Bonsai3.net

Repotting my Ficus

I've been a bit slow posting this but I repotted my Ficus Retusa exactly a month ago now, on May 21. I understand that the pot is of equal importance to the tree in bonsai and I had been trying to do some reading on what style I should go for but I wasn't able to find anything that was much help to me.

In the end my choice of pot was based purely on my own judgment from the limited selection available in the shop. I'm not completely satisfied with the result and I still think the new pot is too big. Ideally I should have gotten one that was somewhere between the old and new one in size. (more)

21 06 08 - 10:57 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Toronto Flowers

The internet is an increasingly useful place to go shopping on. I became interested in bonsai simply by wandering off the street into a specialist bonsai shop. Since then my interest has grown. The wonderful thing about the internet is that since then I have been able to extend my interest in the art by reading lots of free information about it online. However, as well as information the internet is also a wonderful place to buy the things you are looking for.

At first glance, it may seem a bit odd to be buying something as fragile as flowers online but after some investigation I think it’s a good option. An example of this that I found online is a web-site selling Toronto flowers. (more)

27 05 08 - 12:33 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Time to Repot

It's about time to repot my ficus retusa. Any suggestions for the style of the new pot?

18 05 08 - 11:12 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Orange Seedling at Four Months

It's been a while since I gave an update on the progress of my orange seedlings. Unfortunately first of all some bad news. My orange seedlings which were doing so well are all dead now except for one. (more)

30 03 08 - 18:25 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Can Anyone Identify These Seeds?

I bought this seed kit while on holiday in Barcelona last month. It was just for the novelty value and the hope that if they grew I would be able to say how I got them from a stall on Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

Once I got home on February 21 I followed the instructions that were with the kit to soak them for 24 hours and then plant them. I didn’t check them again until February 29 and two seedlings were already over an inch tall. There was also a third seedling which was tiny compared to the other two and was barely breaking through the surface. (more)

07 03 08 - 13:45 - - Bonsai| two comments - § ¶

Taking a cutting from a Serissa Foetida

The little glimmer of hope that was the seedling growing from the base of my increasingly misnamed Tree of a Thousand Stars has faded away. It now seems that the tree has died back almost completely with the exception of a couple of branches towards the back and top of the tree, which continue to grow.

Since this is the only part of the tree that is showing signs of life I decided to take a cutting from here and try to develop a new tree from it.

I took my cutting on February 13 and dipped it in rooting hormone powder before planting it. This is my first time using rooting hormone but since I have so little serissa left to work with I thought I’d give it every help I could. I also enclosed the pot inside a clear plastic bag to create a greenhouse effect for the cutting.

It is over a week since I took the cutting and the leaves remain in good health, so for now I can continue to be optimistic.

22 02 08 - 10:44 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Spring!

Perhaps it's because Spring is beginning but over the last couple of weeks or so my three bonsai trees have all begun to produce seedlings. Although my serissa and ligustrum both continue to look either dead or dying they both have little seedlings growing from their base.

Also another of my dragon fruit seeds which I planted at the end of November has begun to sprout. The other dragon fruit seedlings sprouted within a week of planting while this seed, which was planted at the same time, waited for two and a half months.

Something that I am beginning to understand now more clearly is that you can never really tell when a seed will sprout. If the instructions say that it will sprout within two weeks, don't give up if nothing appears after 15 days! It could just as easily be two months before anything happens. (more)

14 02 08 - 19:23 - - Bonsai| two comments - § ¶

Ficus Retusa Cutting at Four Months

Here's the surviving cutting from my ficus tree after four months. It'll still be a long time before I'll be able to try developing it into a bonsai but I'm glad to see that it still survives. (more)

31 01 08 - 14:43 - - Bonsai| two comments - § ¶

Bonsai Ligustrum

My landlord brought the above tree round to my flat last night. He'd noticed the trees one time he was in and so he brought this around to me in the hope that I'd have more luck with it than he had. He bought the tree from Aldi or Lidel just before Christmas. He is a keen gardener but this was his first bonsai tree. As you can see he hasn't had very much luck with his first bonsai.

