ANYBODY NEED SAGE FOR THERE TURKEY DRESSING?

 

Hello to all and a very Happy Thanksgiving. Sage as a bonsai who would have ever thought? Oh excuse me I did.

Sage is a wonderful craggily looking material in the trunk and it is indigenous to most high and even some low Deseret areas of America and other areas of the world. I worked on a ranch in the state of Nevada years ago when I was young. The one small room little bunk house I lived in had an old pop belly stove and I would burn sage brush in it and believe me when I say sage makes for a quick and very easy hot fire.

The high desert of Nevada gets mighty cold at night and in real early morning time but that sage could warm up my entire little cabin in a heart beat and have my coffee brewing in a short time. Sage is very aromatic and the oils in the woody material will make it catch fire readily. The native tribes used sage for many different things and also for seasoning various foods. They made mats for there dwellings out of the sage wood as sage will strip fairly readily and can then be woven.

I did not know but the sage plant can actually talk to one another. No not really talk but they give off a sort of special chemical sent that can be recognized by other sage plants in times of stress or pest infestations and the like so if one is being attacked it can send out the sent and others are for warned and then can actually infect the invaders.

I was lucky to get this one and its been in my collection now for about ten years. I have no idea how old it is as it is a collected plant and only god knows its age. Sage leaves are pretty small and very pretty light muted blue gray looking. The sage plant can go a long time with out water as it is accustomed to that in the high deserts.

My sage tree is in a cascade style potting and in a nice dark blue pot and I have only transplanted it once since I have owned it.

The soil is my ready mix of pumice akadama, and lava rock. Almost all of my bonsai are planted in this same mixture only at different levels of akadama depending on the tree. Sage is truly edible and many animals and birds depend on it for extra food sources and nutrients, rabbits, mule deer, pronghorn and sage grouse. The sage grouse also use the brush for cover and shelter in times of need from other predator's. The young eat the seeds and the sage is a real true friend of the sage grouse.

Sage is in the family of Asteraceae and grows fairly prolific in the United states in many states and in many other countries.

This sage brush was collected in the high desert around Madras Oregon. The region is prolific with sage. It was collected on a fishing trip to the area. The sage can produce small yellow flowers in early spring and if you rub a sprig in your finger tips and smell it then your in for a real nice treat and or surprise.

 A lot of sage gets destroyed by wild fires every year and there have been ecology experts from the land management offices actually getting inmates in the Oregon Penial system to grow the plants to reforest a lot of the areas affected. It is said that they grew more 90 thousand plants alone in the year 2017 and are still making it happen to this day. The sage grouse is fast becoming close to being added to the endangered act and truly do depend on the sage for their survival.

If your out in any area where sage grows you may want to try and collect one. But always make sure you get permission first from a local forest service station area. Or try to get some seeds and plant them to grow one or many. If you do get permission to collect one then be especially careful to dig a wide area around the plant while trying to up root it and make sure you get as much of the root as possible.

Collect some of the actual soil where you dig the tree up and use that as its beginning substrate planting then later after your sure it is established good and not going to perish then move it on to the pumice, lave rock and akadama mixture.  Sage can live to over 100 years old if cared for properly.

 Good luck and I hope you have a wonderful Thanks Giving where ever you are in the world.

By: Harold Yearout ©Copyright 2021 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved for more information feel free to contact me: h.yearout@gmail.com

 

Why do bonsai artists call multiple trees of the same kind a forest?

 Hi there and welcome to yet another of my many rants. The correct terminology would be to call it a grove of trees and not a forest. To further bolster my opinion then please if you will, can tell me the last time you were any where in the world in a forest and seen only one kind of a tree growing? 

No indeed in a forest of trees there are many varieties and types not to mention many other types of vegetation growing all over and around rocks, stumps, and ferns and all sorts of other things alive and or dead.

The Chinese are famous for plantings they call Penjing which often result in a very wonderful and beautiful looking bonsai display of many trees almost always of the same verity and kind of material.

Although this may not always be the case as in my personal Penjing for instance I have three different types of tropical trees and three ferns and a couple of Azaleas growing so it could sort of be a tropical forest I guess but I prefer to not call it that but a grove of trees and other materials.

 I personally only have one of such type plantings and it is a tropical indoor bonsai and consists of a Saikei Penjing planting of Ficus Benjamina, little gems as they are called, dwarf Hawallan Schefflers and small little Azaleas Kakuo some various small ferns and they were all taken as cuttings and grown on to be a nice grove of tropical trees in a lovely small shallow pot and all the material is growing on a hand made concrete slab and with various rocks and other items to represent some what of an island scene placed into a very shallow cheremic dish type bowl.  

