Bonsai

[Kneenibble]

Long fascinated by this art, I have decided to make use of the gorgeous blue bonsai dish my grandmother gave me many years back. This evening I took a young boxelder sprout from my backyard, and told the little thing "Baby, you're going to be a work of art!"

I desire discourse on bonsai. Who has practiced it? Has anybody bothered to start one from a young plant like this? Any tips? Share, goodly artists of repression and pain for beauty. Share.

[Serpentine]

Welll... A good friend of mine bought me a juniper bonsai. I decided it would be my own personal topiary, so I tried to bend it around into a loop. It broke. It lived, but instead of a loop I had a gate.
I had it for months, doing fine... then I decided to prune it all artistic-like. It has not yet recovered :smallfrown: I have hopes that it'll resprout in spring, though...
I've also bought a few plants to try and bonsai. So far the bare... ivy? oak? Something like that, has tiny little buds, so I think it'll be okay. The little bush thing (dunno what it's called) is doing fine.

[wxdruid]

I've owned bonsai trees in the past. Most of mine have been the ficus variety. They're pretty hardy and I had one for several years until I had to go to Iraq and it got left outside one night when there was an late frost. I really like them, but they do involve a lot of work. I've also had a few of the shrub varieties and a miniature olive tree. They take too much care for my military life though (moving and deployments), so I mostly grow various other plants now that I don't mind if they survive or die.

I bought my starter plants from Bonsai by the Monastery when I lived in South Carolina or Biloxi, MS. I also have a huge box of pots from the same place.

*mentioning a monastery is not meant as a reason to start a religious discussion about them. They support themselves by selling bonsai and related merchandise.

[Trog]

I really like bonsai trees and have have owned two different ones.

They both died.

A green thumb I have not. :smallsigh:

[Kneenibble]

The other thing I understand is that a lot of bonsai, especially specimens you buy far along the process, are not meant to survive for long indoors.

The boxelder sprout I attempted to pot wilted horribly in the past day. I took it out of the soil and back into plain water, hoping it will develop better roots. I also have a mind to turn one of my grapefruit trees into a bonsai.

[Gullara]

I think it would be really cool to have a bonsai tree. I always thought it only worked with a specific kind of tree, but this discussion is leading me to believe any kind of tree can be used. Is that right?

[Serpentine]

Not any kind of tree... Basically many/most shrubs, or small trees that can cope being shrubs, and they should be reasonably hardy and able to handle pruning. Cumquats, for example, I believe are trees, and I think can even get to decent sizes. However, they also do quite well in smaller pots, and so can be bonsaied reasonably well.
Small leaves and flowers help, too.

[Gullara]

Not any kind of tree... Basically many/most shrubs, or small trees that can cope being shrubs, and they should be reasonably hardy and able to handle pruning. Cumquats, for example, I believe are trees, and I think can even get to decent sizes. However, they also do quite well in smaller pots, and so can be bonsaied reasonably well.
Small leaves and flowers help, too.

Cool, sounds like something I might try sometime.

[Comet]

The other thing I understand is that a lot of bonsai, especially specimens you buy far along the process, are not meant to survive for long indoors.


This was definetly my experience with bonsai. I don't think I did anything wrong, but the tree being indoors and it being one of the hottest summers in memory led to its quick demise. Well, not quick, I managed to keep it alive for longer than I would have originally thought.

[Kneenibble]

Not any kind of tree... Basically many/most shrubs, or small trees that can cope being shrubs, and they should be reasonably hardy and able to handle pruning. Cumquats, for example, I believe are trees, and I think can even get to decent sizes. However, they also do quite well in smaller pots, and so can be bonsaied reasonably well.
Small leaves and flowers help, too.
Yes, any kind of tree: any plant with a woody stem, really, but some are more challenging to miniaturize than others (although I'm only channeling what I've read, not my own experience). This is why I picked the boxelder to start, because they're disgustingly hard to get rid of.

[Serpentine]

I find it extremely unlikely that every single tree can be Bonsaied. Even if you could prune it to stay small (which I seriously doubt), the root confinement and pruning itself is likely to kill it.

tl;dr: sauce plz?

edit: From Wikipedia, "Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species which produces true branches and remains small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning."
I expect that last qualifier would eliminate a lot of trees.

[wxdruid]

I was reading through some websites last night and found a picture of a rosemary plant that had been turned into a bonsai tree. I've had several ficus varieties and an olive.

Currently I've been letting one of the seeds from the tree out back grow. I was thinking of letting it grow this year, letting it spend the winter outside and then planting it in a smaller pot next year, taking all the leaves off and finding out if they'll grow back smaller. ((according to what I've been told/read, it is possible)) So, a long term experiment. I'll do something similar with the rosemary plants I started from seed this spring.