I have been creating and enjoying bonsai for many years now but I have always hated the word miniature when referring to bonsai. Bonsai in my opinion are not miniatures.
There is one type of bonsai however that is very small and that is the shohin and in Japan the word shohin means tiny thing.
When someone looks at a regular bonsai planted in a pot and thinks that it is miniature or small or dwarfed then they may be right to a degree. However the art and idea of bonsai has been based upon a sound principal of horticulture and creative art for hundreds of years.
And although the viewer sees the bonsai as miniature or dwarfed the plants are really only creations that have been styled and trained by there owners to resemble the same exact type of tree that you might see in any forest any where around the world.
The one real difference is that the bonsai has been trained to live in the smaller confines of a pot or tray by the way the owner has clipped, trimmed, wired and trained not only the trunk and branches but also the entire root system of his or her tree.
Now let’s take into account the shohin bonsai and its size. If you thought that a regular bonsai was small or miniaturized then you would really be shocked if you were to see a shohin bonsai.
Because the art of shohin is that of creating a bonsai that is no more than ten inches tall over all from the base of the pot to the top of the tree.
Not only that but the entire tree and pot should easily fit into the palm of the hand and that my friend is small. And believe it or not I have seen bonsai that were so small that they could fit into a sewing thimble.
Some of the main differences between the shohin and regular bonsai are of course the size and shohin are very small in compression but just as fun to create and as nice and lovely to look at.
If you want to create and grow a shohin you will need to take its size into account in many ways. Most noticeably would be watering, feeding, location, temperature, pot size and of course the material and plant size you want to work into a shohin.
Watering is always the most critical because the plant is in a much smaller pot and has les dirt to support the root system and therefore will dry out much faster. And it should be rather obvious that you would feed this size plant less than a larger plant.
If you plan to place your finished shohin in your garden then you would certainly want to protect it from the direct sun and also keep it where it will not be blown over or off of a display bench from high winds.
The selection of material for a shohin bonsai can be nearly any woody material just like its big brothers and you could simply start looking for a nice plant in a nursery or collect one from the wild or of course grow one from seed.
The later of course taking you many years to develop the size of trunk that you would want for a nice visual affect when viewing your shohin. I would much rather start out with a plant that all ready has some girth to the trunk and simply work it down in size to fit into a tiny pot.
You can always add some moss or other material to the top of your pot to help not only create more humidity for your tiny plant but also create a more pleasant planting to view.
You can still follow the regular rules of bonsai for your shohin and by that I mean the styles need not be different nor do the pots or the soil and you will still trim, clip, cut, wire, and do all same things to these little plants as you do with your larger ones.
It would take much more room and a lot more extensive study about the art of shohin than I have room here to tell you about. So if your at all interested in this bonsai art form then you will need to look for more material here on the World Wide Web.
Simply do a search for shohin bonsai and you will find many sites, articles and books that will explain in depth what you will want to learn about this type of bonsai planting.
If your at all interested in creating some bonsai of your very own but are a little confused about how and where to start then I recommend reading and studying first that way you will have a better understanding of the whole process when you do decide to begin.
Here is a great book that I highly recommend when starting out in the wonderful hobby of bonsai. Once you have read this book there are others that I can recommend as well that will teach you even more about this most rewarding of all horticulture art forms.
By: Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights ReservedFor more information feel free to Contact Me:
Thanks for reading my articles.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005
Growing Plants From Seed
Growing your own plants from seed is very rewarding and considerably cheaper than buying seedlings or plants from the shop. The first thing you will need is a box or tray approximately 3 to 4 inches deep, 12 to 14 inches wide and 20 to24 inches long.
Once you have your box it will need to be filled with a suitable seed raising mix. You have two options here, either buy a bag of seed raising mix from your local nursery or make your own. A good medium would be 80-85% washed river sand and 15-20% peat moss. Fill the box nearly to the top and then firm down using a small board.
Rows can now be made across the box. They should be one quarter to half inch deep and 2 inches apart. Pressing a piece of cane or dowel into the soil is a quick and easy way of creating rows.
The seed should be distributed 8 or 10 to the inch in the row sand then be covered. Move the box to a warm shaded place.
It is important to water regularly during germination, however the soil should be kept moist not wet. If the water starts running out the bottom of the box you're over doing it and the soil will become water logged. If this happens the seeds could rot and fail to germinate.
If you can cover the box with a piece of glass this will hold the moisture, creating a micro climate, which will hasten germination.Once the seedlings germinate the lid can be removed and the seedlings can gradually be introduced to stronger light - next to a window would be ideal.
When the plants are one inch to an inch and a half high they should be thinned to one or two inches apart in the row, so as to give them space enough to make a strong stocky growth.
If you wish to keep the plants that have been thinned, they must be planted two inches apart each way in boxes similar to the seed box.
When the weather becomes mild the box of plants should be set out of doors part of the time so that the plants will harden inpreparation for transplanting to the garden later. It is recommended to give the seedlings a good watering just before transplanting so that a ball of earth will stick to the roots.
By raising seedlings in this controlled climate of germination they will be hardier and flourish. You'll also have the added satisfaction of having done all the work yourself.
By Harold Yearout
Thanks for reading and happy planting.
Once you have your box it will need to be filled with a suitable seed raising mix. You have two options here, either buy a bag of seed raising mix from your local nursery or make your own. A good medium would be 80-85% washed river sand and 15-20% peat moss. Fill the box nearly to the top and then firm down using a small board.
Rows can now be made across the box. They should be one quarter to half inch deep and 2 inches apart. Pressing a piece of cane or dowel into the soil is a quick and easy way of creating rows.
The seed should be distributed 8 or 10 to the inch in the row sand then be covered. Move the box to a warm shaded place.
It is important to water regularly during germination, however the soil should be kept moist not wet. If the water starts running out the bottom of the box you're over doing it and the soil will become water logged. If this happens the seeds could rot and fail to germinate.
If you can cover the box with a piece of glass this will hold the moisture, creating a micro climate, which will hasten germination.Once the seedlings germinate the lid can be removed and the seedlings can gradually be introduced to stronger light - next to a window would be ideal.
When the plants are one inch to an inch and a half high they should be thinned to one or two inches apart in the row, so as to give them space enough to make a strong stocky growth.
If you wish to keep the plants that have been thinned, they must be planted two inches apart each way in boxes similar to the seed box.
When the weather becomes mild the box of plants should be set out of doors part of the time so that the plants will harden inpreparation for transplanting to the garden later. It is recommended to give the seedlings a good watering just before transplanting so that a ball of earth will stick to the roots.
By raising seedlings in this controlled climate of germination they will be hardier and flourish. You'll also have the added satisfaction of having done all the work yourself.
By Harold Yearout
Thanks for reading and happy planting.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Choosing plants for your garden
I have been bitten and have had the gardening bug nearly all my life and I simply can’t help it. The garden is a lovely place to be at least for me nearly any time of the year.
I can find things to do there almost any time and if I’m not out side working in my garden then I’m inside tending my indoors bonsai.
But bonsai are not the only plants that make up my garden and for sure the average person does not even own any at all. But as the title states at the header of the page BonsaiNmore.
So Yes I ‘m simply in love with the horticulture art period and nearly anything to do with it. But please before you begin a garden take some of the tips here into consideration and think before you leap right in and get the bug.
If you take your time and plan well and do your home work you’ll have a much more pleasant experience and enjoy your garden more in the long run. Almost any one can run out and buy up some trees and plants and slap them into the ground and then later discover that they have indeed created a disaster.
Gardens like any other endeavor take planning and time to develop well.
Excited, that’s how you felt when you saw that space in your backyard. And you bought some plants, but without even considering first what kind of soil you have at your garden, or perhaps, without planning carefully what kind of plants will survive. Now your garden is a mess. Think it over.
Before buying plants you should be attentive of where are you going to place the plants in the garden - shade-loving plants for the sheltered areas, sun-lovers for the warm spots, drought-resistant plants for the parched areas which may be either sunny or shaded, and swamp plants for the poorly-drained parts. Once you decided with your selections it is time to choose how you are going to position them in your garden.
