Ilex Vomitoria

Ilex Vomitoria is a nice, small leaved shrub of Texas that produce small inedible berries in autumn. I bought this from Home Depot about... 2 months ago, pruned it then, and wired and repotted it today. Some of the branches are quite long in comparison to the trunk, but over the next few years of refinement, that will be fixed. It is a very nice tree with a hopeful future. Overall, cost was about 8 dollars, the pot was 4 and the tree was 4. Not bad, eh?

Italian Stone Pine

SO, since it' warming up here in Texas I decided to prune an Italian Stone Pine (Pinus Pinea). I bought this tree around september, when they are frequently sold as "getting ready for christmas" shrubs. Pruning of larger branches had been carried out earlier in October(as can be seen by the larger wounds) as autumn is the time for large branch pruning on pines. These might not heal over very easily, so a jin could be necessary. I removed a few of the young branches today, and wired the top and side branches to give it a little more movement. I've found a few pictures of Pinus Pinea bonsai on the web, some nice ones done by Ernie Kuo. No one really uses these because the adult needles can get up to 8 inches, however, the juvenile needles are short and upright( also only one inch long and very suitable for bonsai), and are easy to maintain (the juvenile needles are the only needles present on the tree now). The great thing about this, friends, is as Walter Pall said, " You have to make a bonsai ugly before it becomes beautiful". This should, after a few years of developing, become a very nice bonsai... we'll see.

Chelsea, Emily, Ryan, and Anyone else with a cutting

Friends,

So you all should by now be blessed with the gift of a cutting, shining hope onto that little "semilla" of a plant, it waiting to grow into something fantastic, and through your help, make the world a better place. Regardless, you're probably over-worrying about its state and about whether you're giving it too much attention. This should make things simple: The majority of you (friends) have either ficus or olive cuttings, and if you don't have one you soon will. For the Ficus cuttings the majority of those will already have been rooted and place in a soil mix of 1 part perlite and one part peat moss, which is a very good soil type (i think for ficus cuttings). The focus of your ficus will be to keep it alive through watering, sunlight, and fertilization. Watering may be the most difficult matter, as its timing should not be scheduled and entirely depends on the type of day that the plant had, but nothing to fear. Mostly, watering goes buy the feel of the soil, if its moist no problem, and if its dry a little underneath the soil, a little watering may be in need. This is the way it is but otherwise you'll get the hang of it as the middle of texas summer a plant can need watering even three times a day. The Fici should be placed near a sunny window during late autumn, all of winter, and early spring (now). However, when it warms up for good, they can be placed under a shady tree, and like I saw this past summer, may develop a leaf a day. You should not have to worry about fertilization for now because the soil they are in has added fertilizer. For those of you who received a cutting placed in a paper cup of water you directions follow: Place the cutting in a rather sunny area inside for now, and they will not go outside until further into spring. The rooting process is amazing, natures great mystery  unfolds before our eyes. Every week or so, check on the root's development, and after about three weeks roots should have developed and it is ready for planting. I'll get into root development later and olive cuttings as well. Hope this helps!

Spring

Although it isn't here yet, it's warming up in Texas and the growing season starts soon. Yesterday I took about 25-50 olive cuttings off of some of the trees outside, and thats about a fifth of the number of cuttings that are still to be taken. The cuttings are about 2-3 inches long and are in their little hot house at the moment. Although cutting should have been done later, I did it now to really experiment with this species, and again, ive got about 100-200 more cuttings to take around March 22, when spring begins. These are all placed into a commercially available hot-house propagation center and in a soil mix of 1 part perlite and one part peat moss. These should do relatively well placed in a shady spot. Also, I have been witnessing the wonderful powers of the ficus, as I have been taking cuttings all of winter and fall, each of which has rooted except one. All of these have been hydroponically rooted (in water, with no rooting Hormone) and although I have been told they root more quickly in soil, I love watching the roots develop. The development is quite incredible and ill have pictures up soon about that. Again, Spring is coming soon, and I've got quite a few plants to work on and I'm feeling very happy.

Beginnings

Alright, so for those who are new to this or just sort of floating around in the art we'll start from the beginning. So some time around 200 B.C.E the evolution of bonsai started during the Han dynasty first with miniature artificial mountain and later evolving from the many potted flowers and miniature trees of the Shang Lin Park of Emperor Wu. Bonsai may have been brought to Japan around 1300 as told by books like A Collection of Springtime Sketches (1304) which depicts several miniature potted trees in its illustrations. Although Japan is credited with being a world bonsai center it is China that is believed to have founded the art but also new evidence points to Bonsai beginnings having started further west. It is the herbal system of medicine, Ayurveda, that supports this as the herbs of this system were potted and pruned which, as the Dyana Buddhists found out, cuased the plants to dwarf themselves. However, Ayurveda works were not translated into Chinese until around 400 A.D. and the illustrations of the Western Han Dynasty seem to say  bonsai started earlier. Regardless, now bonsai is appreciated all of the world by the young and old.


Sources: The Living Art of Bonsai, Amy Liang, Sterling Publishing Co., 2005
-ArtofBonsai.org, Babylon: The Origin of Bonsai?, Will Heath

Creation

Due to the lack of young bonsai artists, I've decided to make a young bonsai blog for me and my friends and any other young bonsai-ists to post their work and chat. I should have pics up soon!