Put Up Or Shut Up!

[AndyWilson]

"The Challenge is your yard and everything in it!
Bonsai related let's see all those projects that are being worked on....No matter if it's digging holes or cleaning the pots, or the ugliest mallsie potential piece of crap you have! You have to show it for all! Right here at Bnut's Place!"

Darn well, i guess i win. I challenge anyone out there to even get close to some of the crapsai that i purchased two years ago when first starting out on my path. I dare you, anyone try and beat some of these...

Okay where to start the plant in the huge ugly round pot is a black monkey thorn (burkei that i have been keeping alive for two years, next to it is a thuja occidentalis i believe. i bought this cos they are very difficult to find here
next to it is a celtis africana (white stinkwood.) thought it would make a good flat top mame
Chinese elm gift from a girlfriend, this has been cleared up well and looks good now
Celtis going for mame broom eventually

 

[AndyWilson]

some more...

starting, cottoneaster mallsai my mom gave me 3 years ago. Btw it hasn't grown at all in 3 years
ficus i just bought cos i wanted to learn more about the species
Acacia Galpini with a great trunk, needs foliage work though
acacia negrescens, i bought cos it was cheap
African olive- in the ground now...

 

[irene_b]

I love those Acacias....
Thorns really make you "handle with care". LOL
Mom

Pic 1726 reminds me of the "cassia"

 

[zen]

EDIT - Please contribute to this community, or don't bother visiting. - BNut

 

[Jay Wilson]

Zen,
Welcome to the forum.

If this crap is all you can contribute, then speaking for myself, we don't need you here. Go somewhere else to poke sticks at people.
Jay

 

[Vance Wood]

EDIT

There should be a rule; anyone who wants to take a whack at another must post a picture of their own tree that is their own work.

Here is one of mine, let's see one of yours.

Incidentally the photos of "Willie Bawah's" backyard are his own photos of his own backyard, I have been there.

 

[Tachigi]

Zen, send a Will a PM with your feelings. Don't paste this garbage here does nothing at all positive for this forum. You weren't provoked, what you did amounts to taking a sharp stick and jabbing it in someones eye.....very childish.

There goes the weekly challenge of pure and simple bonsai discussion

 

[Vance Wood]

Zen, send a Will a PM with your feelings. Don't paste this garbage here does nothing at all positive for this forum. You weren't provoked, what you did amounts to taking a sharp stick and jabbing it in someones eye.....very childish.

There goes the weekly challenge of pure and simple bonsai discussion

Would that be a Stick-in-the-eyesai, as opposed to a Stick-in-apotsai?

 

[Tachigi]

Would that be a Stick-in-the-eyesai, as opposed to a Stick-in-apotsai?

Vance take your choice, both are humiliating. I personally would prefer a stick in the eyesai over a Stick-in-apotsai any day of the week.

 

[bonsaibaka]

Vance,

That's a very nice shimpaku. You have inspired me to go out into my jungle/backyard and start evaluating mine.

Isn't that what this is (supposed to be) all about?

 

[Vance Wood]

Vance,

That's a very nice shimpaku. You have inspired me to go out into my jungle/backyard and start evaluating mine.

Isn't that what this is (supposed to be) all about?

Yes it is. Thanks for the comments about the Shimpaku. That particular Shimp came from a three gallon nursery tree I have been working on for around ten years. It was originally done as a demonstration tree for a club here in Michigan.

 

[Dwight]

Vance , where in the world did you find a shimp in a regular nursery ????

 

[Vance Wood]

Vance , where in the world did you find a shimp in a regular nursery ????

I run into them every now and then. A nursery last year had a bunch of them, I bought three. About twelve years ago another nursery had twenty-five or thirty of them, I bought them all. Most went to a couple of workshops I did back then, some into my own collection and I still have a couple of those left. They now have really fat trunks. All in all I think I have ten of them still in nursery containers and or training planters. One of them I am using for a demonstration at our club show at the end of the month. But the point is they are not as uncommon as they used to be but you have to look. In fact I know where I can pick up probably half-a-dozen of them right now. But here again you run into the problem of people not knowing what to do with them.