Take a look at these pointers:
What to plant
Do you want fruits, vegetables, flowers? Remember to start small; you can always increase the size of your garden if you choose to. But do it gradually. This is particularly important if you're in a budget, of course.
Test your soil first, to determine the pH level of your soil and what kind of nutrients you need to add. You can alter the garden soil's pH. However, it is a lot easier to maintain a garden without having to alter it's soil's pH level. This calls for choosing plants that will survive with the kind of pH your garden soil has.
Once you have spent some time and studied then you will have a better idea of what to purchase and when and where to plant it in your garden for the best results.
So here is to your happy gardening and many years of enjoyment in it.
Thanks for reading, Harold Yearout
I can find things to do there almost any time and if I’m not out side working in my garden then I’m inside tending my indoors bonsai.
But bonsai are not the only plants that make up my garden and for sure the average person does not even own any at all. But as the title states at the header of the page BonsaiNmore.
So Yes I ‘m simply in love with the horticulture art period and nearly anything to do with it. But please before you begin a garden take some of the tips here into consideration and think before you leap right in and get the bug.
If you take your time and plan well and do your home work you’ll have a much more pleasant experience and enjoy your garden more in the long run. Almost any one can run out and buy up some trees and plants and slap them into the ground and then later discover that they have indeed created a disaster.
Gardens like any other endeavor take planning and time to develop well.
Excited, that’s how you felt when you saw that space in your backyard. And you bought some plants, but without even considering first what kind of soil you have at your garden, or perhaps, without planning carefully what kind of plants will survive. Now your garden is a mess. Think it over.
Before buying plants you should be attentive of where are you going to place the plants in the garden - shade-loving plants for the sheltered areas, sun-lovers for the warm spots, drought-resistant plants for the parched areas which may be either sunny or shaded, and swamp plants for the poorly-drained parts. Once you decided with your selections it is time to choose how you are going to position them in your garden.
Take a look at these pointers:
What to plant
Do you want fruits, vegetables, flowers? Remember to start small; you can always increase the size of your garden if you choose to. But do it gradually. This is particularly important if you're in a budget, of course.
Test your soil first, to determine the pH level of your soil and what kind of nutrients you need to add. You can alter the garden soil's pH. However, it is a lot easier to maintain a garden without having to alter it's soil's pH level. This calls for choosing plants that will survive with the kind of pH your garden soil has.
Once you have spent some time and studied then you will have a better idea of what to purchase and when and where to plant it in your garden for the best results.
So here is to your happy gardening and many years of enjoyment in it.
Thanks for reading, Harold Yearout
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Can Anyone Create A Bonsai?
Let me answer a question with a question. Are you at all creative? Yes indeed I think most of us have a creative side but most of the time we simply do not use it a lot.
It is said that our brain is divided into two parts at least as far as the aspect of thinking goes.
And I have also read and heard that the right side of the brain is the creative side while the left side is the more dominate side and seems to try and over take when ever you want to try or do something creative.
So then the real secret is to try and concentrate and shut out the left side and let the right side do what it does best and that is create.
But getting back to the question at had can anyone create a bonsai? Well unless you’re totally disabled I would have to say the answer is yes.
But let’s take a look at the basics of what you’ll need and want to acquire before you start out to create your first bonsai.
Fist off pick a material that you really are excited about and have some interest in. I for instance have always loved maples and so that would most always be my first choice of material.
I would first pick the type of maple that I wanted to work with. Let’s say I choose Trident Maple because perhaps I have seen examples of finished bonsai in pictures or perhaps even in the real setting in a nursery and I have fallen in love with this type of maple and just have to have one.
The next thing I want to do then is to read all of the articles I can find that are free on the net and then I would make a trip to the library and see what I could scare up on this particular maple variety.
Learn as much as you can about this tree before you make your final decision. Study first before you leap because there might be something that you will read or learn along the way that will sway your decision about this material.
I have always taught that it is much better to be prepared and too no what your up against before you start out. Don’t wait until latter to find out that you really did not make a wise choice and then for some unseen reason you wind up disappointed.
Once I have done my home work then I will go out in search of a starter tree and by a starter I mean one that is already nursery grown and established in at least a one gallon pot.
You could accept a plant that is smaller in size and do well but for my self personally I prefer my starts to be at least one gallon size this way I know that they have been around for a while and survived the elements for at least a couple of seasons and personally I do not have a life time to wait until a plant begins to show some sings of being mature.
Plant that are at least one gallon size are less likely to die from movement and they will have been tended for some time already in the nursery and most likely been fed good with fertilizer and have a nice root system developed.
Next once I have picked out a reasonable plant starter then I will proceed to find a suitable pot. Now this is a matter of choice and you need not have a pot right off to start with.
In fact some bonsai masters as well as other growers will tell you that they will train a plant for many years before putting it in a final pot.
Makes sense because if you were to follow the rule of bonsai and plant the plant in a pot that is of the right size for the plant you have chosen then yours may look fine in that pot to you but will really never grow to any size at all because you have essentially all ready stopped the growth by selecting its confines.
In other words give it time to grow in a much larger pot so it will establish root structure and gain a nice size trunk and establish a nice limb growth over all. Then work the plant down into the smaller sized pot.
You will then appreciate your plant a lot more because you will have worked with it over the course of a few years and you’ll have also have learned what it entails to make that variety of plant material bonsai.
Thanks for reading.
BY: Harold Yearout
It is said that our brain is divided into two parts at least as far as the aspect of thinking goes.
And I have also read and heard that the right side of the brain is the creative side while the left side is the more dominate side and seems to try and over take when ever you want to try or do something creative.
So then the real secret is to try and concentrate and shut out the left side and let the right side do what it does best and that is create.
But getting back to the question at had can anyone create a bonsai? Well unless you’re totally disabled I would have to say the answer is yes.
But let’s take a look at the basics of what you’ll need and want to acquire before you start out to create your first bonsai.
Fist off pick a material that you really are excited about and have some interest in. I for instance have always loved maples and so that would most always be my first choice of material.
I would first pick the type of maple that I wanted to work with. Let’s say I choose Trident Maple because perhaps I have seen examples of finished bonsai in pictures or perhaps even in the real setting in a nursery and I have fallen in love with this type of maple and just have to have one.
The next thing I want to do then is to read all of the articles I can find that are free on the net and then I would make a trip to the library and see what I could scare up on this particular maple variety.
Learn as much as you can about this tree before you make your final decision. Study first before you leap because there might be something that you will read or learn along the way that will sway your decision about this material.
I have always taught that it is much better to be prepared and too no what your up against before you start out. Don’t wait until latter to find out that you really did not make a wise choice and then for some unseen reason you wind up disappointed.
Once I have done my home work then I will go out in search of a starter tree and by a starter I mean one that is already nursery grown and established in at least a one gallon pot.
You could accept a plant that is smaller in size and do well but for my self personally I prefer my starts to be at least one gallon size this way I know that they have been around for a while and survived the elements for at least a couple of seasons and personally I do not have a life time to wait until a plant begins to show some sings of being mature.
Plant that are at least one gallon size are less likely to die from movement and they will have been tended for some time already in the nursery and most likely been fed good with fertilizer and have a nice root system developed.
Next once I have picked out a reasonable plant starter then I will proceed to find a suitable pot. Now this is a matter of choice and you need not have a pot right off to start with.
In fact some bonsai masters as well as other growers will tell you that they will train a plant for many years before putting it in a final pot.
Makes sense because if you were to follow the rule of bonsai and plant the plant in a pot that is of the right size for the plant you have chosen then yours may look fine in that pot to you but will really never grow to any size at all because you have essentially all ready stopped the growth by selecting its confines.
In other words give it time to grow in a much larger pot so it will establish root structure and gain a nice size trunk and establish a nice limb growth over all. Then work the plant down into the smaller sized pot.
