Chronicles of a Miniature Tree

This is the tree again. After having meager light and a less rigorous watering schedule this past winter, the ficus has moved back outside. I was disappointed with the lack of sunlight on the porch, as I felt it was not getting in consistent sunlight, so I moved it onto the deck, where there is no shade between the hours of 9 and 3 during the day, and man has it responded! The leaves and shoots are growing at an exceptional rate. I took a look at the bottom of the pot today, and there was a fiber root poking through the screen mesh I had put there last year when I moved it into a bigger pot!

Next year may be root pruning time.

I do have to be careful though when watering it. I have watered it about three times today intermittently, concerned that it would dry out too quickly in the heat. I may need to have a humidity tray, but I have yet to find one suitable for a pot this size.

I swear to you that I’m back with a vengeance. I had to winter my bonsai in a bathroom that provided little light. I was also negligent on the watering schedule, but it didn’t work out so well. Now that it’s back out on the porch I have no excuse. It’s extremely dry this week too, with tons of tree pollen in the air. Hopefully I’ll be able to take a few pictures tomorrow before I go to work, but so far the growth is back right to where it started! If ever you’re thinking about getting a bonsai, please get a ficus for your first plant. They are nearly impossible to kill.

Sorry about the hiatus. After some thought I came to the conclusion that the tree would do best outdoors. Needless to say I was not disappointed. Look at these leaves! You would have thought that this tree was Mark McGuire the way it’s shooting up. These are the biggest leaves I’ve ever seen on the tree. The new container that my parents got me for my graduation present has really been a vast improvement from my original scheme of the red bowl. So now that I have done really well with this tree for the past 1 1/2 years, I am thinking of getting some of the juniper that is growing by the pool and training some of it to be another Bonsai. I’ll post a few more pictures of the juniper and see which portions of it would make a suitable candidate.

Alright, seriously, sorry for the hiatus, but there was a reason: College. 

But I think things will be better now that I am not an undergrad. Instead of just photos, I’ve decided to make short videos in addition to them, showing me pruning, repotting, and typically caring for my bonsai, which is outside for the summer, something that I’ve not been able to do before. This is all thanks to the fact that I will have a smartphone, where I can do all of this newfangled multimedia integrated stuff.

And if you’re wondering about my ficus, it’s alive and well. You’ll get to see it being repotted sometime this week into its new home, which should be great. See you then!

Hey everyone. I thought it would be preferable to start my blog again, and I’ve noticed that I’m getting more and more followers. The tree, thankfully, is still alive. I’ve decided to stop trimming the bonsai and just let the thing grow. There are just too many opportunities for the tree to grow in for me to screw it up. Later on this spring I’ll keep checking on how the tree’s doing weekly, seriously consistently this time, without there being too many distractions. At least now I have some relative free time on my hands to blog about this bonsai tree, and how much it has come to mean to me over the past year and a half that I’ve had it in my care.

It’s been a long time, but I’m back to blog some more. Sorry for the hiatus.

(Source: iburntrees)

(via iburntrees)

(via iburntrees)

(via iburntrees)

So beautiful.

These were just some of the books that I pored over this past summer for all things bonsai. I’ve included links to them on Amazon. I don’t own any of these titles, but I referenced them often when I could from my college’s library, and they’ve been a great help at getting me in the right mindset about bonsai.

The Secret Techniques of Bonsai: A Guide to Starting, Raising and Shaping Bonsai by Masakuni Kawasumi II with Masakuni Kawasumi III

This was a great book written by a master bonsaiist along with inserts and additions by his son, who is literally a bonsai tree doctor. The best thing about this book was not only that the authors were Japanese, but that the book was written for an international audience, and was overall very encouraging, and had great advice about pruning and various ways to think about the overall shape of the tree.

Bonsai Survival Manual: Tree-by-Tree Guide to Buying, Maintaining, and Problem Solving by Colin Lewis.

Another book that I looked through, this author is a Westerner who has studied in Japan about bonsai and has some great advice, both practical and sound. It was his advice on fertilizing that made me change from a liquid fertilizer to pellets as a better way to fertilize your bonsai, especially if you have a tendency to be inconsistent, like me, in feeding your trees at the right time.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Growing and Displaying Bonsai by Colin Lewis and Neil Sutherland.

Again with the Colin Lewis, he is great and practical, giving detailed examples of how he repots and telling the reader why he does certain things, but always with a tendency for saying that what he does is not the golden standard for bonsai, and that even though you might not have exactly the right tools, you can accomplish as much with not a lot.

Growing Bonsai Indoors  (Brooklyn Botanical Gardens All-Region Guide) by Pat Lucke Morris and Sigrun Wolf Sapphire

Wow, this book was a great introduction to bonsai indoors. This book is one that I had checked out on and off again last year primarily because it was practical and helpful to me in ways that I can’t even begin to explain. This book is a lifesaver. It shows the beginner how there are more and more possibilities for growing bonsai, and that basically any woody plant can be turned into a bonsai, even unusual ones that one might not initially consider, such as Rosemary. Great pictures and examples of what you can do, what kind of tools are ideal, and what you need to get started.

These were my primary sources of knowledge that I turned to when first starting out with my ficus. I found out that now I can really be secure and know what the tree needs, but really, that’s all up to the tree. I thought that if I placed my bonsai in soil that drained too fast, that it would easily dry up and interrupt the root growth, but after a month this is not the case. My bonsai is very happy in its soil, and I won’t change the mix unless it begins to act poorly. If there’s anything that these books taught me, its that when left to its own devices for periods of time, the bonsai will grow, and all you have to do is direct that growth in the best way that you possibly can, not force or impose a shape upon it that radically changes the structure of the tree.