire. Google and look at lots of good forest bonsai, and you'll see what I mean.

You might want to redo your location, are you in Newark OH? Or NJ?
 

moss

Seed
Messages
4
Reaction score
14
Location
Newark
USDA Zone
7a
Thanks for the warm greetings.

Btw- it’s been 80 degree weather here in Newark, New Jerseyo_O

So, I have a bunch of odd things growing- some, if most, should be left alone to grow apart from bonsai.

In terms of my own realizations about bonsai, I’m mostly interested in general horticulture. The miniaturization of it appeals to me in terms of aesthetics and getting to value it in front of me. If we’re lucky, it’s a nice immersion into small piece nature.

With that said, after several seasons of malsai and box-store stock - you realize the amount of knowledge, effort, and mostly time, just to have healthy and proportioned tree. If I need to be patient, I should equally treat the craft better.

At the moment- I truly have no trees in refinement.

I’m looking forward to two spruces- hopefully reducing the height and getting a more pleasing proportion. It’s actually been tough trying to commit to angles, height, and In spring, I have some repotting, root work, chopping to attend to. These are trees I got late in summer or didn’t spend enough time on early in spring. And sadly, some of my trees deserve better practices and will involve starting many plastic colanders- only in the past two growing seasons did I start taking substrate more seriously.

But to the welcome at hand, thanks again for the greets. In the future, I’ll most likely create another thread more specific to a project or question.
Looking forward to seeing JudyBs red stripe stump progression + trees on bigben’s tables + victorim’s Tiger progression + bleumeon’s oak + sorce’ brilliant candidness + milehigh7’s & justwingit’s elm stumps + ajm55555’s healthy deshojo.

Added some random imgs
 

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