You will then appreciate your plant a lot more because you will have worked with it over the course of a few years and you’ll have also have learned what it entails to make that variety of plant material bonsai.
Thanks for reading.
BY: Harold Yearout
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
What's In Your Pond?
What’s in your pond?
Hi and good day to you, this article is not really about bonsai but still if you have a garden it might be of interest to you .
I have a fairly large garden and in it I have not one but two ponds and they both are active most of the year.
I believe that a nice well developed pond can really ad a nice effect to any garden and especially a bonsai garden. I have no fish in either of my ponds simply because I do not want the added work of feeding and cleaning the pond for fish or the added expense of high end filters for fish.
Not to mention that we have plenty of small varmints and critters that would feast upon the fish and have a field day at the pond if they were fish in it.
There are ways to keep the critters out and one is by adding netting to the top of your pond. However I want to be able to enjoy my water effect and to have netting in place would to me destroy the effect.
I love the flowing water and have both ponds set up so that the flow of water is very much cascading and this also makes a nice sound as the water splashes down over the rocks and then empties into the pond.
I made my first pond about four feet deep and about 5' feet by ten' feet in diameter and used a heavy rubber based liner to hold the water in. I have a pump that pumps 1900 gallons and hour on this pond and it is more than enough and keeps my pond fresh and clean even without a filter.
I learned the hard way that if you’re going to build a pond by all means try to do it with liner rather than a perform and here is why.
The perform pond type designs are attractive and nice but they do tend to contract and expand with the weather and after a short while the plastic will eventually spring a leak from a crack some where in the material.
But if you do by a perform pond type liner or already have one not to fear if it does spring a leak then simply by enough rubber liner material to go cover over your entire surface area and allow a little extra for contraction and your back in business.
Simply put the liner in place and cover the outer edges with interesting rocks and line the edges of your pond with some nice plants to hide any areas that you don’t want seen.
Some of the benefits of having a pond to me at least are the relaxation of the water flowing and trickling down over the rocks and it ads humidity to my back yard garden and also makes a nice place for the birds to take a drink and have a bath.
Butterflies love it too and the ever so tiny honey bees and not to mention frogs and toads and other little fine aquatic creatures that I know nothing about but still enjoy seeing.
Even the next door neighbor’s cat welcomes a bath and some times believe it or not sits for hours just staring into the water.
Probably looking in hopes of finding the not to be there fish.
It also provides a lovely home for my water plants and some of my trees that love a bog type setting such as my cypress and my alder trees that I have had growing there now for a long time.
There are so many nice features of having a pond that it makes me wish I could have more and if I had the space I would have more or at least have a much larger one for a more desired effect.
If you decide that you want a pond and you don’t have the space then look into trying your hand at one that can be totally self contained in a very small space even in a space as small as the diameter of a fifty gallon drum top or even perhaps in an old whisky cask or many other options the choice is all yours.
Many people have small ponds on there patios and enjoy the water effect with out even having a lot of space at all.
I have four other small pounds that are small container type in various places in my garden and I enjoy them all just for the added beauty and sound of water running that they ad.
So next time you have some spare time and a little pocket change consider a water pond for your garden or patio I promise you that you’ll always enjoy it once you have created it.
Thanks for reading,
Harold Yearout
C) Copyright 2005 by Harold R Yearout All rights reserved worldwide.
Hi and good day to you, this article is not really about bonsai but still if you have a garden it might be of interest to you .
I have a fairly large garden and in it I have not one but two ponds and they both are active most of the year.
I believe that a nice well developed pond can really ad a nice effect to any garden and especially a bonsai garden. I have no fish in either of my ponds simply because I do not want the added work of feeding and cleaning the pond for fish or the added expense of high end filters for fish.
Not to mention that we have plenty of small varmints and critters that would feast upon the fish and have a field day at the pond if they were fish in it.
There are ways to keep the critters out and one is by adding netting to the top of your pond. However I want to be able to enjoy my water effect and to have netting in place would to me destroy the effect.
I love the flowing water and have both ponds set up so that the flow of water is very much cascading and this also makes a nice sound as the water splashes down over the rocks and then empties into the pond.
I made my first pond about four feet deep and about 5' feet by ten' feet in diameter and used a heavy rubber based liner to hold the water in. I have a pump that pumps 1900 gallons and hour on this pond and it is more than enough and keeps my pond fresh and clean even without a filter.
I learned the hard way that if you’re going to build a pond by all means try to do it with liner rather than a perform and here is why.
The perform pond type designs are attractive and nice but they do tend to contract and expand with the weather and after a short while the plastic will eventually spring a leak from a crack some where in the material.
But if you do by a perform pond type liner or already have one not to fear if it does spring a leak then simply by enough rubber liner material to go cover over your entire surface area and allow a little extra for contraction and your back in business.
Simply put the liner in place and cover the outer edges with interesting rocks and line the edges of your pond with some nice plants to hide any areas that you don’t want seen.
Some of the benefits of having a pond to me at least are the relaxation of the water flowing and trickling down over the rocks and it ads humidity to my back yard garden and also makes a nice place for the birds to take a drink and have a bath.
Butterflies love it too and the ever so tiny honey bees and not to mention frogs and toads and other little fine aquatic creatures that I know nothing about but still enjoy seeing.
Even the next door neighbor’s cat welcomes a bath and some times believe it or not sits for hours just staring into the water.
Probably looking in hopes of finding the not to be there fish.
It also provides a lovely home for my water plants and some of my trees that love a bog type setting such as my cypress and my alder trees that I have had growing there now for a long time.
There are so many nice features of having a pond that it makes me wish I could have more and if I had the space I would have more or at least have a much larger one for a more desired effect.
If you decide that you want a pond and you don’t have the space then look into trying your hand at one that can be totally self contained in a very small space even in a space as small as the diameter of a fifty gallon drum top or even perhaps in an old whisky cask or many other options the choice is all yours.
Many people have small ponds on there patios and enjoy the water effect with out even having a lot of space at all.
I have four other small pounds that are small container type in various places in my garden and I enjoy them all just for the added beauty and sound of water running that they ad.
So next time you have some spare time and a little pocket change consider a water pond for your garden or patio I promise you that you’ll always enjoy it once you have created it.
Thanks for reading,
Harold Yearout
C) Copyright 2005 by Harold R Yearout All rights reserved worldwide.
Monday, June 27, 2005
Here is a small five year old shohin Zelkova that is just starting to show some promise and will some day make a wonderful bonsai.
Posted by Hello
Zelkova Schneideriana or Elm As Bonsai
The zelkova is a genius of the elm family of plants and there are about six trees in this family and they are deciduous. The zelkova is common in North America and Northern Europe and of course East Asia.
The name zelkova is derived from one of the languages of Caucasus.
These plants occur in woodland thickets and hedge groves in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, and Asia. They have an ovate to elliptic type leaf and they produce a fantastic display of fall color if left out doors they will eventually completely defoliate and loose all of there leaves until the next spring.
Many of these elms have been acclimated over the years to grow indoors as bonsai. However this plant will do much better out doors but you can grow zelkova indoors if reasonable care is taken.
The most common of the elms is the Japanese Gray bark and it is well known and grown through out the world as bonsai.
However there is no reason that some of these other species can not be grown as well and also do just as well as a bonsai.
If you do decide to grow one of these plants indoors then find a well lit and fairly cool position for it and place it on a humidity tray and mist as often as you can.
If you prefer that your plant be deciduous and loose its leaves and have a slight dormant period then try to keep the plant out side during the regular season from may till early Autumn and then begin to bring it back indoors after it has dropped its leaves.
If you prefer to grow your zelkova outdoors then you’ll want to provide it some protection from frost and extreme cold once the plant has lost its leaves it can be wintered in garages or out buildings as they do not require light once leaf drop has occurred.
Watering will be much more critical indoors than outdoors as it will tend to dry out much quicker because of a lack of humidity unless you can provide it with some sort of green house affect.
