Going out of business

Four seasons nursery on McTavish, just off the Pat Bay highway, is closing down. Her plants are 40% off.

Trees on sale

At cannor nursery next weekend - the 9th and 10th. 20% off everything in the store, both locations.

Bonsai Stock Alert

There are some nice pieces of stock - nebari and reasonable trunk girth - at:
Cannor Sears - they have some azaleas for $30. They are the variety "moon" something. They have white flowers with pink edges. The trunk girth is about 3/4 an inch or a little bigger.
Red Barn Market. There are some nice pieris in bin 11 out back. They could be worked as is - The variety I mean has a very dense crown already, but I did not look at the name. They could also be cut back. I cut back mine in the winter - back to a stump, and it is budding right now. They are about an inch in girth, and the crown is closer to the trunk then in some pieris. Unfortunately they are $40.
I consider both of these too expensive. However, I am one of the members who spends too much on trees. These are reasonable pieces of stock for their prices, but there are better deals for those who look.

Plant's Personality

Trees are individuals, just like people. And sometimes there are thousands of the same individual, for plants. This is not in reference to a tree's shape, or the history.
From a handful of japanese maples seeds I have maples with red bark and with green bark. I have leaves with very pronounced lobes, some like Canadian flag, others have 3 lobes instead of 5.
From another batch of seedlings, I have one tree which is very sensitive to dryness compared to its siblings. It will droop at the slightest provocation, though its growing conditions were identical (until I learned it was different). By the way - it is not more thirsty, it just wilts faster.

I am wondering how to incorprate such details into my bonsai.

Photography

I hate to show my friends pictures of my bonsai because they "WOW" in real life and they "uh" when I show pictures.

I have arranged for my photographer friend to teach me how to photograph my bonsai better. I don't thing composition is the problem. It is depth and color and background contrast that I have the most trouble with. With many of my pictures of my bosai, it is hard to tell the difference between the bonsai and the shrubs in the backyard. But even with a solid backdrop I find the back branches 'vanish.' Part of bonsai is the 3-dimensionality, something the 2-D picture steals away somehow.

Nursery Opening!

Cannor Nursery opened today. I am not sure what else is open yet, but it cannot be long for all the nurseries to be open. That means new stock!
But what happened to me today was wonderful. I walked in and the nursery employee said to me - "Here is my damaged, discounted, over wintered stock."
The Escallonia I was offered was well zig zagged, it had aged looking bark, and it was 60% off. So was the other one I found in the pile of last years stock. The only branches which had broken off were the larger, longer branches that would have had to have been pruned off any way.
Over wintered, and what that means:
The nurseries price by pot size. They pot things up to larger pots in spring, like bonsai artists repot then. In spring, one is usually purchasing the smallest product for the highest price. Now, after a year in that pot, we know the plant is healthy; as well as it has grown, in someone else's yard, as well as in girth. So now we have a larger plant for the same amount of money, in the over wintered plants.

Learning Bonsai

Oddly, there is no specific "beginning" when learning bonsai. I learned about bonsai with wild collected trees, meaning I had to learn to shape the tops of trees first; I had a trunk already and knew how to keep it alive. Others start from seed, so they must learn about trunk growing first. Still others purchase ready made bonsai and need to learn pruning techniques before anything else.

Workshops ($50-$80) start participants off with a tree, so they do not teach selection principles. They cover identifying the bonsai within the raw material, and how to make the tree like that. They do not cover how to care for the tree horticulturally. Nor do they teach how to refine a tree with the passage of time.

Bonsai is learned gradually; through trial and error; reading books; conversing with people of experience; and looking at bonsai trees. The Joshua Roth New Talent Competition considers "new talent" those with less then 10 years experience.

Grow a bonsai from seed kit

Grow your own bonsai from seed kits are ridiculous. This is because they give the impression that you can actually obtain a bonsai from seed quickly. The book which comes with the kit is very vague, an introduction to bonsai only. Seedlings don't need to be repotted, trimmed or wired.
What one needs to know about growing bonsai from seed is how to a) care for a seedling and b) develop good stock.
a) seedlings in crummy peat pellets are prone to drying out, or being drowned. This is because of the peat - it is either bone dry, or saturated. It doesn't spend much time slightly moist, what plants like. I suggest potting soil because people know how to keep plants alive in potting soil, or sand/gravel because the is what the seedling would want.
b) nebari and trunk girth are what is important about stock. The seedling has to be root trained by planting it on top of a flat surface, so its roots spread. Good nebari results in a greater trunk girth then a tree with poor nebari. But trunk girth is also obtained by unrestricted growth. This is why a bonsai from seed is a long term project.
Small bonsai from seed - 5 yrs
normal sized bonsai from seed - 12 yrs
large bonsai from seed - 18 yrs

A Way of Obtaining Bonsai

Today I found and collected a tree. Above ground it measures 2ft by 2ft.
You are right - now is not the time to replant. It will stress the tree unnecessarily.
But I didn't just repot the plant. I ripped it out of the ground and stuffed it in a plastic bag. Then I jammed it in my vehicle, and went to MacDonald's. After dinner, I knocked most of the soil off the root ball. Now I am going to leave it unpotted overnight, and do the dirty work tomorrow when it is light. Did I mention the tree has been mostly uprooted for almost three weeks prior, and was sitting in dry soil anyway? (I gave in and saved the poor sapling.)

I think the tree will be all right.
1) The tree is a boxwood. Boxwoods are quite hardy. Quite.
2) I am soaking the tree in water and B vitamins. The vitamin is supposed to increase water uptake, meaning the plant can rehydrate faster.
3) I will care for the plant. I will ensure it has proper food and watering. I will shelter it from the wind, yet give it sunlight. I will plant it in a soil which will nourish the roots.
4) I will not style it until it is healthy.
5) It is winter. In winter the tree is not very active. A dormant tree doesn't need much water, so the dry soil it was in wasn't a problem, nor is taking a long time to pot the plant.

Individual Bonsai Histories

Today I showed a friend the bonsai tree I have been working on for her. This is always a great experience. My friend and her family gushed about how lovely it was and how special they felt. I think the most exciting part was not the nice shape of the tree or the fabulous naturally sharied trunk. The most exciting part is the tree's history. I rescued this plant, species unknown, from the garden in front of my friend's workplace. It was planted on one side of a walkway but its partner on the other side had died. I plunked it in my garden as a plant-plant, but when I dug it up it clearly had a bonsai trunk. The plant budded back well, as well. My friend had since done wonderful things at that workplace and informed me that the plant and her started at that company at the same time - in the beginning, 12 years ago. I have had the plant for 5 years. I have been training it for 3 years and I have known I was going to give it to my friend for 2 years now. Today is the first time my friend saw it but she has known about it for about 6 months.
By the way, she gave me Christmas cookies.