The main problem was simply that it hadn't been watered properly. Seemingly his wife used to water it but the water ran out through the bottom of the pot and soaked the table it was being kept on. This led to it being underwatered. (more)

26 01 08 - 17:55 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

MyTube: Growing Oranges from Pips

I'm getting really fancy now and broadcasting my own video! Here's a look at my three orange tree seedlings that are growing from pips.

Since my last update on my orange seedling at two months old, I have gotten two more seedlings. The first one broke through the soil on January 22 and the second one came through yesterday. The two shoots are very close to each other so it is possible that they are both from the same pip, as happened with my first seedling which has since died.

Getting these seedlings coming through now, three months after the pips were planted, has been a complete surprise to me. When I read about growing oranges from pips I learned that germination usually occurs around two weeks. I knew that nature wasn't as punctual as that and that it could be 10 or 20 days either but I had thought it would be somewhere around 14 days. What this has taught me is that you can never be sure when seeds will germinate.

26 01 08 - 14:06 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Setting up a Humidity Tray

Before I set up a humidity tray for my bonsai I hadn't realised how quickly water could evaporate in my flat. The idea of the tray is to increase the moisture in the air around indoor bonsai which are used to growing in a warm, humid environment.

A modern apartment may provide the heat that the tree requires but it is a dry heat which leaves the bonsai drying up because of lack of moisture. Daily misting helps but it is a temporary thing whereas the humidity tray is there to help raise the moisture levels in the air throughout the day.

It's easy to set up a humidity tray. You just need a tray with raised edges and a water-tight bottom. Position your bonsai on the tray. Then get some pebbles or gravel and line the tray. Once you've this done you just add water and there you go! Pour water over the gravel just being careful not to overflow the tray. (more)

22 01 08 - 14:57 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Orange seedling at two months

My orange tree seedling, which I've been growing from a pip, is now two months old. It still seems in good health and has developed another pair of leaves and grown another centimetre since my post last month. It now stands at five centimetres (two inches). So far all continues to go well with it.

Meanwhile, pips from a clementine mandarin orange, which I planted on January 9 have still to show any signs of growth. Clementines are almost seedless but one out of a bag that I bought from the supermarket was packed with pips so I soaked them in warm water for a while and planted them. I planted about ten of them but so far there's no shoots.

19 01 08 - 20:37 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Is my Serissa Foetida dying?

If anyone ever tells you that Serissa Foetida is a good indoor bonsai tree for a beginner just keep these pictures in mind!

The first one is my six-year-old Serissa (Tree of a Thousand Stars) as it was when I bought it on November 3 last:

Now this is how it looks today:

I bear a slight grudge against the bonsai shop because I explained to the assistant that I was a beginner. I had bought a Ficus Retusa tree the previous month and it was doing fine so I felt it was safe to risk another one but I still wasn't confident enough to try taking care of anything that was really tricky. The assistant assured me that caring for a Serissa was 'the same' as for a Ficus. It turns out that this is not the case. (more)

16 01 08 - 17:32 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Dragon Fruit Seedlings Growing

Here are the first pictures of my dragon fruit seedlings. These seeds came from a dragon fruit which I bought in a supermarket. I was so taken by the appearance of the fruit that I immediately thought about growing one from seeds.

The dragon fruit is an amazing looking fruit. It doesn't taste as spectacular as it looks but there's nothing wrong with it either. Please feel free to read my review about eating the dragon fruit.

I followed the same procedure with the dragon fruit seeds as I did with the orange pips. I soaked them in warm water for a couple of hours and then I planted them in moist compost. I don't know if the soaking is necessary but it was the advice I read for the orange pips and it seemed to work for them. Other seeds from colder climates would need to be subjected to a period of cold called stratificiation before they would begin to germinate but I guessed the dragon fruit, coming from warmer climes wouldn't need this. (more)

09 12 07 - 21:01 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶

Orange seedlings update

Just an update on the Orange tree seedlings that I'm growing from pips.

The shoot that I first saw (A) on November 11 developed mould on one of its leaves. I removed the leaf and hoped that that would be enough. However the next day the mould was back and had passed onto the shoot that was growing beside it (B). In order to protect the one remaining shoot (C) that was growing I decided to cut my losses and removing the affected seedlings. (more)

07 12 07 - 13:51 - - Bonsai| Leave a comment - § ¶