Let it snow!

In most areas of the country, snow is simply a part of winter. In the South, however, it *may* come once per year and most of the time that doesn’t stick to the ground. We had a really good snow this year though, and for some of my bonsai, it was their first time to deal with it. We got about 4 inches a few weeks ago (yes, I’m just getting around to blogging about it), but even with that much, it was gone by lunch. Nevertheless, here’s some pictures.

Air Layering Resources

Bonsai Bark did a nice series in the past couple of months on air-layering. If you have mature yard trees, a well-developed branch you need to remove, or would like the chance to start over with your nebari, then air-layering is definitely something to look into. Here’s the links:

A Simple Air-layering Technique Part 1
A Simple Air-layering Technique Part 2
A Simple Air-layering Technique Part 3

Here’s an explanation of the process and why it works over at EverGreen Garden Works:  What is Air Layering?

Some other resources:

Layering Techniques for Bonsai

Ground Layering at Bonsai4Me

Airlayering by the Texas Agriculture Extension Office

If you have any other resources about air layering and it’s relationship with bonsai, send me the links and I’ll add them to this post.

Shin-Boku – Japanese Garden Trees

This site is really amazing and something I was reading about at Stone Lantern’s Blog called Bonsai Bark.  Shin-Boku Nurseries create specimen garden trees and the images are incredible.  If a person wasn’t standing beside the tree, I would think it was a bonsai, and I guess technically, it is.

Shin-Boku Nursery

Help me ID this tree!

If you have ever needed to ID a bonsai that: wasn’t correctly labeled, didn’t have a label at all, or that you collected, then help might be a click away. If your an experienced bonsai artist, you may be able to help others ID their plants. MyPlantID.com

My Plant ID began in January 2008 as a plant identification service. People from all over the world sent us photographs of their plants and we identified them for free. The demand was overwhelming. When we realized that we couldn’t keep up with the amount of daily submissions, we knew something had to change. At the same time, there was a large number of plant enthusiasts who contacted us, eager to help identify. The result is www.myplantid.com. With you help and curiosity, we hope to build myplantid into the premier plant identification website and forum.
Features:

* Identify plants online.
* Search by leaf features (arrangement, shape, margin, vein) and location.
* Submit plant image and let users identify it.
* Organize and keep track of all your garden plants online .
* Contribute by identifying plats of others.
* Registration required, free.

Jim Smith Bonsai

Orlando Bonsai had a post on it’s blog today about Jim Smith’s Bonsai nursery. This nursery has been providing wholesale bonsai material since 1979. If your wife is looking for a beach location and your wanting to do a little scouting on the side, check out Vero Beach, Florida so you can swing by Jim Smith’s.

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