That bunch I picked up last year was at a nursery where we held our club meeting. The nursery had around ten of them, and as I said I bought three. I told the rest of the club they were out there in the yard and not one of them disappeared. It is the same issue with Mugo Pines, if people can't see the potential from thirty feet away they walk right by without a second look. With nursery trees you have to learn to see with your hands.

If you are not willing to get your hands dirty and spend the next three days picking dirt out from underneath your finger nails you will never be successful in nursery collecting. Usually the best part of the best material is buried beneath the osmocote balls, pill bugs, old needles and three and a half hands full of dirt. If you don't look in this mess, which really means getting your hands in under the branches in the dirt and digging around, you will wind up with spindly meaningless little trunks, or clumps and knuckles.

 

[irene_b]

With nursery trees you have to learn to see with your hands.

If you are not willing to get your hands dirty and spend the next three days picking dirt out from underneath your finger nails you will never be successful in nursery collecting. Usually the best part of the best material is buried beneath the osmocote balls, pill bugs, old needles and three and a half hands full of dirt. If you don't look in this mess, which really means getting your hands in under the branches in the dirt and digging around, you will wind up with spindly meaningless little trunks, or clumps and knuckles.

Yup!
And I am forever having to use their hose to clean my hands and nails
Irene

 

[bonsaibaka]

LOL! One of the most important tools in my bag is a nail brush. My wife won't let me in the house without using it.

Playing in the mud is half the fun!

 

[Dwight]

I run into them every now and then.

Are they listed as shimpacu or sargents ?

 

[Vance Wood]

Are they listed as shimpacu or sargents ?

Shimpaku. Usually Juniperus Chinensis Shimpaku, or X media Shimpaku. If you have ever grown Shimpaku and Sargents, though Shimpaku is considered closely related to Sargents they are so far apart in the way they respond that they might as well be different species.

 

[Rick Moquin]

If you have ever grown Shimpaku and Sargents, though Shimpaku is considered closely related to Sargents they are so far apart in the way they respond that they might as well be different species.

Vance,

Would you mind expanding on that for the education of all.

 

[Vance Wood]

When I first started in bonsai what books there were, were filled with pictures of Juniper bonsai, Sargents Juniper to be exact. Of course I tried to find Sargents Juniper (in California circa 1959) and that was not too difficult. The problem was what I was finding in the nurseries did not look anything like what I was seeing in the books. I did not have a run in with Shimpaku till about twenty years ago and realized that this was the tree shown in the books as Sargents Juniper. I have since found out that Shimpaku is a sub-species of Sargents Juniper, but it is not a cultivar. Now a cultivar is any plant or tree that exist only through the activity of man; cuttings, grafts and air layers. But---it seems that Shimpaku will reproduce normally. Because of this there is debate in the powers that be to establish the Shimpaku as a separate species from Sargents Juniper, it is still a Chinese Juniper but no longer Sargents.

Returning to Sargents Juniper: This tree/bush makes a lousy bonsai. It is very difficult to ramify. Just about the time you think you are starting to get some tertiary branching the main branch will up and die for no apparent reason. The tend to send out new shoots from the base of any branch you dare to put wire on. You have to watch very carefully as to when to repot, go beyond a certain point over due and the tree will start to go belly up pretty quick. I worked on one for many years and could never get it to cooperate and then one spring a cold snap took it out.

Shimpaku on the other hand is the dream bonsai material. You can do almost anything with it and it seems to pinch itself. Wonderful plant. It takes a real hard pruning to get it to revert to juvenile foliage, the Sargents will go back and forth if you water improperly. Fertilize to heavily, it goes Juvy, too much light it goes Juvy, water too much, water not enough it goes Juvy, look at it the wrong way it goes Juvy.

 

[Dwight]

Thanks Vance , I learned something today.