Feeding of your plant will require a fertilizer high in nitrogen early in the spring when leaf bud is forming for at least about a month then you can drop back to just a well balanced feed for the rest of the season about every two weeks or so.
Pruning of your zelkova will certainly help it to become more compact and grow much nicer for you. I always wait and allow the shoots to grow out to about four nodes and then I prune back to about one or two leaves to get a more compact look.
The zelkova will respond very well to the broom style of bonsai as this tends to be its natural growing habit anyway.
However they can be trained in nearly any style that you desire so just decide on how you want your plant to look and then just work at it till you get what you want.
You can propagate this plant by seeds or green cuttings in the summer and hardwood cuttings in the winter and air layering after the spring growth has hardened off.
Plants that have been planed in pots or trained as bonsai are pretty safe from the well known Dutch elm disease. But you may want to watch out for aphids and leafhoppers and gall mites and you’ll want to be aware of leafspot.
You can wire your elm for shape and style but be aware that the bark will scare easily and care should be taken when you wire this tree.
Thanks, for reading and viewing.
©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me:
The name zelkova is derived from one of the languages of Caucasus.
These plants occur in woodland thickets and hedge groves in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, and Asia. They have an ovate to elliptic type leaf and they produce a fantastic display of fall color if left out doors they will eventually completely defoliate and loose all of there leaves until the next spring.
Many of these elms have been acclimated over the years to grow indoors as bonsai. However this plant will do much better out doors but you can grow zelkova indoors if reasonable care is taken.
The most common of the elms is the Japanese Gray bark and it is well known and grown through out the world as bonsai.
However there is no reason that some of these other species can not be grown as well and also do just as well as a bonsai.
If you do decide to grow one of these plants indoors then find a well lit and fairly cool position for it and place it on a humidity tray and mist as often as you can.
If you prefer that your plant be deciduous and loose its leaves and have a slight dormant period then try to keep the plant out side during the regular season from may till early Autumn and then begin to bring it back indoors after it has dropped its leaves.
If you prefer to grow your zelkova outdoors then you’ll want to provide it some protection from frost and extreme cold once the plant has lost its leaves it can be wintered in garages or out buildings as they do not require light once leaf drop has occurred.
Watering will be much more critical indoors than outdoors as it will tend to dry out much quicker because of a lack of humidity unless you can provide it with some sort of green house affect.
Feeding of your plant will require a fertilizer high in nitrogen early in the spring when leaf bud is forming for at least about a month then you can drop back to just a well balanced feed for the rest of the season about every two weeks or so.
Pruning of your zelkova will certainly help it to become more compact and grow much nicer for you. I always wait and allow the shoots to grow out to about four nodes and then I prune back to about one or two leaves to get a more compact look.
The zelkova will respond very well to the broom style of bonsai as this tends to be its natural growing habit anyway.
However they can be trained in nearly any style that you desire so just decide on how you want your plant to look and then just work at it till you get what you want.
You can propagate this plant by seeds or green cuttings in the summer and hardwood cuttings in the winter and air layering after the spring growth has hardened off.
Plants that have been planed in pots or trained as bonsai are pretty safe from the well known Dutch elm disease. But you may want to watch out for aphids and leafhoppers and gall mites and you’ll want to be aware of leafspot.
You can wire your elm for shape and style but be aware that the bark will scare easily and care should be taken when you wire this tree.
Thanks, for reading and viewing.
©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me:
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Here is a five year Ficus Retusa fig still small and still what I consider to be a starter plant.
Posted by Hello
The Ficus or Fig as Bonsai
The ficus is a very popular plant for bonsai and there are some where around 800 different species of these evergreen shrubs and trees and climbers that exist and they all are tropical and sub tropical.
The Ficus Retusa fig can make a wonderful bonsai if you simply take your time and work with this plant to get a shape and style going.
They are very tolerant of indoor growing conditions and will adept to most homes.
Most of our homes though have very poor humidity and unfortunately humidity is pretty much a necessity to the growing of ficus.
This is not to say that your fig will die or not live it simply will not grow as well or as fast if you subject it to less than the ideal conditions that they are used too.
The ideal conditions of course would be when you can provide lots of high humidity consistent watering and plenty of light.
Some things that you can do to improve the levels of humidity around your plant would be to keep it on a humidity tray and spray mist it regularly through out the day when ever possible. You might also try and pot some moss along in your pot to help retain moisture.
Some apartment dwellers may have a bathroom that does not have an outside window and If this is the case and you take a lot of showers and your bathroom steams up that’s great simply take along your fig and let it soak up all that wonderful humidity even if it is for a short while.
Since most of these type of plants are found on the jungle floor and the other taller tress block out a lot of the light they are fairly light tolerant and will adept to most indoor poor lighting conditions.
There are at least a dozen species of ficus and hundreds of varieties of figs within that species and of these there are many that can and will make a wonderful bonsai.
Try if at all possible to place your fig in a very high light condition even full sun will not harm your fig and by keeping a humidity tray filled with some small pea gravel under your plant you’ll only encourage it to grow faster and be healthier.
Of course misting will also be welcomed and you most likely couldn’t ever mist enough unless you had your bonsai all growing in a green house with a built in misting system. So you need not worry about over misting any of these plants as they all love it.
You will most likely need to repot your ficus at least every other year and feed it only during the growing season and never when it looks to be in poor health or during the winter months.
Ficus can be pruned during the spring although most will be tolerant of pruning year around as long as you’re not hard pruning and by hard pruning I mean taking a lot off of your plant.
Scale insects and mites can some times be a problem and should be watched for on your figs. Figs will leaf drop very fast if subjected to poor conditions such as over watering, or poor light, or drafts but if the conditions are improved your fig can leaf back in as little as 3 to 6 weeks.
Some of the varieties that make good bonsai are Ficus Salicifolia or willow leaf fig, the famous Ficus Benjamina of course and Ficus Retusa, or the Chinese banyan, and there is also a variety called the Green Island Fig which is also a variety of the Retusa.
Figs can se started from cuttings or seeds and of course air layering I prefer cuttings and have started most If not all of my figs in this manner.
Thanks, for reading and viewing.
©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me:
The Ficus Retusa fig can make a wonderful bonsai if you simply take your time and work with this plant to get a shape and style going.
They are very tolerant of indoor growing conditions and will adept to most homes.
Most of our homes though have very poor humidity and unfortunately humidity is pretty much a necessity to the growing of ficus.
This is not to say that your fig will die or not live it simply will not grow as well or as fast if you subject it to less than the ideal conditions that they are used too.
The ideal conditions of course would be when you can provide lots of high humidity consistent watering and plenty of light.
Some things that you can do to improve the levels of humidity around your plant would be to keep it on a humidity tray and spray mist it regularly through out the day when ever possible. You might also try and pot some moss along in your pot to help retain moisture.
Some apartment dwellers may have a bathroom that does not have an outside window and If this is the case and you take a lot of showers and your bathroom steams up that’s great simply take along your fig and let it soak up all that wonderful humidity even if it is for a short while.
Since most of these type of plants are found on the jungle floor and the other taller tress block out a lot of the light they are fairly light tolerant and will adept to most indoor poor lighting conditions.
There are at least a dozen species of ficus and hundreds of varieties of figs within that species and of these there are many that can and will make a wonderful bonsai.
Try if at all possible to place your fig in a very high light condition even full sun will not harm your fig and by keeping a humidity tray filled with some small pea gravel under your plant you’ll only encourage it to grow faster and be healthier.
Of course misting will also be welcomed and you most likely couldn’t ever mist enough unless you had your bonsai all growing in a green house with a built in misting system. So you need not worry about over misting any of these plants as they all love it.
You will most likely need to repot your ficus at least every other year and feed it only during the growing season and never when it looks to be in poor health or during the winter months.
Ficus can be pruned during the spring although most will be tolerant of pruning year around as long as you’re not hard pruning and by hard pruning I mean taking a lot off of your plant.
Scale insects and mites can some times be a problem and should be watched for on your figs. Figs will leaf drop very fast if subjected to poor conditions such as over watering, or poor light, or drafts but if the conditions are improved your fig can leaf back in as little as 3 to 6 weeks.
