Bonsai Forever!

Mom always had a green thumb, and had always "encouraged" me to develop one, too. "Here, come help me plant this!" "Let's go weed the garden!" "Oh, be a dear and help me water the tomatoes -- I'm too busy cooking dinner..." I helped when she asked, but in spite of her efforts, that greenness never really caught on. I was much happier swinging an axe to make firewood, and don't tell her, but I've even managed to let a cactus die!

Her latest craze is fussing over these mini-trees, and i swear she cares more about them than us, her "real" family. Maybe it's her way of coping with empty nest syndrome. Dad says she even sings to them...For months, every time i visit or talk to her, I've been hearing about her latest adventure pruning this and raking that. Being the supportive son I am, I "mm-hm'ed" and "uh-huh'ed" at all the right times, always wondering in the back of my mind if she'd secretly escaped from the looney bin...

I should have known better -- it always seemed like she could read my mind -- she knew I was an "unbeliever". To celebrate my birthday this year, she gave me my own Bonsai Tree. I warned her that there was a very good reason I have no plants in my apartment, but she insisted, "You have to start *some*where!"

Easy Bonsai Care Secrets I Wish I Knew Then

So... a plant... it needs water, sun, and air, right? Let's put it on the windowsill, with an occasionally open window. I'll water it every few days, and all's well, right?

I only wish it were that simple.

Within a week of my birthday, the bonsai had started getting noticeably brown(er). Okay, it's too dry -- I'd better water it more... I went from twice a week to every other day, I'd give it half a glass. If I'm drinking 8 glasses a day, this should be plenty for such a little tree, right?

Well, it seemed to slow down the browning, but didn't stop it. Mom was coming to visit in a couple of weeks, and I didn't want her to think I'd killed her present in a month! I was getting worried, and a little desperate...

If Only I'd Known to Start With This Bonsai E-book

So, I turned to the Internet for a solution. The thought had crossed my mind to buy a new bonsai tree in case this one didn't make it, but I didn't for two reasons: my mom would see through that ploy in a second, and if I let the first one die, what's to say I wouldn't do the same to the second one? Besides, it's a lot cheaper to buy a good guide.

After reading through many bonsai sites and signing up for a few newsletters along the way, I found a couple that gave some pretty useful tips for me:

Bonsai Mastery Secrets (main book shown at right)
Bonsai Gardening Secrets

Both sites have a free informative newsletter that gave me some basic information about bonsais -- what they are, how to find a good one. But the books themselves had the information I really needed about how to properly care for (and in my case, revive) a bonsai tree.

After getting both Bonsai Mastery Secrets (and the bunch of bonuses that came with it) and Bonsai Gardening Secrets, I scoured through all of the materials for why my little tree was turning brown. It turns out that it was a combination of things -- at first, i wasn't watering it enough, and then i was actually watering it *too much*! But most importantly, I was exposing the bonsai to too much sunlight, and I was watering it at the *wrong time of the day*! Who knew?

Well, luckily, my butt was saved -- mom was pretty impressed that I hadn't killed her gift (sheesh, can you believe she actually thought that *I*'d kill the bonsai?!). Of course, she then went on to lecture (err, "educate") me on what else I should for my bonsai. My eyes kinda glazed over after a few minutes, but now I have a secret weapon to help me out... Just you wait, mom -- in a few months, *I*'m going to be the bonsai expert and my tree will look just like the one to the right!

It's a little strange... after learning more about my bonsai (it's a Japanese Maple) and being more diligent in my care of it, I've taken quite a liking to it. Don't tell my dad, but I've even been caught on occasion asking how it's doing...

If you have your own bonsai, or just got one, take a look at the books above to see how much more you can do to really make these little trees thrive. I liked Bonsai Mastery Secrets the most because of all its bonuses (more bang for the buck), but in particular because one of the bonuses was "Japanese Maple Secrets".

Bonsai Gardening Secrets comes with fewer bonuses, but I found "The Guide to Indoor Bonsai" the most helpful for making my bonsai grow better.

Click Here to get your own Bonsai Mastery Secrets
Click Here to get your own Bonsai Gardening Secrets