by 13 people |
It's never too late to start a new hobby.
There is a countless wealth of books and websites with all kinds of information about bonsai. I'm not here to tell you how. I just want to share my bonsai experiences. I've seen pictures of bonsai that are hundreds of years old. I'm hoping to see my bonsai make it to thirty-five at the very least.
Two of my grandchilden, I'll call them by their initials, AMT and BRR, had an interest in bonsai, unbeknownst to me. Needless to say, when I got started---they started. So we are all in this together. A hobby certainly is more fun when shared, especially with grandchildren.
My New Etsy Shop
- Etsy :: lindadeal :: The Crochet Angel
- I am making crocheted items to sell on my new Etsy shop. Twenty-five per cent of all sales will go to help fund my Hats For Homeless project. I would love to have you stop by and check it out.
What You'll Find On This Lens:
- My New Etsy Shop
- My Charity Work
- My latest new love is - yep - BONSAI!!
- Welcome
- Potting Up With Granddaughters
- Flower Fairy on CafePress
- Bonsai Goodies in the Mail
- More Bonsai on Squidoo
- Great Bonsai
- A Small Group of Small Trees
- Help Keep Homeless Warmer With Hats
- Bonsai Bookmarks
- Tools for your bonsai.
- Bonsai Interest Links
- Maple Trees
- A Few Good Books
My Charity Work
Doing something I enjoy and helping someone else at the same time.
- Hats For The Homeless | There, but for the Grace of God, go I.
- I crochet hats for homeless people. Twice each winter for the past 3 years I have given well over 300 hats to the homeless. You can help by...
- Make A Difference Day, USA WEEKEND's national day of helping others
-
About Make A Difference Day; How to Get Involved;
Make A Difference DAYtaBANK; Find A Project;
Register A Project; Project Ideas;
Idea Generator; What Others Have Done;
Project Tools.
My latest new love is - yep - BONSAI!!
A new reason for getting up in the morning.
June 2, 2007---I noticed bonsai many (30 or 40) years ago. They seemed to be extraordinarily beautiful to me. At that time all my gardening energy went into vegetables in the quite large backyard garden. Several years ago I noticed the neighbors trees had grown so large that the sun was blocked from my garden. I had to give it up.I watched a lot of HGTV and decided to try a large flower garden in the front yard. That went great until a couple of years ago when I started having bad back problems that I know you don't want to hear about. Then a couple of surgeries (gall bladder and lung removal) later, I knew I probably would never be able to garden again.
All of a sudden it came to me***BONSAI***. This past March, I bought some seeds (from eBay) and read a lot of books (from half.com) and got started. I've been hooked ever since.
Three of the grandchildren, BRR - the oldest (12 yr) boy, AMR - the 3rd girl (9 yr), & DRR - the youngest girl (8 yr this month), are staying the weekend with us. Today we will watch cartoons and then put 2 or 3 plants into training pots. BRR has 4 bonsai plants of his own that he is training. I let him do a lot of the technical work on my plants to give him more experience. AMR & DRR love to help. They will be good gardeners some day. 6:00 p.m. - Just remembered I'm out of gravel for the drainage. We'll have to wait until another day for putting up in training pots.
Welcome
I appreciate your visit here today.
Comfortdoc wrote...
Thank you for submitting this to the Month of Thanks Challenge.
Posted November 11, 2008
LaraineRose wrote...
I bought a beautiful Bonsai at a charity fair about 5 years ago. What a disaster I made of it! I should have got some training. It finally died, poor thing. I'm usually very good with plants ... somehow I failed with Bonsai. 5 stars for a very talented lady! Favored, fan and lensrolled.
Posted October 30, 2008
GrowWear wrote...
Looks like you have this lens well on its way to being a great resource for bonsai enthusiasts! Very interesting subject. :)
Posted October 22, 2008
susanbrian wrote...
I love your lens! I gave it 5 stars, keep up great work. I am Chinese bonsai enthusiast. I have a lens and a site.
Please check out my lens when you have time
Chinese Bonsai. Let me know if you would like to exchange links.
Susan Brian
Posted September 15, 2008
Urszula wrote...
Hi Grandma!
Thank you for a very warm comment about my website HobbyThing.com
I love Bonsai myself, but would need a few more years to grow up to it :) They need so much attention!