Some of the varieties that make good bonsai are Ficus Salicifolia or willow leaf fig, the famous Ficus Benjamina of course and Ficus Retusa, or the Chinese banyan, and there is also a variety called the Green Island Fig which is also a variety of the Retusa.
Figs can se started from cuttings or seeds and of course air layering I prefer cuttings and have started most If not all of my figs in this manner.
Thanks, for reading and viewing.
©Copyright 2005 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me:
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Propagating Maples
Propagating Maples
I have had many people over the years ask me the same question over and over and that is how I get maples to grow from starts. They tell me that when they try they do not have any luck.
Well let me see if I can explain how I do it and then perhaps you can too if your lucky.
I say lucky because there are so many different cultivars of maple and it seems at times that each one will have its own quirks.
I believe that there is a certain amount of just pure luck involved when you try to propagate these types of plants.
Maples can be started in a number of ways and most people will try to get them started from a cutting. This is a great way to get them started if you can really be on top of the watering or should I say misting.
The cuttings if you’re going to try your hand at getting some started in this manner should be taken in the month of June and that would of course be right now these would be called softwood cuttings.
You’re going to want the newest growth and of course that would be the new shoots that have just started this spring. These shoots will have not yet hardened
off and they will make good starts.
You’ll want the shoots to be around four inches in length and you will want the lower leaves stripped leaving perhaps a couple or so at the very end of the shoot.
You’ll want to plant them in a very course sand mix. I poke little holes in the sand with a pencil and then insert my starts and firm the sand down around each.
A rooting compound will also help and you can find either a powder type of liquid type in any good nursery or plant and garden store in your area. You would simply dip each cutting in the rooting compound right before sticking your cutting in the sand mix.
Another trick I try most all of the time is to very lightly scrape along the leaf stripped stem near the bottom and this will cause sort of a small type of wound and as the plant will almost always try to heal over this area it will then start roots where you caused the wound.
Another secret to getting cuttings started is to be able to keep them constantly misted however this is near to impossible without the aid of equipment and most people simply can not afford to invest in this unless they want to raise a whole lot of cuttings.
You could also get a lot of cultivars of maple started by the budding method and there is also grafting if your very experienced if not then just leave this method to the experts..
I will discuss some of these other methods in detail in yet another article at a later time.
You can also try seed and it should be collected once it has turned brown on the mother plant and then left to further dry out. The seed should be kept until your ready to work with it.
Most maple seed will fall off the mother plant late in the fall and most often simply just get blown away by the winter winds and such. But if a few do some how manage to get covered by some small amount of soil and other garden mulch then if your lucky they might sprout a couple of seasons later.
The reason is maple seeds have a really tough outer shell and they must lie on the ground and go through the entire process of a winter and if they survive then they might open up enough to take root and start a plant.
But I for one do not like to wait so I will try to speed along this process by fooling Mother Nature and processing the seeds myself much sooner.
I will decide on a target date that I want to plant my seed outside and that would be right after any worries about frost and that is June in most places. So then I would count backwards on my calendar 100 days and that would be some where around February.
Then I will take my seed and put it into a cup of nice hot water not boiling or anything like that but still hot.
I will then leave the seed over night and the seed that floats to the bottom is the seed that is most likely to be of use for planting. I discard the rest.
I will then take my seed and sprinkle it in a sterile planting medium wet it down good but not soaking wet. Now I will put my seed in my refrigerator in the crisper and leave it there until my target date of June.
I have now essentially fooled Mother Nature into thinking that a winter has passed and my seed should be ready to plant outdoors.
I would then pick a place in my garden and sow the seed on clean soil and cover about 3/8 of and inch with more soil and water good and wait. Let dry out between watering so as not to rot your seed before it gets the chance to germinate.
I wish you good luck with your cutting or your seed and if you do not succeed the first time keep trying you’ll soon get the hang of it.
Thanks for reading
©Copyright 2003 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me.
I have had many people over the years ask me the same question over and over and that is how I get maples to grow from starts. They tell me that when they try they do not have any luck.
Well let me see if I can explain how I do it and then perhaps you can too if your lucky.
I say lucky because there are so many different cultivars of maple and it seems at times that each one will have its own quirks.
I believe that there is a certain amount of just pure luck involved when you try to propagate these types of plants.
Maples can be started in a number of ways and most people will try to get them started from a cutting. This is a great way to get them started if you can really be on top of the watering or should I say misting.
The cuttings if you’re going to try your hand at getting some started in this manner should be taken in the month of June and that would of course be right now these would be called softwood cuttings.
You’re going to want the newest growth and of course that would be the new shoots that have just started this spring. These shoots will have not yet hardened
off and they will make good starts.
You’ll want the shoots to be around four inches in length and you will want the lower leaves stripped leaving perhaps a couple or so at the very end of the shoot.
You’ll want to plant them in a very course sand mix. I poke little holes in the sand with a pencil and then insert my starts and firm the sand down around each.
A rooting compound will also help and you can find either a powder type of liquid type in any good nursery or plant and garden store in your area. You would simply dip each cutting in the rooting compound right before sticking your cutting in the sand mix.
Another trick I try most all of the time is to very lightly scrape along the leaf stripped stem near the bottom and this will cause sort of a small type of wound and as the plant will almost always try to heal over this area it will then start roots where you caused the wound.
Another secret to getting cuttings started is to be able to keep them constantly misted however this is near to impossible without the aid of equipment and most people simply can not afford to invest in this unless they want to raise a whole lot of cuttings.
You could also get a lot of cultivars of maple started by the budding method and there is also grafting if your very experienced if not then just leave this method to the experts..
I will discuss some of these other methods in detail in yet another article at a later time.
You can also try seed and it should be collected once it has turned brown on the mother plant and then left to further dry out. The seed should be kept until your ready to work with it.
Most maple seed will fall off the mother plant late in the fall and most often simply just get blown away by the winter winds and such. But if a few do some how manage to get covered by some small amount of soil and other garden mulch then if your lucky they might sprout a couple of seasons later.
The reason is maple seeds have a really tough outer shell and they must lie on the ground and go through the entire process of a winter and if they survive then they might open up enough to take root and start a plant.
But I for one do not like to wait so I will try to speed along this process by fooling Mother Nature and processing the seeds myself much sooner.
I will decide on a target date that I want to plant my seed outside and that would be right after any worries about frost and that is June in most places. So then I would count backwards on my calendar 100 days and that would be some where around February.
Then I will take my seed and put it into a cup of nice hot water not boiling or anything like that but still hot.
I will then leave the seed over night and the seed that floats to the bottom is the seed that is most likely to be of use for planting. I discard the rest.
I will then take my seed and sprinkle it in a sterile planting medium wet it down good but not soaking wet. Now I will put my seed in my refrigerator in the crisper and leave it there until my target date of June.
I have now essentially fooled Mother Nature into thinking that a winter has passed and my seed should be ready to plant outdoors.
I would then pick a place in my garden and sow the seed on clean soil and cover about 3/8 of and inch with more soil and water good and wait. Let dry out between watering so as not to rot your seed before it gets the chance to germinate.
I wish you good luck with your cutting or your seed and if you do not succeed the first time keep trying you’ll soon get the hang of it.
Thanks for reading
©Copyright 2003 Harold Yearout All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Shohin Ligustrum: Here is a small Ligustrum started five years ago in training now for three years.
Posted by Hello
LIGUSTRUM LUCIDUM
LIGUSTRUM LUCIDUM
There are over fifty species of this privet and in some areas it is actually considered a weed and is totally ignored as anything you would want to grow.
However I think that the Iigustrum makes a wonderful bonsai material and I have worked a couple of these for my collection.
I have one Ligustrum that is five years old and it has been in training now for three years.
I’m training the plant as a shohin bonsai and it will eventually make a very nice specimen.
It takes a few years to develop the trunk for a shohin and so you must have time and patience.
