Author: cepetty

Yaupon Hollies

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From October 4, 2018.

At Home Depot, i got these two Yaupon hollies, another classic bonsai species. I was drawn to their adorably tiny leaves and respectable trunks.

Thus began my love/hate relationship with hollies. Upon trimming and styling them, I found that hollies are brittle. Very brittle. They do not like being styled. Upon further research, most hollies are styled in a chop and grow method, which is pretty self explanatory. I attempted to wire them to add movement to their very straight branches.

Ewwww, look at all of those straight branches. It just looks like a tiny bush. Which it is. But I want to transform it!

Before
Before
After
Oh no!
The cast

Because these branches were so brittle, I pulled out the big guns- guy wiring. This is where you wire a branch downwards using a contact point on the branch, and then you tie the other end to a sturdy source, like a thick root, trunk, or in my case, pot. I used copper wire from Lowes, as copper wire holds its shape better and is stronger than aluminum. I use aluminum wiring for all styling though, because it is less likely to scar. See, you add movement to branches by wrapping wire around the branch at about a 45 degree angle. You bend the wire, and wait a few months for the branch to grow and maintain that position. Then you remove the wire. But, if you leave the wire on for too long, it digs into the branch and leaves scars. They heal over time, and bonsaists have many opinions about wiring scars (some don’t care about them knowing that the branch is firmly secured in place and is reassured that it will heal, whereas others avoid scarring at all costs to preserve aesthetic value).

Anyway! That was a wiring tangent! I attempted to move a branch down via a guy wire with plastic tubing around where the copper wire contacts the branch (to minimize scarring). I tightened the wire, and snap! It broke. I quickly wrapped it up with raffia, which I got at Michaels. This acts as a cast so that the branch may heal back together. We will see if it worked.

Overall, I’m a bit frustrated with these hollies. They really don’t like training. I’m considering picking a leader (a main branch) and chopping everything else off. That way, I can style branches while they are still green and pliable. If I do this, it will be in the spring.

Bonsai really teaches you patience. There is very little instant gratification. You have to wait for a certain season to do certain training. But I think that is part of the art of it. A commonly posted rule on the bonsai reddit is that if you are bored with you material, because you are just waiting for it to grow, that means you need new material to work on!

Bougie family

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Bougainvillea. Bounainvilluea. Boganvilla. Bougavillea.

It’s a hard name. I call them bougies.

Bougies are a great plant for bonsai- they grow quickly, have small leaves, occasionally bloom, and have flexible branches.

 

These guys are pretty sad. But- it is only because I am thrifty! A family-owned nursery was going out of business (information I found on Marketplace). They had so so many plants, from healthy to a little sad. But, the trick I have learned to test if a plant is alive it to scratch the lower trunk with your finger. If it is green underneath, it is alive. If it is a creamy wood color, it is dead.

These two bougies passed the fingernail test. Eh, yeah, the leaves are dry, but leaves grow back. I’m going to cut most of them off anyway. They were $2 each, when a Home Depot would likely sell the same (healthier) size for $15-20. At this nursery, I also got some pliers and plastic tubing. Why? You will find out in the Yaupon holly post (it is for guy-wiring).

 

Umbrella Experiment

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From October 31, 2018.

Schefflera. Sheffelera. Sheffleria. Shefarieuaidhek.

Like bougainvillea, this is a tough plant name. I only read it for such a long time with doing research that I never knew if I was pronouncing it right in my head. I still don’t. I live in this ignorance because I pick my battles.

They are also known are Hawaiian umbrella plants, now that is a good name.

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I see now that this picture is tragically out of focus. Alas, my blogging skills will increase, I promise. I still didn’t know that I would be making a blog, so these were just quick pictures that I could use as a reference.

I had been dissatisfied with the umbrella selection at Home Depot, but I found this little trio at a Walmart garden center that I visited as a gamble. $4 later, I have them home! Also, it is a precious plastic pot.

