How about we bonsai, why not?

So you grow Bonsai from branches? I'm feeling like I'm going to have a lot of learning to do 0_0

 

Well, the nice thing about bonsai is the rabbit hole goes as deep as you want it to. To do really high quality crazy bonsai takes a ton of background knowledge, but to keep a ficus happy in Florida is pretty easy.

You can propagate bonsai trees in a variety of ways, but yeah, one of the cool things about ficus is that they root readily from cuttings, even when they're fairly large branches. And a cool thing about that is that bonsai are necessarily fractals, and a branch of a large tree can become a very convincing miniature tree all on its own.

You'll often see people do things like this:



to use the apex as a new 'shohin' tree.

Edit: Here's a good resource for starting out: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bonsai/wiki/walkthrough

 

Are they over priced?

So where do we (I'm American) normally get our Bonsai imports from?

 

Hmm, so is it a more scientific or a more natural feel for growing Bonsai? It feels like it's more the latter where the former can be applied.

Do the Ficus grow leaves at all or do they tend to stay barren like that?

 

Their specimen quality trees are fairly priced, but all their beginner stuff is really, really expensive.

Unfortunately there's really no way to import trees to the US consistently without incurring a really high cost. A $200 Japanese tree might wind up costing $1500 after all of the import fees are paid.

A specimen quality bonsai usually passes through several hands before it's finished, the first of these are the grower's who well, grow them in fields. There are several people doing that sort of work in the states, to varying degrees of success. The best source of bonsai material are trees that were growing in the mountains for hundreds of years and bent and tortured by the elements. That's when you get REALLY crazy trees that make me drool

 

Honestly it's kind of both. I do a metric ton of reading and have a small bonsai library, but a lot of times that knowledge only makes sense in light of experience in the garden. Lots of "Ohhhhh THAT'S what they were talking about!" type moments.

They grow bright glossy leaves, but you cut them all off to 1) stimulate back budding, when new buds are activated closer to the trunk. These twig out and become smaller branches of their own. And 2) wiring with the leaves on is really annoying. :]

 

Ah, so I'm guessing you wouldn't let the Bonsai grow leaves until you have it the way you want it then.

You know, I'm supposed to do 5x5 heavy squats today and instead I'm reading a Bonsai walkthrough. You're a bad influence man >: O

 

This is basically what I should expect from my first Bonsai tree right?


http://www.bonsaiempire.com/images/01-Juniper-bonsai-reyes.jpg

 

It's going to start a lot more like this:



But that's totally doable eventually. If you like doing it, I'll definitely send you a better tree. Give me until spring to work on this one though. :]

 

See, I read the link you sent me, so I'm not even surprised about the "wait till' next spring."

I'll take it as Bonsai Patience Practice xD

 

Stupid question time.

You use clippings, right? So could I just go into the nearby forest, clip a bit off a tree, plant the clipping and then skip the trip to Ikea? Obviously I'd do it properly, but could I just do that?

 

Haha, yeah, I just got the thing to root this year, so I want it to be nice and sturdy before I ship it to you. Also a chance to get it into a nice pot :]

 

Honestly, ideally take the whole damn tree.



But yeah, cuttings are totally something you can do and a viable start to a bonsai.

 

We have quite a big garden and it would be nice to do something there. We rent the place so I doubt I can dig up the lawn and put a bowl for skating there...so maybe a nice table with some bonsai is one idea.

There's loads of birch and various conifers near us...but I guess it's better to get the cuttings in spring.

I'm just reading through this, dunno if it's accurate.

http://www.bonsaiempire.com/basics/cultivation/from-cuttings

If you scroll through the page, you'll see the secret to this person's success with stunting the growth of his trees. He gives them cigarettes!!

 

Best thing is a tiered bench. Something like this:

Birch can be kind of tricky, they dieback and randomly drop branches, so it can be kind of frustrating to work with them. Conifers sound good!

Yeah that website isn't a bad source at all. I'm taking an online course with them and might be meeting the owner this weekend at the US National show.

Best thing when you're starting out is get your hands on material in a variety of stages of propagation; so getting some cuttings going, some 2-3 year old plants and then maybe one or two nice ones that remind you why you're doing it in the first place.

Cigarettes are pretty common for scale, but I believe the beer bottle is customary .

 

Yeah, something like that. Needs to be well off the ground because of the dogs...and the hares we get. The deer and moose could be a problem though.

I'm not sure what type of conifers they are, I need to do some research and find out which ones are hardy and easy to grow. I really don't know trees at all.

Nice! I'll bookmark that site then.

That makes sense.

I've just been browsing the net for a specialist shop in Helsinki. Can't find anything near by. The biggest online shop and most active blog is ran by an English speaker, that makes things a little easier if I need a "local" contact, annoyingly he lives about 10 k from where we used to live (about 2 hrs drive away).

Seems a lot of people just buy older trees from garden centres.

 

I've noticed deer leave most of my trees alone. Yew, maples and azalea though...

The good news is that anything growing in the ground in your area can grow in a pot in your area :]

Not sure if they are easy to propagate by cuttings.

There's a lot of people in Europe - honestly, they are more advanced over there than we are over here. Most people do just start with older trees from garden centers, much of the stuff you will be doing with seedlings and cuttings is stuff that's very boring and not artistic. Just the horticultural side of things. When you get a bigger tree you get to do all the wiring, carving, pruning, etc., etc. to make a nice transformation.

 

Is THAT a Bonsai behind you???

 

So hold on a second... will a little 5 gallon turn into a 5 ton'er???

 

God I wish that were one of my trees. That's a UK bonsai artist named Tony Tickle and a yamadori pine.