The Ligustrum if left to grow outside the confines of a pot can reach heights of over thirty feet. It does well as a tree if trained to grow up right and in the style of a tree otherwise it is more of a shrub.
Most varieties have a glossy leaf and some to the point that they may look waxed. The variety that I have in my collection does not have the glossy type leaf and I’m still unsure exactly what variety that it is.
I have researched many plant books but have still not found this particular kind but of course I will continue to look. The plant can have creamy white flowers sometimes in April or May and even as late as June.
It does produce a berry but they are poisonous and certainly not for eating. I would recommend washing your hands after handling or cutting on this plant.
The origin of the Ligustrum is Korea, China, and Japan. They are very hardy and can even be a nuisance if left alone to grow unattended.
The Chinese have used this plant for medicinal purposes for many years, the berries are employed as a yin tonic in there medicine and used for many conditions.
This plant will do well indoors and can be trained in all manner of shape and style if you work at it. The limbs can get very brittle fairly fast so if you plan to wire this plant then you must start when the limbs are young and still pliable.
This plant has been used widely for hedge type separation of yards and has also been used as a common tree in street plantings for years.
Care of this plant is fairly straight forward; it can be encouraged to branch by continued pinching and cutting back of new growth. You’ll need to water your Ligusturm Privet often as they will dry out fast especially as bonsai.
Plant in a well drained soil to prevent root rot and faster draining of any excess water. The plant can withstand full sun or part shade, and you’ll need to repot this plant nearly every year as it grows fast and can get root bound in a hurry.
You can easily propagate this plant from softwood cuttings or grafting or from seed. Some times the cuttings will even root in just water.
A general purpose fertilizer will work for this plant just fine and you should feed it during the season from spring till early fall and then let it grow on its own until the next season before fertilizing any more.
Some of the pests for this plant are aphids and spider mites white fly and of course root rot.
The leafs of the Ligustrum will tend to droop and wilt fast if your under watering and after a while you’ll get the hang of its watering needs. Shohin bonsai are extremely prone to drying out fast as they are in very tiny pots in almost all cases.
The idea of a Shohin is to try and develop a very nice large trunk and still have the entire plant in a small pot and have the plant not over ten inches in total height.
I sometimes have to water my Shohin twice a day even inside. I keep a very close watch on these little plants and really love all of them.
If you decide that you would like to try your hand at growing one of these plants then you can most likely find a nice start at one of your local nursery or if you like you can take a look on one of the bonsai sites on the net and most likely find a nice one.
Thanks for reading and viewing. Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me.
There are over fifty species of this privet and in some areas it is actually considered a weed and is totally ignored as anything you would want to grow.
However I think that the Iigustrum makes a wonderful bonsai material and I have worked a couple of these for my collection.
I have one Ligustrum that is five years old and it has been in training now for three years.
I’m training the plant as a shohin bonsai and it will eventually make a very nice specimen.
It takes a few years to develop the trunk for a shohin and so you must have time and patience.
The Ligustrum if left to grow outside the confines of a pot can reach heights of over thirty feet. It does well as a tree if trained to grow up right and in the style of a tree otherwise it is more of a shrub.
Most varieties have a glossy leaf and some to the point that they may look waxed. The variety that I have in my collection does not have the glossy type leaf and I’m still unsure exactly what variety that it is.
I have researched many plant books but have still not found this particular kind but of course I will continue to look. The plant can have creamy white flowers sometimes in April or May and even as late as June.
It does produce a berry but they are poisonous and certainly not for eating. I would recommend washing your hands after handling or cutting on this plant.
The origin of the Ligustrum is Korea, China, and Japan. They are very hardy and can even be a nuisance if left alone to grow unattended.
The Chinese have used this plant for medicinal purposes for many years, the berries are employed as a yin tonic in there medicine and used for many conditions.
This plant will do well indoors and can be trained in all manner of shape and style if you work at it. The limbs can get very brittle fairly fast so if you plan to wire this plant then you must start when the limbs are young and still pliable.
This plant has been used widely for hedge type separation of yards and has also been used as a common tree in street plantings for years.
Care of this plant is fairly straight forward; it can be encouraged to branch by continued pinching and cutting back of new growth. You’ll need to water your Ligusturm Privet often as they will dry out fast especially as bonsai.
Plant in a well drained soil to prevent root rot and faster draining of any excess water. The plant can withstand full sun or part shade, and you’ll need to repot this plant nearly every year as it grows fast and can get root bound in a hurry.
You can easily propagate this plant from softwood cuttings or grafting or from seed. Some times the cuttings will even root in just water.
A general purpose fertilizer will work for this plant just fine and you should feed it during the season from spring till early fall and then let it grow on its own until the next season before fertilizing any more.
Some of the pests for this plant are aphids and spider mites white fly and of course root rot.
The leafs of the Ligustrum will tend to droop and wilt fast if your under watering and after a while you’ll get the hang of its watering needs. Shohin bonsai are extremely prone to drying out fast as they are in very tiny pots in almost all cases.
The idea of a Shohin is to try and develop a very nice large trunk and still have the entire plant in a small pot and have the plant not over ten inches in total height.
I sometimes have to water my Shohin twice a day even inside. I keep a very close watch on these little plants and really love all of them.
If you decide that you would like to try your hand at growing one of these plants then you can most likely find a nice start at one of your local nursery or if you like you can take a look on one of the bonsai sites on the net and most likely find a nice one.
Thanks for reading and viewing. Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Acer Palmatum ‘Goshiki Shidare’
This particular variety of lace leaf has variegated leaves and is one of the harder to find maples. The leaves are a deep red with a light salmon color variegated through out the leaf.
I got my hands on a couple of these in a local nursery this weekend and I’m thrilled. It will take many years to develop this little starter plant into a bonsai.
But I have the patience and hopefully the time so I will surely try. I seem to be drawn to maples for some reason my collection has many now and I still keep looking for more.
There are so many cultivars of maples that you could collect for many years and still probably not have all of them. However if maples fascinate you like they do me well then you can certainly obtain many and have a wonderful collection.
Lace leaf maples are among the most beautiful of all the maples in my opinion. And you do not find them as bonsai in a pot very often.
I think that perhaps the reason that you do not find them is because most of these types of maples are grafted and I for one do not like to start out with a grafted plant for a bonsai.
The people who graft this type of plant always seem to graft the start really high on the plant and this makes the whole thing look rather leggy and just not acceptable to me anyway.
But then we have to also understand that the nursery business is not grafting these plants for the bonsai hobby they are selling most of them to regular home gardeners and they simply do not care that the starter plant is really tall and leggy looking because after all there not going to raise it in a pot.
You can see lace leaf in nearly every yard especially in the NorthWest and since it is considered a garden favorite you'll continue to see it planted where ever it will grow.
You must be very vigilante of the lace leaf in the very warm summer months as the leaves of these and many other maples will burn very rapid and once it starts there usually is no saving the leaf.
I water always early in the morning and very rarely at night and for the reason that if I soak the plant really good in the morning it will most often make it though the day just fine.
I do not water at night because this draws out many bugs that will then feast on your plants leaves and it also tends to mold your plants at the base.
These types of maples will grow in sort of and umbrella style unless you shape it different. You will most defiantly want to protect your maple from the direct hot sun if at all possible.
This maple will do really well if planted around a pond or as a bonsai and will reward you with leaves that can be either green marked with a bronze color and or a red cast or they might be light with pink splashes and even in some cases they might have large white patches and this can all be on the same plant.
If you’re going to fertilize then I would suggest not going over board as most maples of this type seem to get leggier with a lot of fertilizer.
I personally will let the plant just grow and develop on its own and forget the fertilizer.
I have not lost any of my maples yet because of lack of fertilizer.
The plant seems to do well from zone 5a to zone 9a and if you need to see a plant zone map then you can see one at the web url below.
http://forestry.about.com/od/treehabitatandrange/ss/plant_zones.htm
You can propagate this maple by either grafting or budding or by collecting seeds after they have ripened off and dried in the fall. I will write a more detailed article on getting these and other types of maples started from seed later in another post.
