Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. ~Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies, 1928
Southern Bonsai Blog
Blog about lessons learned growing bonsai in the South
"What I like about bonsai is that it has a beginning but no end. A bud today becomes a branch tomorrow. --John Y. Naka
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.
My Bonsai RSS Bundle
I have created a Google Reader RSS bundle for those that like to read Bonsai blogs. If you click the link below, then subscribe to this bundle (you’ll need a Google or GMail account), then you will automatically subscribe to the 33 bonsai blogs that I have been able to find in Google Reader. Just go to http://www.google.com/reader to read the updates every day. Here’s the link: Google Reader Bonsai Bundle
If you use another reader, here is the OPML file to import: Bonsai Blogs OPML File
By the way, I have been having problems with my RSS feed. It showed errors if you looked at it in Google Reader or Feedburner. If you received a lot of updates in your RSS reader today, this is why.
The Behr Bonsai Scholarship
Passing along information about a good cause for bonsai and for education. Behr Appleby passed away in May of this year and contributed a lot of knowledge to the bonsai community.
Bonsai Vault has established a scholarship fund in the memory of Behr (Grampz) Appleby (1948-2009) to skilled students / enthusiasts of bonsai seeking a education to improve their art and the bonsai community as a whole. The scholarship will be awarded to an individual(s) for the purpose of achieving a more advanced level of bonsai.
The concept of this scholarship is to encourage and support budding bonsai artists in the fashion Behr showed and demonstrated through his commitment to the art over many, many years. In turn, any individual(s) receiving this scholarship must, with in one year of the award, demonstrate to the Behr Bonsai Scholarship Fund the knowledge that they have acquired. This demonstration of knowledge must be displayed in four distinct different ways.
Here’s more information and a button to donate: The Behr Bonsai Scholarship
Here’s the forum thread showing the balance of the fund: Scholarship Balance and Contributions
Indian Hawthorn
As a groomsmen’s gift for my best man, I had bought this tree in hopes of giving it to him to grow eventually into a bonsai. Fortunately, I found a great bald cypress at a good price instead. The bald cypress will be much easier to take care of for a beginner bonsai artist because it’s so tough. This indian hawthorn will have to just stay in my collection while I explore the possibilities of where it should go and it lets me know where it wants to go. Some have very large leaves and multiple trunks, but this one has a nice single trunk and smaller leaves than many of the other varieties. Should stand up to the summer heat and be easy to take care of. It’ll either be a great bonsai specimen one day, or an excellent addition to my garden :)
Indian Hawthorn
I give you…the bonsai lineup
Finally got moved to a new house with a lot more room inside and out. The yard is a blank slate of possibilities for planting and I’m really trying to ramp up my landscaping skills. Hopefully, this will translate into a better yard, and some better collected bonsai specimens in the future. My bonsai are not in the best of spots, but it will do for now. After over 4 weeks of high temperatures being between 98-100 degrees, several are showing signs of severe stress. The southern climate can be a tough one, but I’ve chosen trees that have proven themselves to be winners in this area. It hasn’t been fun watering every single day without fail for over a month, but it will hopefully pay off with some prized bonsai specimens. Here’s the lineup:
