Bonsai list for the South

I have attempted to put together a list of suitable bonsai for the Southern United States.  I would not say it’s complete, but something I’m trying to put together as a reference for beginners trying to take up bonsai as a hobby in the South.  If you have any additions or any species that you have successfully raised in zone 8, please post them in the comments.  I did not list tropical species since those are not specific to zone 8.  Also, some trees may be listed in some books as being fine in zone 8, but may result in stunted growth or constantly weak due to heat stress.  I have tried to leave these trees off.

The Deep South Bonsai List

Rhododendron ‘Shanghai Rosie’

Another item I picked up from Guy Guidry at Bonsai Northshore was a Rhododendron ‘Shanghai Rosie’.  I liked the shape of it and because my fiance seemed to love the smaller shohin and mame bonsai, I have begun to appreciate them more as well.  Some would probably say it has a stick in a pot feel, but standing in front of it, it just gives me the impression of a middle-aged broom style tree.  Watering in the summer is probably going to be tough, but we’ll see what happens.  I hope to repot this one soon in something slightly bigger so it can have some growing room, and it needs a soil change to something I’m more used to like a Turface mix.  Azalea’s are very popular in the south and are a part of almost any Southern garden.  I hope this one stays in my bonsai collection a long time.

Proud owner of a Japanese Black Pine

I think every bonsai grower should have a pine.  They seem to be the pinnacle of the art and at the heart of the bonsai’s history.  I had hesitated for a long time on getting a pine, because their care is much different than a decidous tree.  After my recent trip to Bonsai Northshore though, a group of newly grafted japanese black pines caught my eye and I had to have one.  The variety is Koto Buki (Pinus thungbergii ‘Koto Buki’), one of the very few true dwarf varieties of Japanese Black Pine, so the maintenance schedule should be much easier than keeping a standard JBP in bonsai shape.  It is very young, but I think I will enjoy the final product a lot.

New Littleleaf Boxwood

Buxus microphylla var. japonica ‘Morris Midget’ is one of my latest acquisitions. I actually have several of these planted in my yard because a local nursery has 30 or so at a great price. They have had them for several years and have been unable to sell them because they are really small for a southern garden. Very small, compact, and a slow-grower at a little over an inch per year. I’ve seen decent growth out of the ones in my yard in well-drained fertile soil, so I decided to pick one up to try to immediately put in a pot for bonsai. It has turned out to be one of my favorites. After pruning and repotting, it immediately sprung back with new growth. I think it will be one of the first in my collection to actually look like a little tree. I’m thinking about training into a oak-tree broom style.  Here’s some pictures.

Evergreen Gardenworks Purchases

Brent Walston’s site has been very helpful to me over the past few months of learning about bonsai from any source that I could get to.  He is an experienced grower with a variety of trees in his bonsai nursery.  He has lots of articles that describe in detail the information he has gathered and learned over the years.  I highly recommend checking it out.  I really wanted to buy some bonsai trees from his nursery for a couple of reasons.  One, he has a good variety and I could get trees that aren’t available in my area.  2.  With his contributions to bonsai, I wanted to support his business.  Here’s what I purchased.

Cedrus atlantica (Atlas Cedar) -10° Pale blue green foliage in tufts, much used for formal upright bonsai. Native to the Atlas mountains of North Africa.

Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’ (Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar) Similar to above in needle length and color, but this cultivar is perfectly prostrate and must be staked or trained. It can be worked into any shape but continues to grow and develop a large caliper just like its tree counterpart.

Juniperus chinensis ‘Shimpaku’ (Shimpaku Juniper) The classic Japanese bonsai species. Deep green soft scaly foliage to about 3 feet x 6 feet makes a very dense flat mound. Pinching the tips keeps it very compact. Excellent rock garden plant.

I’m really excited about the trees that he sent and are hoping they have a good future.  It’ll take a few years before I even think about pruning them, but I’ll have species that aren’t very common in this area as bonsai.

Louisiana Day of Bonsai Hosted by Bonsai Northshore

This was really one of my first real visits to a local bonsai show and I must say it was excellent.  I really enjoyed talking to the people and seeing all the great trees at the show.  Guy Guidry is a great artist, but more importantly, he’s a hospitable person.  He welcomed everyone into his backyard and asked them to stay as long as they wished.  There were several bonsai workshops, including one working on a monstrous bald cypress where his nephew and son were wiring for a few hours.  I managed to take some pictures, but unfortunately, my camera died really early in the day.  I did get some video of the bonsai competitions, but I haven’t been able to edit it yet.  His nursery was really spectacular and I thought the prices were reasonable. Here’s a gallery of the bonsai trees that I did manage to get.  These were on display for judging by everyone that attended.  The kingsville boxwood won.

