Bonsai With Grandma

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, Brandon - the oldest (12 yr) boy, Ashley - the 3rd girl (9 yr), & Danielle - 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. Brandon 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. Ashley & Danielle 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.

We were supposed to mow the lawn (grandson Brandon 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, Mercedes-girl-11 yrs, Dominic-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, Ashley & Danielle, so we played games and watched movies while Steve 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, Ashley & Danielle wanted to help. They are so much fun. We had done this together once before and they remembered what they learned from that time. 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 Tree 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 Sprout 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 Brandon mowed our yard.

June 17
Today the girls and I repotted my first Bonsai---the Juniper Procumbens. I want to try training it to Semi-Cascade. We put it in a beautiful Semi-Cascade 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 from a Weeping Temple Juniper I bought from eBay seller greg17086.

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.

Bonsai Beginnings
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.

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