These plants were good, but nowhere near bonsai material. They look nothing like trees. So I have turned these into an experiment. There is a bonsai practice called trunk fusion, where you tie multiple plants tightly together with raffia. As they grow, they have no choice but to grow in between the little crevices between the trunks. Eventually the raffia is removed and bam, you have a thicker trunk. Yeah, there will be lines where the two older trunks meet, but if anything, this makes it look older. It is a way to cheat the system and make young plants into usable bonsai material much sooner. Upon the advice of a gardener at Shades of Green, I sliced off a bit of the trunks where they make contact. They naturally release a sticky, scab like fluid. Apparently this helps with the fusion.

With a little wire, it has a shape, whoo hoo. I’m excited to see how this experiment goes!

Honeysuckle

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From October 28, 2018.

I got this nice honeysuckle for about $8 at Evergreen during their fall sale. I was excited by the nice trunk, small leaves, and bendable branches. No brittleness here!

I got this pot at a leftover estate sale, that I found on Craigslist. It was a wild experience. All the ad said was that anything after 9am was free to take, a general lists of items, and to please not block the driveway. Plants were on the list, so I gave it a try. I got there a little before 9, and the entire street was packed. As I approached the house, people were already clearing out furniture and other large pieces. Apparently they opened the house early due to the street chaos. All I got was this little pot. Hey, it was an experience. Almost like Black Friday, with people aggressively walking towards a table with a “that’s MINE” attitude.

After inspecting the trunk and its various angles, I decided on the front. I trimmed a significant portion of the foliage off, bye bye leaves. They were mostly on the top.

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Lookie there! There is a pre-bonsai! Amazing what some chopping and wire can do.

A general rule is that branches should start at one-third of the tree’s height. Following those rules, I should chop those right two branches. I like them there though, for now, I want to see how it fills out with foliage.

Also, there is a common technique used in bonsai known as a sacrificial branch. If you want a trunk to fatten up, you leave a branch on the lower trunk. This sends energy, insert science here, and the trunk gets thicker, and you chop it off once you are satisfied. Makes sense. So if anything, they are acting as sacrifices for now. Thanks, guys.

Cascade Blue Juniper

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From October 28, 2018.

Junipers are the staple bonsai. They are the most well known and recognizable. However, they require different care than most other trees. I was afraid to dip my toes into juniper territory as a beginner, until I saw this beauty.

Isn’t is beautiful? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. Not until I took a peak at the trunkline.

Look at that curve! It is beautiful! This juniper was born to be a bonsai. More specifically, a cascade bonsai. This is when the foliage falls below the pot and flows like a waterfall. This plant already is headed downward. That saves me a few years of training to get it headed downward.

I got this guy on sale at Evergreen for about $10. Yeah, there are some brown/dead parts. That’s okay. I cleaned him up and he looks dashing.

I am waiting until the spring to do any work on it, for many reasons. The kind people as reddit suggested I let it recover, go dormant in winter, and make sure it pushes new growth in the spring. That makes sense. Also, some of the thinner branches may be dead. That’s okay and actually a good thing. Coniferous trees are very well suited to deadwood technique for bonsai, which is when dead parts of the tree are left for an interesting structural and visual contrast. But, I don’t want to style branches that may be dead. So, I am just going to make sure I don’t kill him and revisit him in the spring!

Pomegranate Chops

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From September 25, 2018.

Here’s another thrifty experiment. A family that was moving soon posted on Facebook Marketplace that they had leftovers from their garage sale, and that it was all free to take (less for them to take to Goodwill). I saw some pots and foliage in the photos and practically hopped in the car five minutes later.

When I arrived, they were both friendly and hustling to clean out their house. I found a great big pomegranate bush? Plant? Tree? It was 10-15 trunks with many more thin shoots coming out. The thick plastic pot was about two feet high, two feet in diameter. I wish I had taken a picture of it, to show to before and after transformation. They had long handle trimmers, so I chopped off the tall trunks to be about two feet tall. I also took some lovely terra cotta pots, a tin basket, a wooden stool (that I use as a plant stand), a root rake, and those long handled trimmers. It was a total score.

They help me load this massive pomegranate plant to me to my car. It wasn’t until I parked near my dorm when I tried to pick it up for the first time. It was heavy. So so heavy. Like, so heavy that I don’t think my suitemate and I could have carried it to my dorm. So, I did what any dedicated plant mom would do and I got to work, in the parking garage.