Any way I guess the point of this rant is to indeed try to get other bonsai artists to call it what it is and not something else it is not. I will try to take a picture for you of the Saikei Penjing tomorrow and along with some other small bonsai I have planted.  I do know that when the Japanese plant these type of plantings they always use an odd number of tress for what ever reasons they believe that even numbers of trees in a planting is bad luck and so every one of there grove type plantings consist of odd numbers of tress and or other items rock ferns and such.

I also purchased a couple of small variegated ivy and one that was a little larger and had already been started as a bonsai. I do not know much about ivy but I will learn and start growing some varieties for my garden. I do know that we have an English verity here that is very strong growing and can be somewhat of a pest in the garden if not kept in check. I have some growing in my garden as ground cover and it does well as long as you do your diligence and keep cutting it back and keeping it under control.

I have a very nice Fukin Tea and it needs a hair cut very bad as it went nuts this summer and I did not trim on it and now it looks out of control but tomorrow I will prune it back and try to regain some control over the plant. I will try to root the cutting material off of it but do indeed not know if I will have any success in rooting any of it as it should be rooted from cuttings in the summer and or planted and grown from seeds. I have never done either so we will see what happens by just keeping the cut material in a jar of water and see if any of it forms roots.

No harm in trying as I hate to throw any material away that could possibly be grown on to make a nice little future tree. I got my hands on some very nice material this year and will be posting articles about the trees and pictures here in the next few weeks. So in closing for now until tomorrow when I attempt to get some pictures of the materials I purchased today I say good evening to you and have a good one.

As promised here are my pictures. Above is my Penjing planting I really enjoy this bonsai and it is of course tropical so needs to be indoors other than in the late spring or summer time. Can also be kept in a heated greenhouse in the winter.

This is my heart Ivy so named because the leaves are heart shaped.

As promised here are some pictures of my Ivy and my Penjing plantings one of the pictures of the heart ivy is to kind of show you the trunk girth. I will take a picture of my Fukin tea at another time because I will at that time write a post about that species of plant as a bonsai.

Here is a variegated ivy I planted from a cutting so far it's doing fine. It's just very small yet and will take at least three to five years to develop. I hope that I  have peaked your interest and maybe you will also try a Penjing planting as well as grow some ivy as a bonsai. Almost any material can be made into a bonsai and grown on for many years. It just takes time an patient's. Of course also knowing the material species helps so before jumping in do your home work..

By: Harold Yearout ©Copyright 2021 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved for more information feel free to contact me: h.yearout@gmail.com

Getting close again to winterize.

 Hi there to everyone.

Don't let the snow balls hit you in the well now, you know where and start monitoring the weather in your area of the world.

So here we are in the month of October and it is getting close to getting into colder weather and so I personally have brought in all of my tropical bonsai and plants even last month in September. Although I wish I had a green house I do not, and it is not that I could not afford one. It is simply more of the plain fact I do not have the room where I live to set one into place and have it. 

So as a bonsai artist I have a very limited amount of topicals and I keep the collection small so that I can keep them in my home inside during the winter time. However all the rest of my trees stay in there original positions in the garden all winter. Now the only time that may differ is if I know in advance that we are in for some really severe and bad weather. Let's say for instance a really sudden cold snap or high winds and or ice sleet snow and the like then of course I do take the necessary precautions to protect my plants and trees. 

Let's first talk about locations and how you may display your trees. Everyone has a different kind of a garden and a different amount of room and such for display. So the type of precautions you may take are a matter of choice and what kind garden you have and of course the effort you wish to be involved in and the room you have to move plants and the time constraints and so on.

You may be in the position to put your plants in a protected are like a shed a garage or shop what ever and of course depending on how many you have and need to move to safety. Sadly to say I'm not blessed with that option so it is what it is and I make do with what I have.

I for one have never personally done or do what the norm suggests I use my own common sense and do what simply works for me. All right you say well what is that? Well so here goes my explanation of what I do to winterize or protect my trees if I know bad or harsh conditions are on the way. First of all I will move my tress down from any display stands to the ground and then if possible huddle them as close to together as possible and if at all possible up against a structure if possible. Also the location of your display garden matters. Is it east, or west, or north, or south, light and or winds and or other elements that might affect your trees.

My garden is rather large in respect to the lay out. I have one side that is east and west light so I get the morning light and sun on one side of my garden from about early sunrise till around 1:00 pm and then that side becomes full shade for the rest of the day and is a prefect place for a lot of my deciduous or more fragile trees. The other side is full sun from around 1:00 pm until sunset so it does get hot and needs to be monitored a little more often especially if it is a really hot summer like we had this year with temps rising into the triple digits and believe me it was hot.