Three New Junipers

I decided to try my hand at junipers with the addition of these 3 Chinese junipers to my bonsai collection.  I’ve pruned all three to a point where I left enough branching to make decisions later about the final design.  Depending on the way each of them back-buds, I’m hoping that at least one starts showing promise as a viable bonsai sometime next year.  Junipers are really tough and can be repotted in the fall because they experience some renewed root growth right before going into dormancy.

It was also an experience into the bonsai world of shari and jin which was very interesting.  At first, you are certain you are killing the tree by peeling off that much bark, but all of them have showed no signs of slowed growth, and the branching around the scars have not shown signs of being wounded or stressed.  My plan is to let the scars dry out till next summer when I will treat them with a lime-sulphur solution.

Juniper Bonsai #1

Juniper Bonsai #2

Juniper Bonsai #3

Hurricanes and Bonsai

Being in the South, we’re often faced with the threat of one or several hurricanes in a year. Several days of wind and rain pound your trees performing a pruning and defoliating action on your trees by mother nature herself. It’s tough to see something you watch and care for go through this, but all in all, as long as it doesn’t get too bad, I think it’s good for them. I may change my mind one day when a major branch is broken, but for now, I leave them out to toughen them against the forces of nature.

Plant-Care.com has a good article on Hurricanes and houseplants, and the lessons we can learn from them. It goes over the differences between your indoor potted plants and your outdoor landscape plants. Click here to read the article.

Technorati Tags: bonsai, weather, indoor bonsai

Chinese Elm from Schley’s Bonsai

I have wanted to buy a bonsai from a bonsai nursery for a while now to see what kind of quality I would get and to see what the shipping process is like. I started looking for bonsai nurseries in my area to keep shipping costs low, make sure the trees were already adapted to our zone, and to support the local bonsai trade. The closest to me is still about 4 hours away so shipping was my only option. Two really stuck out to me as far as quality and price. Schley’s Bonsai in Florida and Brussell’’s Bonsai in North Mississippi.

There are three different trees that I have considered buying. A hornbeam (Korean or American), a Trident Maple, and a Chinese Elm. After looking around, I decided on a chinese elm from Schley’s would be a good compromise between cost and quality. It also helped that out of the people I contacted, they were the most helpful and sent me pictures of individual bonsai when I requested them.

The chinese elm I finally picked was perfect for a style that I don’t have in my bonsai collection, which is a broom. It has a nice start on some nebari (surface roots), a slightly slanting trunk, and some nice twiggy branching. It was sent in a small 6″ pot. I immediately repotted it without touching the roots in a bigger pot so I could encourage a lot of new growth. In the early spring, I’ll prune some of the out of place branches and cut back some of the growth. Here it is:

Here it is after repotting.

Technorati Tags: bonsai, chinese elm

Fertilizing Bonsai

I tend to love fertilizing days. It seems like I’m nurturing the tree and providing everything that it needs. We all want our pre-bonsai trees to grow at their maximum growth rate and we want to make sure our bonsai trees stay at their best.

I have several fertilizer types that I use on my trees. For in-ground trees, I use all organic fertilizers. I love Plant-tone All-purpose organic which contains a mixture of organic components (blood meal, feather meal, manure, crab meal, etc.) to give your trees a complete nutritional buffet with a 5-3-3 nitrogen/phosphorus/potassium mixture. I also have started using Terraform worm pellets and Terraform liquid fertilizer. The worm pellets are pretty inexpensive if the recommended rates of feeding are right. One $8 bottle is going to last me a couple of years. The liquid version is the exact opposite. I spent one $8 bottle in one feeding.

For potted trees, I’m using a variety of inorganic fertilizers right now. Miracle-Grow Bloom Booster (15-30-15), All-Purpose (24-8-16), and Miracid (30-10-10). I know many people who use Miracle-Gro fertilizers on their bonsai and swear by them. I have compared them to other liquid fertilizers and they do tend to pack more micro-nutrients that the tree needs. I just haven’t been able to find another that compares. It’s immediate, I haven’t had any problems with it burning, and it’s very easy to apply once you get your system of fertlizing down. I am thinking of trying some of my organics with my potted trees following some advice that I got at a bonsai forum, and I’ll wait and see what kind of results I get out of that.

For a much more general article on fertilizing your bonsai, check out this article. Technorati Tags: fertilizing bonsai, bonsai, organic