Bonsai Trees

Anybody here do bonsai?

Had the thought that it'd be a fun project, and mentioned it to the lady of the house, and she's been wanting to do it for a long while now it seems.

So, any enthusiasts want to share thoughts on their hobby? Tips, advice, stories, photos, any and all is requested!

I just started a few a couple months back juniper and a ficus just waiting from them to grow a little before a start the manicuring process.

Some people do this with their mother plants, its kind of interesting. If you look on google im sure you could find the info im talking about. you'd be killing 2 birds with one stone .

i have done a couple but they have all died....they are a lot different of a plant with the soil and nutes they use. I can tell you that is was very fun shaping and cutting it the way I wanted to... I felt like Daniel Son in The Karate Kid....if youve ever seen it...

Yes I bonsai, as does my wife. As of right now we have a ligustrum, a Japanese red maple, and a desert rose. We read a ton of books before trying, and it's certainly an art. It can get really detailed, but I guess that's anything you look into. The most important part of bonsai is root pruning. I know what your thinking-- cut the roots? But that's how you keep the plant dwarfed, otherwise it will just get root bound and die-- especially in such shallow containers. The soil medium is different from regular soil, and differs depending on the plant-- usually 1 part loam, 2 parts peat. 2 parts coarse sand, and drains really well. You can bonsai almost anything, and if done correctly they can outlive there owner. I could write a friggin' book about this stuff, but I'll leave it at that. If you need more info just let me know.

We moved recently and our bonsai's got trashed in the move! They're recovering but look like shit-- well all but the desert rose. Good luck, cheers!

Well, last night my lady and I were off spending "fun money" at WalMart and I found little bonsai plants. Well, wannabe bonsai's anyway. In time I'll make it a real one, but for now it's a cool little plant that sits on my coffee table when it's not basking in the sun.

It's a Ginseng Ficus, and there's a picture of it below.

It looks pretty cool.

The plant came with a bunch of glued-together pebbles above the dirt, which all I can figure is for shipping purposes.

I just took a nail and hammer to them and gently removed them all so I can actually get access to the dirt.

I also bought a nice planter for it. It's a bit bigger than I'd like, but as long as I'm pruning regularly, she should stay plenty small.

When I change her over later I'll update with a pic.

That's a nice ficus you have there. Yeah they say that glued on rock stuff will breakdown as you water, but I take it off too. Bonsai is fun, good to you. Cheers.

So, I ended up repotting her into a larger pot, and one that looks nicer.

I'll be downsizing when I can find a pot... but the closest place with that sort of thing is at least an hour drive from here, so I'm avoiding that for a few weeks.

Here she is in the new pot.

Right now I've got her in regular top soil with a lot of pebbles for drainage, but when I get the new pot, I'll be changing over to regular old bonsai soil.

Ive found Hollies and other woody shrubs to be nice bonsais. They grow short and produce small leaves and some flower nicely. Im not good on names but home improvement/garden centers have the full range of them.

It is a best one!!!

My mom bought a bonsai tree for me before for my b day, because I too always wanted one.
When I got it, it was a tiny little guy; I loved it=]
It came with directions on how to prune it and trim it.
It said to cut the roots 1/8 of the way off from the bottom, and to pinch off small branches to make the stem thicker.
But it said to PINCH them b/c it helps stunt their growth and makes them fatter then taller.
Bonsai is an odd tree, I had mine for a couple years, it didn't grow very much.
Then a spider kept attacking it and it eventually died='[
Not only do spiders scare the ever living out of me, but they kill a lot of plants=[

samtheham420 said:

My mom bought a bonsai tree for me before for my b day, because I too always wanted one.
When I got it, it was a tiny little guy; I loved it=]
It came with directions on how to prune it and trim it.
It said to cut the roots 1/8 of the way off from the bottom, and to pinch off small branches to make the stem thicker.
But it said to PINCH them b/c it helps stunt their growth and makes them fatter then taller.
Bonsai is an odd tree, I had mine for a couple years, it didn't grow very much.
Then a spider kept attacking it and it eventually died='[
Not only do spiders scare the ever living out of me, but they kill a lot of plants=[

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You seem cool, but i have to say it... spiders are actually awesome! I used to be scared crapless when i ran into a web and did a stupid little dance or whatever lol but im not scared of them at all anymore. They eat little pests because even though all of them are venomous, they are good for the garden. But i have to do some research on spider mites, i read somewhere they feed on weed

Oh that blows... Dumb spiders...

I actually got another tree yesterday I stopped by Ace hardware and found this badass Juniper that already had "Bonsai" written all over it (not literally) it just needs to be cleaned up. It's got a nice thick trunk already and flows out over past the sides of it's current pot.

I'm thinking some sort of semi-cascade look for it.

Here it is as I bought it. I think it'll turn out nice.

You're ficus looks good, and that juniper would make the perfect "cascading" style bonsai. Yes finding the right shallow container can take some time. I was at home depot or lowes a couple days ago and saw they had a couple bonsai containers, but they were rather generic looking. To find some of mine I ended driving an hour and a half to a small bonsai nursery, but I think those are far and few between. There's always the internet! Good luck to you, and let me know if you need any help when it comes time to root prune. Cheers.

Oh and spiders do NOT hurt trees or plants-- they're predators. They're great for regulating bugs that can hurt your plant. I actually moved three orb weaver spiders into my greenhouse and they've kept the bug population really low. While they look scary, the overwhelming majority are passive unless you go out of your way to provoke them.

Oh very cool! Might have to find some to stick in my garden My bell pepper plant has been getting eaten up since I moved my sunflowers out to the front yard. I dusted them all today with some bug killer... so that should be a good start to get rid of them.

I came in from the greenhouse earlier and that very spider in that pic had a massive horse fly she was wrapping up! Also, pesticides that you put on the ground won't typically affect the spiders that are web weavers. Since they're off the ground and never go to the ground they're aren't usually affected-- also their long legs don't usually pick up the stuff.

I planted sunflowers along the front of my garden last year, and they grew to almost 20 ft.!!! It was fun having this wall of sunflowers, but it completely blocked the view of the garden. Good luck with your garden MP, cheers.

it is ok but if you give it to many nuts good look getting it back

Dubious06 said:

I came in from the greenhouse earlier and that very spider in that pic had a massive horse fly she was wrapping up! Also, pesticides that you put on the ground won't typically affect the spiders that are web weavers. Since they're off the ground and never go to the ground they're aren't usually affected-- also their long legs don't usually pick up the stuff.

I planted sunflowers along the front of my garden last year, and they grew to almost 20 ft.!!! It was fun having this wall of sunflowers, but it completely blocked the view of the garden. Good luck with your garden MP, cheers.

Click to expand...

Thanks dubious!

My sunflowers aren't very tall at all right now... I'd like to see them get nice a big. One house now too far from mine has sunflowers that are about 5 feet tall. They look soooo nice.

No prob bud. Have fun and happy gardening!