Although this maple is considered to be more like a shrub it will grow to around fifteen feet if left to grow in the ground.
I have not grown one in the ground but have two of these cultivars as bonsai and I may perhaps at some later time take a cutting and and graft it in order to get one for my garden.
In the picture above you can see a small starter bonsai of this material that I acquired just this spring and in time it will make a very lovely bonsai but since this material grows very slow it will take a few years to create this one.
I will train it in the umbrella style and later when it has had time to grow a stronger trunk then I will twist the trunk around a bamboo stick to get a desired S curve look to the trunk.
Thanks for reading and looking.
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me
.
I got my hands on a couple of these in a local nursery this weekend and I’m thrilled. It will take many years to develop this little starter plant into a bonsai.
But I have the patience and hopefully the time so I will surely try. I seem to be drawn to maples for some reason my collection has many now and I still keep looking for more.
There are so many cultivars of maples that you could collect for many years and still probably not have all of them. However if maples fascinate you like they do me well then you can certainly obtain many and have a wonderful collection.
Lace leaf maples are among the most beautiful of all the maples in my opinion. And you do not find them as bonsai in a pot very often.
I think that perhaps the reason that you do not find them is because most of these types of maples are grafted and I for one do not like to start out with a grafted plant for a bonsai.
The people who graft this type of plant always seem to graft the start really high on the plant and this makes the whole thing look rather leggy and just not acceptable to me anyway.
But then we have to also understand that the nursery business is not grafting these plants for the bonsai hobby they are selling most of them to regular home gardeners and they simply do not care that the starter plant is really tall and leggy looking because after all there not going to raise it in a pot.
You can see lace leaf in nearly every yard especially in the NorthWest and since it is considered a garden favorite you'll continue to see it planted where ever it will grow.
You must be very vigilante of the lace leaf in the very warm summer months as the leaves of these and many other maples will burn very rapid and once it starts there usually is no saving the leaf.
I water always early in the morning and very rarely at night and for the reason that if I soak the plant really good in the morning it will most often make it though the day just fine.
I do not water at night because this draws out many bugs that will then feast on your plants leaves and it also tends to mold your plants at the base.
These types of maples will grow in sort of and umbrella style unless you shape it different. You will most defiantly want to protect your maple from the direct hot sun if at all possible.
This maple will do really well if planted around a pond or as a bonsai and will reward you with leaves that can be either green marked with a bronze color and or a red cast or they might be light with pink splashes and even in some cases they might have large white patches and this can all be on the same plant.
If you’re going to fertilize then I would suggest not going over board as most maples of this type seem to get leggier with a lot of fertilizer.
I personally will let the plant just grow and develop on its own and forget the fertilizer.
I have not lost any of my maples yet because of lack of fertilizer.
The plant seems to do well from zone 5a to zone 9a and if you need to see a plant zone map then you can see one at the web url below.
http://forestry.about.com/od/treehabitatandrange/ss/plant_zones.htm
You can propagate this maple by either grafting or budding or by collecting seeds after they have ripened off and dried in the fall. I will write a more detailed article on getting these and other types of maples started from seed later in another post.
Although this maple is considered to be more like a shrub it will grow to around fifteen feet if left to grow in the ground.
I have not grown one in the ground but have two of these cultivars as bonsai and I may perhaps at some later time take a cutting and and graft it in order to get one for my garden.
In the picture above you can see a small starter bonsai of this material that I acquired just this spring and in time it will make a very lovely bonsai but since this material grows very slow it will take a few years to create this one.
I will train it in the umbrella style and later when it has had time to grow a stronger trunk then I will twist the trunk around a bamboo stick to get a desired S curve look to the trunk.
Thanks for reading and looking.
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact Me
.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Cotoneaster
Here is a material that is very easy to work with especially for anyone who wants to start out by creating there own bonsai.
Almost any nursery in the country will have a few varieties of cotoneaster. It grows rather rapid so if you do make a mistake and cut some off that later you wished you hadn’t well not to worry because it will produce many more fresh shoots for you to work with.
If I were going to start out brand new with this material then I would go to a local nursery and obtain a good starter plant in a one gallon pot size and then once home I would begin to study the plant to determine first where my front is going to be.
Once I have established the front of my plant then I can begin to study it to see if it has any typical bonsai shape already kind of started for me. The plant that I have pictured here was already growing a really long branch out from the main stalk.
So I simply wired the branch to obtain the full cascade look and then worked on the main growth at the center of the plant. In a cascade style you will always want your plant as close to the center of the pot as you can get it.
This is not true with nearly any other style of bonsai. Almost always with other plants in other styles you would want your plant to be off center and to one side of the pot nearly all of the time.
But with a cascade I want the plant centered and then I want the growth in the center of the plant to reach out to surround the pot almost to the edges of the rim all the way around the pot if possible.
This simply makes the bonsai look nice and full. The main cascade branch if at all possible should twist or arc if you will from side to side so as to resemble a winding brook or a nice full S curve.
The cotoneaster has blooms of very tiny flowers and some bloom with red flowers and yet others have tiny white flowers and in the fall they will spawn red berries. This is not a fruit that you would want to eat but the birds will sometimes find the berries a welcome feast in mid winter.
I will not try to elaborate too much on the care here for this plant as it is very hardy and you would have to completely and totally neglect it to kill it. Just water and feed through the season and you will have no trouble growing one of these plants.
I have several cotoneasters in my collection and most all of them have been trained in the clip and grow method and very rarely wired unless there was no other way to achieve the look that I desired.
If the plant just presents something to you right out of nature then by all means go with it other wise you’ll simply have to work at it until you get where you want with it.
You can propagate cotoneaster from seed or from soft wood or hard wood cuttings depending on the time of the year for the cuttings and seed would be best started in real early spring after any worry of frost.
You can bring your plant indoors for enjoyment a few days during the year but the rest of the time you’ll want to keep it outdoors as it is and outdoors plant material.
You will find many different kinds to choose from if you look around and some even with thorny spines on them so if you choose one of these then be careful of the fingers when working the material as these spines are sharp and will get you good if you’re careless.
I prefer these plants to teach beginners with because of there fast growing habit nearly anyone can get a bonsai going with one of these in no time at all and they are not expensive material to obtain.
You’ll find them in most nurseries from around six to ten dollars for a gallon size and this size will give you a really nice plant to begin with and you’ll already have some nice trunk size and a lot of branches to work with.
Because of the material being inexpensive it can be used to practice on and not worry to much if you mess it up because you can simply get another and start all over in no time. It usually only takes one or two years to get a nice looking cotoneaster tree created,
From there on it is just clip and let nature take its course and you have a wonderful looking bonsai in your collection in no time at all.
Thanks, for looking and reading.
Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact me:
Almost any nursery in the country will have a few varieties of cotoneaster. It grows rather rapid so if you do make a mistake and cut some off that later you wished you hadn’t well not to worry because it will produce many more fresh shoots for you to work with.
If I were going to start out brand new with this material then I would go to a local nursery and obtain a good starter plant in a one gallon pot size and then once home I would begin to study the plant to determine first where my front is going to be.
Once I have established the front of my plant then I can begin to study it to see if it has any typical bonsai shape already kind of started for me. The plant that I have pictured here was already growing a really long branch out from the main stalk.
So I simply wired the branch to obtain the full cascade look and then worked on the main growth at the center of the plant. In a cascade style you will always want your plant as close to the center of the pot as you can get it.
This is not true with nearly any other style of bonsai. Almost always with other plants in other styles you would want your plant to be off center and to one side of the pot nearly all of the time.
But with a cascade I want the plant centered and then I want the growth in the center of the plant to reach out to surround the pot almost to the edges of the rim all the way around the pot if possible.
This simply makes the bonsai look nice and full. The main cascade branch if at all possible should twist or arc if you will from side to side so as to resemble a winding brook or a nice full S curve.
