Bonsai

@ Gareth, thought i'd post a thread rather than an inbox, some nice info here for anyone else who likes bonsai

here goes, answer and info to your question
- with regards to getting you a bonsai or two,
"here in Potch when and if you find them they are flippen expensive, I don't mind the prices because of all the hard work that go into making a tree"

Thats sadly the case everywhere, guys do the whole big scale bonsai thing, and i know some even trip the mass of trees with a weed-eater, so not everyone does "hard work" to get those trees on the sales floor. But they have the mindset of, "its a commodity, so i'll rook em with prices..." i'll have a look at the next bonsai show here in Pta, btw, we're hosting a bonsai show at Safari Garden Centre for the Pretoria Bonsai Kai (club) er, here's the copy paste info

If you come to Pta then, (its still month's end) you'll see some really nice trees, and they have a sale on, were the hobbyists sell their own stuff, usually awesomely cheaper...

otherwise if you byt-vas, i'll see if i can get you something nice when the Safari club does their show again, Duncan Wiles has a bonsai nursery and usually has some nice material to work with, you might budget 200 rand or so, and i'll get you a nice tree and pot, plant and settle it for you, no prob.

For indoor, you might need to go for something in the ficus range, remember that even though we dwarf the tree, its still got the same normal genetic makeup and needs, just selected stunted growth

I.o.w. most all trees need and want full sun conditions, ergo, most all bonsai want and need full sun conditions, provided there's enough water and nutrients in the pot to continue normal growth,

The ficus species grows in dence forests usually, and have deep coloured leaves, so they can take shaded area much easier than say a monkey thorn (which closes its leaves for the night, so in shade will almost never be able to photosynthesise etc, as the leaves stay closed.

People are sometimes fooled to believe we keep our trees inside, but they live outside and may sometimes be dressed up, moss and the works, for a function where you display themm inside then move them out again

Here's some pics of my setups, its from 2007, but it gives you an idea of how i grom mine, (lol, lookin at these old pics its odd to see how small some stuff were)



I'll need to get new pics as the leaves come out now... :hmmm:

I'll try to get more info for you on trees that will tollerate or grow in shaded house conditions, otherwise check out http://forums.bonsaisite.com/

there's plenty of info, and even some south africans about there with info on Our own trees....

Hope this got some info through?
Need more info, just ask.

I'll keep my eyes open for a nice tree for you at a good price

 

Thanks Ferryman I will appreciate that.

 

Okay, some info on trees i have to use as examples... trees that might or may not be kept indoors

Only thing keeping me from having really beautiful trees, is money for better, bigger stock to cut down and dwarf, and time, to go into the veld and collect yamadori... i never go on club digs My stock comes mostly from nursery rejects and small saplings or seeds i grew out

For something you can work on but that is already shaped,

ficus ginseng bonsai will have a shape you cant do much about, its a naturally thick type tree, so it'll have trunk taper and a thick look already, but there's not much more you can do with it other than just trim and pinch back the new shoots to keep the form, they are MASS produced and ALOT of low quality fugly trees make it to the market. selecting one that really looks good is hard and you need time to go looking

I own two, one i bought, one was a gift.
you'll see them in the back right corner here


white stinkwood could grow indoors, if placed near a window, with lots of light most of the day (never place plants IN a windowsill, the temp changes so near the glass damages the tree)

they are easy to form, when watered just to keep the ground semi moist and ferts every week or so in the growing season, will give you alot to trim back, and will make a nice tree in relatively short time, but looses its leaves in winter and then its just branches




Natal Wildevy/Wild Ficus makes lovely trees, grows in low light though still near a window etc etc, you can bend and form it a bit, you'll have leaves all year round, and its sometimes slowgrowing and lower maintenance,
makes lovely bonsai, my favourite...


port jackson fig project in the back right...


Junipers will take lowish light, but wount like it much, can be kept near a high light window, needs very little maintenance once formed, and makes good 'hey, its a bonsai' impressions due to its popularity and people recognise it quickly, i currently only own one
(always prescribed as a very good, forgiving beginner plant) excuse the look, i neglected this tree a bit last year... its recoperating


Privet is also green year round, makes good bonsai, needs a bit of pruneback maintenance, hard to find good stock though


Kei apple is slow growing, needs alot of water as it grows near rivers, i havent figured out the secret to keeping them nice yet, but hey, i try anything with any material...


baobab is super slow growing, and cant take indoors (unless its winter, no leaves, and almost no watering at all, its a namibian semi-desert occuring tree)


Thorn trees NEED full sun, will need lots of maintenance and cutback to maintain form, my biggest one changes form almost yearly (by choice as i see its potential grow out)




and some random pics of my multi-tree-syndrome tables and seedlings and projects etc

 

I am looking for something like Pic8 let me know if you can find something like that...

 

juniper? you want the real Procumbens nana or what you see there? Mine is Horizontalis. Leaves arent puffy and stingy. i like it. Pot was somewhere like 70 rand or so, tree aswell. cheap to make. I think. Will need to check that. I can check nursery stock next time im at work and get you one. Try and shape it more densely (mine i cut way too rough. . I was young and dumb. . Lol. Though that one's only been potted 3years now

 

Awesome trees...

 

will you let me know ferryman I will give you the cash just let me know what it will cost

 

Thanks, though to me they usually look ugly, i dont have space to cultivate them in open soil, so progress is very very slow on some, small pot growth stunts progress, but i manage...

