Boognish
Seedling
As a noob to bonsai I have been doing a lot of reading in the forums. I have also been purchasing and reading books that are often recommended. One of the things that attracts me to bonsai is the "take it slow" aspect. It is good to have something in your life that slows you down and causes you to pause and contemplate.
For the past couple months, on each payday, I have started to accumulate some cutting, pruning and repotting tools. I have a couple garden centers nearby that sell bonsai trees that I can go and look at after reading about them or I'll see one I like and head back home to research.
The first tree I have purchased is a Juniper I bought from a Japanese woman who was selling some of her trees. I was able to ask her a lot of questions about how to maintain the tree that she has taken care of for that past several years. It was extremely helpful to see her demonstrate how to prune the tree as well as the instructions for sunlight, water and fertilizing needs.
I have picked up a variety of starter trees now with the goal of keeping them alive and getting them through the winter. I also wanted a visual reference while reading about how to care for the different tree types. I have a Japanese black pine, Japanese red maple, shimpaku juniper, crabapple 'Noga' and a wisteria. So far I have learned where to place them outside and the watering seems to be going well since they have not died and have new growth. I haven't done anything else to them so far and I think maybe that's fine until after the winter. When spring comes I'm not sure what I should do with them. Most information on the forums and books seems to be geared towards trees that are already somewhat established. Is there any information out there or a suggested timeline of when to start training trees or what should be done between the time it is a seedling to when it should be trained? Seems like you would want to focus on the trunk while keeping the interior open maybe? When should a whip be topped?
Thanks,
Paul
In the meantime, I was at Home Depot and saw some broken Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star' on a pallet that they were selling for $9 so I picked one out and brought it home to practice on.
Removed all of the dead stuff.
Halved the roots.
Removed and potted the section that seemed the most interesting.
Finding the tree within.
This is what I came up with.
For the past couple months, on each payday, I have started to accumulate some cutting, pruning and repotting tools. I have a couple garden centers nearby that sell bonsai trees that I can go and look at after reading about them or I'll see one I like and head back home to research.
The first tree I have purchased is a Juniper I bought from a Japanese woman who was selling some of her trees. I was able to ask her a lot of questions about how to maintain the tree that she has taken care of for that past several years. It was extremely helpful to see her demonstrate how to prune the tree as well as the instructions for sunlight, water and fertilizing needs.
I have picked up a variety of starter trees now with the goal of keeping them alive and getting them through the winter. I also wanted a visual reference while reading about how to care for the different tree types. I have a Japanese black pine, Japanese red maple, shimpaku juniper, crabapple 'Noga' and a wisteria. So far I have learned where to place them outside and the watering seems to be going well since they have not died and have new growth. I haven't done anything else to them so far and I think maybe that's fine until after the winter. When spring comes I'm not sure what I should do with them. Most information on the forums and books seems to be geared towards trees that are already somewhat established. Is there any information out there or a suggested timeline of when to start training trees or what should be done between the time it is a seedling to when it should be trained? Seems like you would want to focus on the trunk while keeping the interior open maybe? When should a whip be topped?
Thanks,
Paul
In the meantime, I was at Home Depot and saw some broken Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star' on a pallet that they were selling for $9 so I picked one out and brought it home to practice on.
Removed all of the dead stuff.
Halved the roots.
Removed and potted the section that seemed the most interesting.
Finding the tree within.
This is what I came up with.
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