Sometimes when people ask what I do for exercise, I say that I garden. This is one of those times that I had a massive plant work out. I spent 2-3 hours crouched over, detangling the compact roots and soil. This plant was old. It seemed to be one plant, one root system with many branches. I had to do a lot of chopping, breaking, and cracking to separate the trunks. I did my best to keep a good amount of roots on each trunk though, knowing that this wasn’t an ideal circumstance. I figured some might live, some might die. It was worth a try. I got many odd looks from other students passing by. One even asked if I needed help, which I graciously denied.

By the end, I had seven pomegranate trunks with nice, thick roots, a ton of soil, and a huge plastic pot. I carried the trunks and pot up and left the soil in my car to bring up at a later time. This was a manageable weight to carry. I have desperately tried to sell that pot, as it is very nice yet not practical for me. It is still under my bed.

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This is the only picture I took from this event. I wish I had taken more, but little did I know that I would want to start a blog. Oh well. You can see the various stumps inside and a few that I planted on the right.

Four of the seven have produce foliage, and I discarded the other three. They might have still been alive and would have eventually grown, but I needed the space and four was already plenty.

There are advantages and disadvantages to making bonsai this way. I already have thick trunks, which is a major component of bonsai. However, the trunks lack a taper. A taper helps with the illusion of a tiny tree being big. Because the trunks are already so thick, there is no chance of the altering their shape. Most of them are pretty straight, and straightness is a bad quality for bonsai. But, since I will be growing all of the branches, I can style the branches as they grow. I will have much more control over that design aspect.

Boxwood

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As a college student, I hesitate to spend much money on nursery stock. Though, that is where the grand majority of my hobby money goes. But I was raised to be thrifty, so I have become a regular visitor of Facebook Marketplace and Craiglist.

I connected with a sweet woman on Craigslist who had boxwood bushes in her front yard that she wanted removed. I thought, hey, boxwoods are great bonsai. She was even kind enough to send my close up pictures of the trunks. I was a bit confused as to why she wanted them removed though, but when I arrived at her house, it made sense. She used a walker and her mobility wasn’t great. She said it was just another chore to trim the bushes, yet she also didn’t want them to grow out and look bad.

This was my first lesson in yamadori, you could say, or collecting plants from nature (does a front yard count as nature?). I quickly, quickly found that this was more than I had signed up for. These bushes had massive roots and were in thick clay. She later said they had been at her house since she had moved it, which was 20 years ago. So these are big boys.

I tried for a few hours, but all I could get was the smallest bush. I felt badly that I couldn’t help her more, but I think she appreciated my visit and effort.

So I take my little treasure home and fiddle with it. There is a thin left trunk with foliage throughout and a right, straight trunk with foliage only as the top. Huh. I decided to focus on the left side, which was more workable. I kept the right trunk in hopes on backbudding, but I think that is not gonna happen. Maybe I could carve it up and do something neat with deadwood. That would require, however, the possession of a carving tool. Bonsai has so many specialized tools #christmasgifts.

I was able to create some neat movement and padding on the left, but the trunk is a bit thin for the height. I might do a hard chop in the spring. We shall see.

Ficus (Green Island)

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From September 8, 2018.

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My first Ficus! Ficus are a very common type of bonsai, due to their rapid growth, pretty leaves, and ability to survive indoors. Note that I said survive- it isn’t them best for them, but they can do it. If you want a real bonsai though, you need growth, which is expedited by being outdoors.

I got this little guy for $5 at a local nursery, Evergreen Garden Center. I was immediately drawn to him because of the shape of the trunk: very unique and something I can work with. In my naive beginner state, I threw him into my bad “bonsai” soil mixture and a bonsai pot I got from Shades of Green. Although the soil is less than ideal, he has thrived.

Texas Ebony

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From September 12, 2018.

Before wiring
After wiring

 

While I was first checking out Evergreen, I stumbled across this lil guy in the greenhouse. There was only one of this species, and he was just chilling alone. I immediately saw the bonsai potential in him and swept him up. I got him for $15.

I have attempted to add movement in the branched with wiring, to lower them. I was able to at a bit of curve to the trunk, but I am still unhappy with it. It is too straight and lacks taper. I might do a hard chop down to the last two branches. Frankly though, I’m not brave enough to do that right now.

I love these multi-leaves and that this is a unique yet doable species for bonsai.