The cotoneaster has blooms of very tiny flowers and some bloom with red flowers and yet others have tiny white flowers and in the fall they will spawn red berries. This is not a fruit that you would want to eat but the birds will sometimes find the berries a welcome feast in mid winter.
I will not try to elaborate too much on the care here for this plant as it is very hardy and you would have to completely and totally neglect it to kill it. Just water and feed through the season and you will have no trouble growing one of these plants.
I have several cotoneasters in my collection and most all of them have been trained in the clip and grow method and very rarely wired unless there was no other way to achieve the look that I desired.
If the plant just presents something to you right out of nature then by all means go with it other wise you’ll simply have to work at it until you get where you want with it.
You can propagate cotoneaster from seed or from soft wood or hard wood cuttings depending on the time of the year for the cuttings and seed would be best started in real early spring after any worry of frost.
You can bring your plant indoors for enjoyment a few days during the year but the rest of the time you’ll want to keep it outdoors as it is and outdoors plant material.
You will find many different kinds to choose from if you look around and some even with thorny spines on them so if you choose one of these then be careful of the fingers when working the material as these spines are sharp and will get you good if you’re careless.
I prefer these plants to teach beginners with because of there fast growing habit nearly anyone can get a bonsai going with one of these in no time at all and they are not expensive material to obtain.
You’ll find them in most nurseries from around six to ten dollars for a gallon size and this size will give you a really nice plant to begin with and you’ll already have some nice trunk size and a lot of branches to work with.
Because of the material being inexpensive it can be used to practice on and not worry to much if you mess it up because you can simply get another and start all over in no time. It usually only takes one or two years to get a nice looking cotoneaster tree created,
From there on it is just clip and let nature take its course and you have a wonderful looking bonsai in your collection in no time at all.
Thanks, for looking and reading.
Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact me:
Sunday, May 15, 2005
The Netsuke Can Make a Fantastic Collectable
The Living Bonsai & More is as the name implies. I personally have had an interest in most all things oriental nearly all of my life and so from time to time I will endeavor to post an article on a subject other than bonsai.
I became interested in Netsuke as a fine collectable a few years ago and began a personal collection of these little fine art carvings. But what are netsukes you may ask?
Well the Japanese term for a netsuke literally means root for fastening and the netsuke was a way for the Japanese men to carry small objects with them inside there kimonos.
Since the kimono had no pockets and was only held together by a sash called obi around the waist then it would be impossible to carry any small objects around with you during the course of your day.
Thus the netsuke was derived some where possibly around the 16th century and was used as a device to act as a sort of a weight to hang down from the sash and thus keep the pouch from slipping away from the sash and kimono.
There would be a small pouch attached with strings and inside the person could then carry small items along.
They might have had there tobacco and pipe or some writing tools or a small purse and even medicines inside the pouches and these were then carried with the help of the netsuke.
The netsuke traditionally had a small hole through the material and then most often a silk cord attached and the cord was then drawn up under the obi or sash and the netsuke then would hang over the front of the sash keeping the pouch in tact.
The art of netsuke was a fine craft and the carvings were very elaborate and a lot of the time a person’s wealth or status could even be told by the look of the netsuke that adorned the kimono.
As time passed and the Japanese began to look to the western world for dress and the netsuke faded into a lost feature of clothing that was no longer needed so to speak. However the netsuke has always been highly prized as a collectable.
It’s so easy to get hooked on collecting these beautiful marvels of artistic carving once any person holds one of these little master pieces of carved art in there hands the first time there usually hooked and begin collecting.
The western world began to get there hands on these small carvings some time after 1853 when Commodore Perry’s black ships first dropped anchor in Uraga showing the American flag.
There was a trade agreement signed by America and Japan giving America a trade monopoly for many years to come and American sailors mostly from New England who were whalers began to bring back many of these carvings to the western world and by the 1870s collecting had begun.
Even yet today these carvings are still very much sought after and some of the best collections are not in Japan but actually right here in the United States.
Netsukes were carved out of many different types of materials most notably ivory, bone, wood, and sometimes metals even gems. You can find many different types represented for collecting if you’re in the mood to start a collection.
There are of course rules now in place for import and especially for ivory and so it would be in your best interest to read about these if you were into collecting these types of materials.
You would also need very deep pockets if you’re in the mood to collect any ivory carving of a netsuke that is original and truly early Japan. However there are many other materials that can be easily obtained and the carvings are just as beautiful.
Some research on your part would be advised if you want to peruse this fine art collectable. One resource that I would recommend to start with would be the International Netsuke Society http://www.netsuke.org from there you can find other resources and items of interest.
You can simply do a search for netsuke articles in goggle and come up with a lot of sites of great interest.
Here is a url to a fine article about netsuke and colleting that I think anyone interested in this art form as a hobby should read.
http://www.robynbuntin.com/Articles/netsuke_article_files/netsuke_article.htm
There are of course many fine books on the subject as well and anyone interested can certainly begin to get educated on what to look for and how to collect.
Thanks, for reading and looking. Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact me:
I became interested in Netsuke as a fine collectable a few years ago and began a personal collection of these little fine art carvings. But what are netsukes you may ask?
Well the Japanese term for a netsuke literally means root for fastening and the netsuke was a way for the Japanese men to carry small objects with them inside there kimonos.
Since the kimono had no pockets and was only held together by a sash called obi around the waist then it would be impossible to carry any small objects around with you during the course of your day.
Thus the netsuke was derived some where possibly around the 16th century and was used as a device to act as a sort of a weight to hang down from the sash and thus keep the pouch from slipping away from the sash and kimono.
There would be a small pouch attached with strings and inside the person could then carry small items along.
They might have had there tobacco and pipe or some writing tools or a small purse and even medicines inside the pouches and these were then carried with the help of the netsuke.
The netsuke traditionally had a small hole through the material and then most often a silk cord attached and the cord was then drawn up under the obi or sash and the netsuke then would hang over the front of the sash keeping the pouch in tact.
The art of netsuke was a fine craft and the carvings were very elaborate and a lot of the time a person’s wealth or status could even be told by the look of the netsuke that adorned the kimono.
As time passed and the Japanese began to look to the western world for dress and the netsuke faded into a lost feature of clothing that was no longer needed so to speak. However the netsuke has always been highly prized as a collectable.
It’s so easy to get hooked on collecting these beautiful marvels of artistic carving once any person holds one of these little master pieces of carved art in there hands the first time there usually hooked and begin collecting.
The western world began to get there hands on these small carvings some time after 1853 when Commodore Perry’s black ships first dropped anchor in Uraga showing the American flag.
There was a trade agreement signed by America and Japan giving America a trade monopoly for many years to come and American sailors mostly from New England who were whalers began to bring back many of these carvings to the western world and by the 1870s collecting had begun.
Even yet today these carvings are still very much sought after and some of the best collections are not in Japan but actually right here in the United States.
Netsukes were carved out of many different types of materials most notably ivory, bone, wood, and sometimes metals even gems. You can find many different types represented for collecting if you’re in the mood to start a collection.
There are of course rules now in place for import and especially for ivory and so it would be in your best interest to read about these if you were into collecting these types of materials.
You would also need very deep pockets if you’re in the mood to collect any ivory carving of a netsuke that is original and truly early Japan. However there are many other materials that can be easily obtained and the carvings are just as beautiful.
Some research on your part would be advised if you want to peruse this fine art collectable. One resource that I would recommend to start with would be the International Netsuke Society http://www.netsuke.org from there you can find other resources and items of interest.
You can simply do a search for netsuke articles in goggle and come up with a lot of sites of great interest.
Here is a url to a fine article about netsuke and colleting that I think anyone interested in this art form as a hobby should read.
http://www.robynbuntin.com/Articles/netsuke_article_files/netsuke_article.htm
There are of course many fine books on the subject as well and anyone interested can certainly begin to get educated on what to look for and how to collect.
Thanks, for reading and looking. Harold Yearout
©Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
For more information feel free to Contact me:
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
This is Serrisa Foetida and is being trained in Shohin style, the plant is three years old.
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