Between the tutorials and the plants at the Mossy Creek Festival (that I DID NOT purchase), I was energized today. I pruned, pinched, repotted and wired. One day I may have something worthy of putting in a bonsai pot.
I almost bought a Brazilian rain tree, an Acacia, and a bougainvillia. But I resisted staunchly. Now if he had brought a selection of pots it would have been another story.
Beth
Jocie gave me a jump start
LOL!
Bonsai spirit is in the air! ^_^
...in the air is right because I've caught it too. Hi Beth and Jocie.
And I am taking off with my bonsai.
Here is my tamarisk bonsai,
who is brought up by my hands.
Not good enough for now as it is,
yet I value it very much.
Hello Jianhua, welcome to DG's gardening and bonsai-ing fun.
Kim
long time no see, Kim.
how's your goji seedlings?
Now a picture for you: goji bonsai
uhhhh, goji seedling? some kind of weeping specimen. Jianhua, the last seedlings that I've tried was Japanese Pagoda tree. I've one succeeded, it's now six foot tall. :-)
Oh, I must have regarded you as a Kim I know, to whom I once sent the goji (wolfberry) seed. Your Japanese Pagoda tree is 6 feet tall? Guessing it should be las tall as this one, a weeping elm in my yarden.
Boys! I can't even beginning to think of the postal cost with the exchange of seedlings overseas. I am so glad to correspond with someone from so far away as you're. My sophora japonica I grew from seed last spring, and within one year it's that tall already. I originally thought of making the specimen plant into a bonsai, until I researched the plant's hardiness in my zone. So I changed my mind and planted it in the garden.
Here it's the little tree with the green tie for support slightly of to the center of the pic.
Kim
I got your junior japanese pagoda tree.
Chinese gardens often have the trees.
For an ideal canopy resembling a pagoda,
the tree is usually beheaded at the height of 2 meters
when it grows about to 2.5 " thick in diameter.
Are you saying that pruning the tree when it reaches 2 meters tall, and 2.5" circumference thickness of the trunk will encourage it to branch out? Tell me more please.
You said that.
I will shoot a picture for you as a sample.
Here are two pictures of Chinese Pagoda Tree or Scholar Tree.
Picture 1, shot in my school
Picture 2, weeping scholar tree,
growing by the gate of a vocational medicine school in my town
They are both lovely, Jianhua. Thank you, kindly for sending the pictures. It's wonderful. Question on the weeping scholar tree. Is it grafted? Or topping its main leader off will create that shape?
I took a walk yesterday and saw a neighbor's oak tree which was pruned down by severing the main leader off -- the tree retains a nice "broom shape" (to my amazement). I understand certain tree can't tolerate this treatment. For instance, my common weeping willow. When I toppled it down. It died.
Kim
p.s. I'll take a picture of the mentioned oak tree tomorrow to share.
Jianhua, that weeping scholar tree is wonderful to look at. Does this tree have another name? For some reason I'm drawn to trees with the weeping feature, they are so graceful. Lily Love, I've watched your threads on wisteria bonsai and you are so very good at this. I do have an 'Amethyst Falls' wisteria and still have it in a pot..........DH is not fond of climbing plants on his deck and I do so want it to climb. This specimen is not supposed to be as aggressive as the standard wisteria. I'll post a pic for you....
Ohh I need some of that wisteria! LOL
Bugme and Jocie, is it because of lighting source availability? Here is my "Amethyst Falls". Look at the deep rich color of yours (bugme's), mine is pale in comparision. I did little to my wisterias. And I meant very little literally. I prune them and create drought condition just enough for them to feel the "stress" I think (rather I'm convinced) that is sufficient for them to bloom when they're mature.
Also, bugme, if you like Sophora japonica and weeping form tree. You need to be searching for a weeping Texas Laurel. In your zone the mentioned tree should be an excellent specimen tree in the yard.
Kim
I think his is a different kind of wisteria.
Yours looks perfectly normal Kim.
All yalls pictures makes me want one now lol.
Ill check out the one we have in the yard and see if it's worth potting up. LOL
Kim, mine is a dark purple, however, could have been the lighting made it look darker. I have fed it only once so far, with a bit of ironite and bloom burst. DH re-potted it for me last year and used lots of our own compost rather than potting soil. After seeing the results this spring of using compost over the shrubs in the fall as they rested over winter, it is amazing how it has helped them.
Bugme, what puzzled me is. A cultivar is suppose to stay truth to its name. Yours and mine are both called "Amethyst Falls" the american wisterias available on the market. I brought the vine while it was in bloom several years ago. It has consistently bloomed for me every spring. It's just the color variation. Now I think the acidity of the growing medium atributed to the color changes -- just likes that in Hydrangeas colouring changes with pH of the soil. What's your take on this?
I've observed this phenomina on my other plantings. One is verbena and other is with monadras. The location I planted them in dictates what the bloom color will turn out.
Kim, I can only say it has to be the compost. Now, we've been composting here for 9 yrs. and there is no telling what is in that pile of dirt :). All veggie scraps go in there as well as hardwood leaves, some manure. When he potted it up I was aghast at him using only compost but he occasionally knows what he is doing......hehehe. Like I said, only ironite and bloom burst was used early on. I'm just happy to see it blooming so nicely.
Just to illustrate my observation. These are the identical verbena I've planted. The smaller pot is plastic, presumably the commercial potting soil is naturally acidic. Last year they color were uniformly medium blue.
The bigger pot is a hypertufa that I made, I used the pot soon after it was cured, and I understood that cement material will bleach akalinity to the planting. This year the contrast of the blooms b/w the two pots.
*Notice the lighter blooms of the hypertufa pot, compared to the other smaller plastic one.
I can certainly see the difference, Kim and was unaware of the hypertufa making a difference like that but it seems logical what with the cement ingredient. Same potting soil?
p.s. I like the hypertufa pot you made
bugme, for wisterias, what I have seen are only light purple ones. Your blue one is special. Lily-love, the Chinese scholar tree or Japanese pagoda tree with a nice canopy (like an umbrella) is a grafted one: the weeping paggoda is grafted onto the common pagoda. Here is my scholar tree, and I aim to cultivate it into a bonsai.
Jianhua, I haven't tried my hands on grafting trees and shrubs, but that would be a fun project sometimes in the near future. Being a tree, and J.P. is growing at such an austousding pace! Yours isn't even a year old I'd bet? Even though your zone is classified as 8b. But I see you've dicentra growing in your garden, so the weather there must be mildly cool most time?
Kim
I think I am in Zone 7b. Here the climate of year is very orderly -- spring is warm; summer hot; fall cool and winter is cold.
The tree has been in my yarden for one and a half years, but for the tree itself, I am afraid, it must have been over 20 years of age. When I took in the tree, I cut off all the trunks and only left the short stock to let it develope into a bonsai. The picture above does not show the stock ; it is hidden behind the hostas and bleeding hearts.