2010 Garden Photos - Part 4

nice bonsai wc!

Cool, WC!

Beautiful tulips WC!!

Thanks all, it's always a race to find out which ones wake up first, this year the specialty tulips beat the supermarket ones! ~ twelve more different types to go! (lol!)

-Just started a new Austrian Black Pine bonsai yesterday, (keeping it in the shade for a week until it gets acclimated). ☺

both are nice WC

Very nice bonsai WC. I've always wanted to try it. Any suggestions on how to get started?

Start small??

Weeping Katsura.

JM Mikawa yatsubusa.

^_^

Blurry, but gives you an idea of the colors of JM Bonfire. I'll try for a better shot.

Vivid bonfire, and Mikawa looks nice too!

It's easy Venu, just takes intermediate planting skills and a few decades (lol)
The complete book of bonsai by the late Harry Tomlinson is a very good starter book, the Austrian Bonsai I just bought I got at Lowes for $5.99, I added some green Iron, charcoal & ½ teas of Mycorrhizae fungus in the basic bonsai soil mix (buybonsai.com)
see: http://store.buybonsai.com/servlet/-strse-851/bonsai-potting-soil/Detail
- I'll start training it next year when it overwinters & gets used to it's new pot.
- Pines are the easiest but make sure they dry out a bit every now and then, they dont like 'wet feet', the biggest difference you'll notice is that bonsai like the fresh air.

-Then secure the tree to the pot w/ bonsai wire, (as firmly as you can so it doesn't budge) and you're good to go! It's a learning process like everything else, start small and cheap and preferably w/ outdoor bonsai, (easier to handle up here where there's little humidity indoors during the winter). - The book can give you an idea of what basic tools you'll need and you can add or subtract from your tool kit as you get more experienced and know what you want to do.
- cheap tool source...
(* I can vouch for their tools only): http://bonsai-tools.com/)

As you want to try other trees there are plenty of other specialized Bonsai sources which offer just the tree in a training pot - ('the key' is to have the tap root cut at an early age).

- ps. never trim a bonsai pine in the summer, that's a serious 'No No'! (lol!)

Here's the one I just made yesterday, (It's chillin' till next year, when I'll start shaping it). ☺

You don't trim the roots at all when you first put it in those small pots??

(I always visualize little men who climb them. ^_^)

(Hee Hee), if you get one that has excessive roots then you have to trim them, in a 'star shape' (hard to explain...), when seen overhead. - also every few years you have to trim them and change some of the soil as well.

the colors are wonderful Victor... love all your babies WC!!!

Thanks Allison! ☺

I spent 2 years in Japan while I was in the service. Many of the public gardens were starkly beautiful.
They go to great lengths to achieve designs and themes. I have always loved the bonsai but just don't have the artistic eye for them.
Chuck

Good stuff WC and Victor. So much going on already. Here are a couple pics from yesterday.

Forsythia still going strong.

Ah spring! What amuses me the most is that when the first crocus or snowdrop comes up i am out there taking a hundred pictures of it, like a new mother .....flash forward a few weeks and I have a whole playground filled with kids! I could take pictures all day and still not get them all. Here's one of my faves from today. Happy Gardening!

alright, one more...

I can't help myself...

very nice abby

last one. I need to get some work done which is close to impossible on a day like today!

thanks Wha!

Nice, Abby!

Anyone recognize this bug??

Great shots Abby

I agree, looks like ticks.

they do look like them do not think they are - kill them they are eating your jm leaves!

No, not ticks.

post it in the bug ID

I probably will. Have to kill them no matter what they are!

Koto no ito.

Viburnum judii.

Orangeola.

Britt-Marie Crawford.

funky color on that last one.. nice!!

It has great dark foliage.

stays like that in the heat?