On the other hand it is the perfect place for all of my confers, and I have a lot of them. As most of you should already know confers do like full sun and can tolerate it fairly well and still not harm the trees.

Now winter is a different ball game. Like I stated it depends on the conditions. Now let me back up for just a moment and explain bonsai display. For the most part everyone I know displays there tress on some kind of a wooden structure of sorts. Individual stands for instance or long displays where several trees are displayed on the bench and or structure. 

Well it may surprise you to know I do not display that way no indeed all of my trees are displayed on Cinderblock built up stands if you will. I try to keep most tress at different heights as to make the viewer not get totally bored while viewing and looking at my bonsai. Now for the reason I use cinder block for displays is that it is heavy and not going any place once set into position and the main reason is that wood rots, cinder block does not and I can tear down and move the display easily any time I so desire.

Here in the Northwest mother nature is the garden hose all winter and so I do not ever need to water any trees out side. Yes I know there are woods that are treated and so forth but trust me they still do rot and so I simply made the decision a long time ago not to ever build show stands or displays of wood. But that is your choice. 

Now if for any reason I do need to bring the plants to the ground for protection then the cinder block displays also provide a very nice wind break and I can simply move 90 percent of my tress to the ground in a couple of hours and then they are well protected from high winds and as for ice and snow well let it fall as it only acts as a insulator like I stated earlier. 

Now I now that a lot of books and articles state to use mulch and or hay and other various products to help protect and to also some what insulate the trees. I know a lady that uses old blankets I do not knock it if it works for her then it does and so be it I would not take a hammer and try to fix what is not broke. She swears by it.

I have never done that and never will unless were way below zero for many days and it simply so far in my life time in this area never got that cold the worst may have been 19 degrees and trust me confers can handle that kind of temps. One thing I will add here is that be prepared ahead of time do not wait till the last minute to make adjustments to your garden. I for one simply do not baby any of my bonsai they either make it or they don't. Simply put things do die and especially trees can go at any time no mater what you might do or think.

I will add that I personally have never lost a tree to cold weather but I did loose a couple this year do to the sever heat and it was my own fault for not moving the particular tree to a shady location in the garden. Being lazy and or not fully attentive cost me two trees that were very favorites of mine and not to mention they were very old and had been in training for many years. Oh and I lied I lost an azalea one year because it was in a cheap pot and that pot cracked and well you can guess the rest.

Also I might add it may continue with unpredictable weather conditions around the globe and I think we all know why. If you don't well then look up global warming.

Oh well you gain some and you loose some that is the nature of this hobby and anyone who tells you different is either a braggart or a liar. Trees do die and that is just the way of it. So if you can not handle that then do not create bonsai or buy them. I could rattle on and on for days about the various ways to protect plants and or bonsai in the winter time but I will leave you to do your very own assessment of how you wish to go about it in your particular garden and I will continue do mine as I always have simply because it works for me..

In closing I will state this fact to you. Be diligent and monitor the daily and nightly weather in your own area and be aware that topicals will not survive at temps below 42 degrees. So get them in a heated green house or bring them in doors to a well lighted area either with naturel light preferred or if not that for what ever reason then use plant grow lights.

If you have a cell phone or a tablet or a computer it is very easy to check in your area and know what the weather is going to be at any given time so no excuses if you do not check and loose plants. Also an important note here if the temp drops to the point that your trees are frozen solid in the pots then you can have a problem. Because you can not get water to the roots in that condition so the rule of thumb here is to have watered very good before the freeze. Need I say that once again water before the freeze a few hours in advance if at all possible.

The plants and or trees can then release moisture as they need it to the roots. Expect to loose your trees for sure if you did not carry out this task before a hard freeze. I have had winters here where the posts were frozen solid and like concrete for many days and still my trees and plants survived just fine when I watered before the freeze. Now I'm not talking just for say a one night freeze here I'm talking when it stays that way for many days.

By the way here is what it looked like in part of my garden the very first day an hour after it started snowing.

A few hours later I realized that it was not going to be a short duration and was only going to get worse so I moved all the trees to the ground in front of there stands.

Trust me this is only a few I have nearly three hundred eighteen bonsai so it took about three hours to move them all and I was needless to say a tired man when done but it was necessary. So good luck to you where ever in the world you are and have a happy holidays on the horizon. Be prepared is the word of the day.  Please if you have not read the article I wrote in 2019 about winterization it has suggestions that are not in this article so I suggest  you read it also.

By: Harold Yearout ©Copyright 2021 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved for more information feel free to contact me: h.yearout@gmail.com