Southern Bonsai Blog

Lindsay Farr’s World of Bonsai Series 2

aaron — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 02:24:34 +0000

I just got finished watching the first episode of Lindsay Farr’s World of Bonsai Series 2 and this series continues to be fascinating (I’m a little behind since it was posted 6 months ago). I think anyone who loves bonsai should be following this series and watching the videos. I encourage everyone to head over to Vimeo and subscribe to this series and watch the episodes that have already been released. If you haven’t watched World of Bonsai Series 1, then you have a lot of catching up to do, but it will be well worth your time.

http://www.bonsaifarm.tv is the World of Bonsai web site, and here is a list of all of Lindsay Farr’s videos on Vimeo.

You Be the Judge

aaron — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:51:25 +0000

Stone Lantern is holding a unique bonsai contest where you can be the judge. Vote now as there are only two days left in the competition. You can also receive a $5 gift certificate to Stone Lantern for participating in the contest. Click below to view the trees:

http://bonsaibark.com/2010/02/03/you-be-the-judge-well-grease-your-palm/

Indoor Bonsai

aaron — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:49:21 +0000

Wintertime in the South is a time that my house fills with all the tropical plants from my bench. Growing indoor bonsai can be a very rewarding experience especially if your new to bonsai and want to keep it close to you. Unfortunately, it can be the most frustrating start to your bonsai career. I started like many others have, with a juniper “mallsai”. It was a gift from my lovely wife. I made the classic bonsai beginner mistake and kept it inside for a couple of weeks. After reading through many of the sites linked to on this site, I figured out that a juniper is for outdoors only. My second purchase was a Ficus Microcarpa and a much better choice for indoor growing. Since then, I have purchased several tropical bonsai that I have enjoyed taking care of.

Each year, I experiment with lighting conditions for these indoor bonsai, and this year is no different. This year, I am trying a 24-inch fluorescent grow light for my smaller bonsai that was actually pretty cheap at Wal-Mart ($9.95). My ficus gets it’s own 100-watt 6500K daylight CFL and my jade gets a 75 watt desk lamp that does a terrible job. This seems to keep them barely happy for the winter months. I really can’t wait for the summer months to put them back outside. They seem much happier in the sunlight. I fully intend to create a new setup before next year that would include 3 24-inch fluorescents of different color temperatures. Apparently, when using florescent, you should try to vary the color temps to cover as much ground as possible. From 2700K to 6500K. Here’s some articles that I run across while doing my research:

Indoor Bonsai – As Difficult as You Make It

Fuku Bonsai

Growing Bonsai Indoors

Growing Indoor Plants with Success

Grow Lights (Wikipedia)

Ficus: Growing Indoors Under Light

Bonsai Jewelry

aaron — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:50:19 +0000

Looking through the latest issue of American Bonsai Society’s journal and I found an ad for bonsai jewelry. Frank’s Custom Jewelry makes many different pieces using the lost wax process. Each piece is handcrafted by 2nd Generation Bonsai Master Frank Mihalic. I think it would be an interesting conversation piece to have and I’m considering buying something.

Pendant shaped like a tree

http://www.franksbonsaijewelry.com/

All about pot selection

aaron — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:00:29 +0000

Bonsai Tonight has a good article on pot selection that’s worth reading. I have been looking at several different kinds of pots lately, but for an entirely different reason. I have been struggling with the best type (size and material) of grow pot for future bonsai. Maybe I’ll blog about it once my research is done. For now, head over to Bonsai Tonight

Part 1: http://bonsaitonight.com/2010/01/05/show-pots/
Part 2: http://bonsaitonight.com/2010/01/08/pot-selection-redux/

Technorati Tags: bonsai, pots

Let it snow!

aaron — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:13:17 +0000

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.

Juniper in snow

Bonsai bench in snow

Bonsai Bench

aaron — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:21:35 +0000

Bonsai Bench is a well put-together site that let’s users input care information for plant varieties used for bonsai. It’s an excellent concept and needs more user interaction to cover all the different varieties and zones that exist. If you have experience in bonsai and would like to contribute care information for a specific variety, I’d encourage you to do so. Hopefully, beginners will be able to use the site to find their tree in their zone and get specific information on the best times to prune and feed.

http://www.bonsaibench.com/

Air Layering Resources

aaron — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:32:32 +0000

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.

Plant City Bonsai

aaron — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:11:07 +0000

On a recent trip to Atlanta, I visited many places that you’ll probably hear about in upcoming posts, but the highlight was a trip to Clermont, GA to talk with Steve Cratty at Plant City Bonsai. He took the time to talk with me about almost every aspect of his bonsai stock and even helped me choose a fine specimen to take home (which I’ll talk about in the future). Plant City Bonsai has many specimens, but most of the stock is for beginner bonsai artists like myself that is a step above nursery material so that your only choices aren’t a $10 5 year old tree and a $500 30 year-old tree. Steve tries to fill that gap with material that is already started on it’s way to being a good bonsai, but still leaves you plenty of creative control over what the final look will be. I found the experience to be very enjoying and sorry that I missed Warren Hill, who was appearing there the next day. I’ve included some pictures of my visit, and sadly, did not video the tour that he gave me. This is definitely a labor of love with Steve and I got that hint that it may have given him a few gray hairs along the way :)

Fall is here

aaron — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:09:47 +0000

Highs this week are in the low 80′s signifying the end of the really hot temps that we’ve seen all summer here. Some of my trees are slowly coming back to life with some fall growth like the boxwoods, junipers, and even some late growth on my crape myrtles. Not all of my bonsai made it through the summer though, with this azalea struggling for the past 3 months and finally giving up the fight in the past month or so. I have repotted trees in almost every month of the year, but got entirely too brave with this repot. I repotted during the flowering period, put it in too shallow of a pot, and there was just too much of the root system above the soil line. I started out with sphagnum moss covering the top part of the root system, but it kept that part too wet. The other part stayed way too dry due to the soil being about 80% turface. I guess you could call this a progression picture, but it’s certainly not progression in the right direction.It’s an understatement to say I still have much to learn about the art of bonsai.

Satsuki Azalea "Shanghai Rosie"