Old oomies have way better trees to show off, i think i would only regard about 5 of mine as worth showing off at a club meeting...

They are the ones i started with from standard 5... .long time ago, have lost and gained many different trees since then, learned alot...


Okay, gareth, the good and the bad: A history of this little Juniperus Horizontalis, from bag, to pot to first pruning, to horrible styling mistake (backbudding on this plant was very slow, i didn't know, so i pruned it REALLY badly first time round, NOW i know better...) to growing back, to being neglected, to roots rotting from new gardener doing WAAAAAY too much gardening, going brown near death, and being resurrected next season to go lovely green once more...

Very forgiving and characteristic tree, remember, it NEEDS high light, so near a bright window, lit most of the day, it'll do fine, you can even take it outside some days of the week to help give it a dose of sun every now and then

Bag...

cut back to find trunk

potted and pruned some, (should have stopped round about here and styled A LITTLE... but noooooo

looking like a just bathed wet cat, not very happy with me...

for some reason i left that long branch thinking i'd try a semi cascade, lol

starting to die from neglect (it just went brown though)

here i thought it was dead and if it doesnt improve im gonna bin it as i needed that pot...

here it picked up my "ima gonna bin you" chi vibe and got its arse in gear



soooooo, want me to style one for you? you dont see many of them already styled in nurseries, and when you do expect to pay around 300-1000 as people go nuts with prices...

i can try and organize one almost same size as this for you much cheaper, think that pot is about 30 cm to give you a measure idea (well, or you could just measure it against the bricks in the background, lol

i think im gonna get me a flatter more shallow pot next, to help give this tree a perspective size, this pot is dominating the scene...

luckily i threw some vrot bulbs away yesterday, so i have a shallow pot to use now...

 

if you don't mind just let me know before the time what it will cost please
then I will give you the go ahead...

 

no problem. will find out for you asap, before month's end if possible
it'll just be cost for the plant and pot is all, but i'll need to fone work to find out if we have stock of those trees, and a nice little pot for it, you want square or oval? i think most pots we have are an earthy colour, dont think we have green like mine (bought mine in natal, at a bonsai nursery)

 

any colour it dies not matter and as for shape oval would be nice but square will do fine as well.

 

Just a quick demo

Today i went to check pricing,
Juniperus Procumbens "Nana" - R79.99
Juniperus Horizontalis "Prince of Wales" - R86.99

seems Malanseuns got their prices up a bit

Anyway, its not that bad i think
I decided i'll try my hand at a Procumbens nana, so i bought one that looked a bit round, (since i cant dig open the roots, i couldn't see if it had a base, or if it was just growing directly from the ground horizontally outward, mixed bag i suppose, i got it home, pic1, then cut away about 5cm of the bag and inspected it for a possible base, pic2, but couldn't see one difinative base,so i took my root rake and started removing root mass, to find out, this one was growing directly from the ground outwards, damn, no base, but, it had some really great features to it, if i could only get them to show seperately without having to trim everything else away... so i took my trusty breadknife and cut the base in three, seperated the pieces, and got pic 3, 4, and 5. 5 is my favourite, though it isn't that obvious from the pic, but it grows in almost an s curve, and then hangs out over the container. this will look great in a flat pot in a year or two when the new roots have grown to support each piece nicely, for now, each piece will have to settle in, so i had to bury the end of pic 5 a bit to keep whats left of the roots covered to develop.
pic 4 can stand on its own and will develop in time into a nice tree, and pic 3 has to grow a bit before i will know what to do with it...

 

Pots...

Okay, i checked prices on pots as well,
Pic 1 - pot price is 99.95 - brown, oval, glazed on outside
Pic 2 - pot price is 97.95 - Cream oval, rough natural texture, Black edge+inside
Pic 3 - pot price is 59.95 - Cream circular, rough natural texture, Black edge+inside

those were the pots sized for a plant this size, the glazed oval one is nice, but to go for the cheaper ones is also fine, i also have a pot like that with a thorn tree innit, so they're not "el cheapo" they're just not glazed and backed the same way.

lemme know if you're interested in anything i showed thusfar?
pic 4 is one of the horizontalis i looked at, pic five is just the floor fulla plants, this is were it starts...

 

Heres the only Bonsai Im interested in!




ha ha but seriously also a great hobby, I had some very nice ones before I came to uni and no one looked after them and they died:wondering: (I used to find them on a game farm)

 

lol, you are hereby barred from ever showing me something filipe oliviera made, those scapes are just too awesome! its just not nice rubbing an amateur's nose in it...

 

HI Is that even real? it look awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

 

hey ferryman...

The fiancé has been asking me for the past month now to get her a bonsai…
I’m not sure what to get her…

I did get my mother a bonsai about 2 years ago. Did some research and found something good for the coast as my folks live in Kzn. They managed to let it die…
Don’t want the same to happen to my fiancé bonsai…

 

What would have been great for a coast area, is a Natal wild fig. They thrive in the humid warm tropical weather.. As for the new one, what are you thinking of getting? evergreen or thorntree, something that has red in autumn, low light plant, will it live outdoors etc

 

indoors....
please advise, also don't want to spend too much on it

 

found an article on growing bonsai indoors...
hope this sheds some light-s