If you ever want to spread your love for Bonsai don't be afraid to visit www.hobbything.com :)
All the best
Posted September 12, 2008
Potting Up With Granddaughters
Sunday, June 4, 2007
We were supposed to mow the lawn (grandson BRR was actually going to do the mowing) at one of Daughter's rent houses today. She has two and would really like to sell them since she moved to another state (and took two of my grandchildren, AMT-girl-11 yrs, DOT-boy-7 yrs this month, with her & son-in-law). So when we got there the property manager already had it mown. Good piece of luck there.We went back home, wondering what to do with the free time. Still had the 2 granddaughters, AMR & DRR, so we played games and watched movies while husband went back into town. He bought a bag of rocks for me (Yeah, rocks). Pea gravel to be exact. So I was finally able to pot up a few new trees I bought from eBay.
Of course, AMR & DRR wanted to help. They are so much fun. We had done this together once before and they remembered what they learned from then. I let them cover the drain holes, put in the gravel, a thin layer of sand and a little potting mix. They remembered how to remove the baby plants from the old containers so I let them do that also. I was just going to do 2 plants, 1 serissa and 1 red maple, but they kept wanting to do more - and more - and, well, you get the idea.
We potted 3 cotoneaster seedlings in some empty single-serve applesauce containers. I cut drain holes in the bottoms. We're hoping that will give them just enough room to grow awhile. I also cut a couple of holes in the bottom of 1/2 gal. milk jug and we used it to start training (hopefully) a red maple in the exposed root style. I had already put one red maple in a milk jug with a hand-size rock to try the root over rock style. We had some mondo grass and a beautiful blue 5" pot that went together beautifully. A forsythia from the front yard went into a training pot. The girls finally gave out on me and I was able to save a few of the plants for another day. We all did a good job - had a good day - and grandson mowed our yard.
June 17
Today the girls and I repotted my first bonsai plant---the juniper procumbens. I want to try training it to semicascade. We put it in a beautiful semicascade pot from eBay seller klblazer. I bought some fishing weights this afternoon and fastened some of them to the end of the long "windswept" branch. Will probably have to wire it this fall.
We also planted 6 seeds (weeping temple juniper) from eBay seller greg17086.
Flower Fairy on CafePress
Shopping For Charity
Ariana Flower Fairy 3" Lapel Sticker (48 pk)
Price: 37.49 
Ariana Flower Fairy Note Cards (Pk of 10)
Price: 14.99
Ariana Flower Fairy Mini Button (100 pack)
Price: 104.99
Ariana Flower Fairy Kids Hoodie
Price: 28.49
Ariana Flower Fairy Bib
Price: 8.99
Bonsai Goodies in the Mail
June 4, 2007
All Right!! The akadama is here...of course I can't use it tonight, but just wait until this weekend. I'll be right back at it again. At least-that's the plan. Also, a couple of root rake/spatula combo's for BRR and AMT. I got mine in the last order of treasures. This is really handy---makes a big difference when dealing with those little roots. (Just won an auction on another tree - Chinese Elm with a 1 1/4" trunk. Looking forward to getting that one. Probably won't be here until Thursday of next week.)There are some new pots and figurines in another package today. There are so many kinds---I just can't decide which one to get so I get 2 or 3 or 4.
Watching another auction to end on a very pretty little pot. Guess I better go check on it. *Well, I lost out on that pot. They put another one just like it up for sale in the 'buy it now' catagory. I'll have to think about it a while.
June 7, 2007
Hurrah for the mail carrier. One more Tsukumo False Cypress, another Serissa Kyoto, and a Weigela Minuet. This Weigela has very pretty pink flowers and was quite a bit larger than I expected. I need to pay more attention to the written description instead of just the picture. But I can prune it back and it will be great.
More Bonsai on Squidoo
- Chinese Bonsai Secrets Finally Revealed
- Hi, my name Susan. I am bonsai enthusiast. My favorite bonsai type is Chinese bonsai. I decided to start this lens to share tips, photos and different techniques that I found very useful for sculpting my Chinese bonsai.
Great Bonsai
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
A Small Group of Small Trees
June 6, 2007
It's just about time to try something a little more complicated (for me).I really like those little Baby Tsukumo False Cypresses I bought from csnurs on eBay. I've been thinking about this for a while now and have decided they are the trees I want to use to make my group planting. I have one so far (four, actually, but BRR and AMT are claiming one each and one should arrive in the mail any day now) and am trying to win auctions for at least three more. Seven would be even better. However, I'm thinking about putting a few Baby Shimpaku Junipers with them.
The Tsukumos are about 2"- 2 1/2" tall and the Shimpakus are about 4" or so. Since they are both evergreens, I'm hoping they are compatible as far as water, light, soil and food needs. I've done some reading and believe they will probably be okay.
I'm also looking for the "perfect pot" to put all of them in. Since I'm getting my trees one auction at a time I have time to watch for a nice pot. I think (I know, I know, thinking is something I'm not equipped for, but I have fun anyway) I want an oval one, about 10-12" long, 8" wide, and about 1 1/2" deep. Medium to dark brown or forest green should be nice.
I wish I had enough experience to try putting a rock in there and planting some of the trees on it. I have a couple a small stones BRR gave me that are very pretty. I'll try to work them into the pattern. Anyway, I'm glad to have something so thought-provoking to keep me out of trouble. We'll see how this progresses as time goes along.
June 9
I am so fortunate---my favorite eBay seller that I buy trees from has just sold me 5 Tsukumos at a fantastic price. Now I better get busy finding the right pot.
June 15
Six more Tsukumos arrived yesterday & I still don't have a pot for the group planting. If I don't find one soon I'll use this pretty white w/blue design glazed 12" oval pot from maiban on eBay.
June 17
AMR & DRR, granddaughters, and I went to the landscape store to look for rocks. They were looking for "cool or pretty" rocks. I wanted some to use in my group planting. I'm still looking for a pot. Just read in one of the Herb Gustafson books about how to build a simple tray for saikei. That's probably what I'll use. Went to WalMart for blue aquarium rocks to make a small (duh, of course small) river. The bag has two colors of blue and some green. Now I just need some plywood and 1"x2"s for the tray. We have a lot of various size pieces of lumber in the garage.
Here's my favorite link:
Bonsai Bookmarks
Tools for your bonsai.
Find everything you need to keep your bonsai healthy.
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand byBonsai Interest Links
surfing for bonsai
I just want to know...
- BonsaiSite.com - Bonsai as an art and horticultural practice.
- Definition, history, techniques, a gallery of bonsai, and FAQs.
- :: Bonsai Europe :: Welkom
- Bonsai Europe, magazine: Welkom (Bonsai Europe)Some sample articles on this site are very informative. Several pictures.
- eBay Guides - BONSAI - The easy basics for buying and growing bonsai
- Okay, the first thing you need to learn about keeping and maintaining a bonsai is that aside from the many myths that surround this beautiful hobby, they are not that difficult to look after, you just have to follow
- BonsaiMark great info
- Great blog with helpful notes and good things to buy for your bonsai.
- Tsukumo Saikei
- My own efforts at creating my 'dream saikei'. Using trees from CS Nursery, a pot from klblazer and Kyoto moss spores from Maiban, all at eBay. Also, some aquarium gravel from WalMart, rocks from a local landscape store, soil from a local nursery and my own brain power (after reading about a dozen books on bonsai, saikei, bonkei, miniature bonsai, etc. from half.com and Amazon).
- Gardening Gifts
- Shopping for gardening gifts is easy.Garden tools alone could keep you in gift ideas for years.The garden totes,gardening boots,garden books,hand pruners,gardening gloves,garden labeler.
Maple Trees
Several eBay stores have great maple trees.
A lot of us really enjoy seeing red maple trees. That is something I've always wanted. Now I've found eBay stores that have about forty-'leven different varieties. It's like looking through a maple candy store.
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand byA Few Good Books
In my humble opinion.
I really enjoy looking at the pictures, too.
Bonsai (101 Essential Tips)
Amazon Price: $5.00 (as of 07/06/2009)
The Secret Techniques of Bonsai: A Guide to Starting, Raising, and Shaping Bonsai
Amazon Price: $23.20 (as of 07/06/2009)
The Art of Natural Bonsai: Replicating Nature's Beauty
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/06/2009)
by grandma_deal
Hello world. I'm a xx-year-old grandmother. I have one cute husband, one fine son, one lovely daughter, six(yes, six) wonderful grandchildre... (more)
