Bonsai Attempt

Although I think Bonsai trees are fascinating they really do require a lot of looking after...as the peeps on here who grow them, know only to well.

I think its a great hobby, but whom do you trust when you go on holiday? Unless you take them with you, which you could in this country of course.

I had a semi go with an Oak Tree. Planted the acorn in a 9" pot which restricted the roots..with the help of my secateurs.

Then one year, I was gigging and was away from home for 3 months. The neighbour who used to look after it for me was rushed into hospital. End result...one dead Oak Tree when I returned home. Even though it was outside.

So I decided to leave it and let mother nature look after my plants and tree's.

 

I'm a bonsai person and for years carted mine back and forth from England to Portugal ... as you rightly say tweaky, what do you do with them when you go on holiday but we were doing split-living 3-9 months, tthen 4-8, then 5-7 then full time here! They were carefully hidden in boxes. :rolleyes:

We do have a bbonsai centre here with specimens 400 years old who will take them when you are on holiday or care for them in their 'hosptial' if they are ailing ... how good is that? :thumb:

They do take a lot of looking after and I lost two of my oldest specimens due to neglect on my part. Mine live in an outdoor living room so air all the time but I must tend to them daily and they only get filtered sun. They are a lifetime hobby, passed on to someone responsible on your demise ....

None of mine have ever been indoors, in Bucks, the IoW and certainly not here.

I must say mine are all small ... my 14 year old Ivy only a few inches tall and the minutest of leaves ... but bonsai in both Japanese and Chinese means 'plant in a pot' so any tree/shrub we have in a pot is technically a bonsai

 

hi
theres a great article on the gardeners world site about taking large tree and pruning down to bonsai, i had a lovely little rowan tree once and i put it on the window ledge ,and it fell off and broke , i lived 6 storeys up :eek:

 

I haved seedlings of oaks,walnut and horse chestnut by the hundreds, I pull them like weeds, may be I can try a bonsai too!

 

Sounds like its time for another song from Tweaky.

Roy Orbison....I'm Falling..I'm Falling.

 

I'm no expert in bonsai but I think were getting two things confused here. The tiny specimens in seed tray like dishes are Mame Bonsai but as LOL says 'bonsai' means 'in pot'. The general idea is to restrict growth by root pruning, whether it be 5 inches tall or or five foot tall. The art in Bonsai is to make the plant look as natural as possible whilst restricting it's overall size.
I think :o

 

We have a couple of 'Bonsai' trees one of which was grown from a 'conker' and is now over 25 years old and has lived outside in a small pot for it's whole life - just 18 inches tall it looks great.
By the by; we had a talk at our local gardening club about the Japanese hobby of 'bonsai' chrysanthemums which are not grown small but are shaped around rock formations which they are encouraged to cling to - quite fascinating. I have an article about these if anyone is interested.

 

Yes please, chobart. Could you post a link?

 

"chrysanthemums which are not grown small but are shaped around rock formations which they are encouraged to cling to"

I remember seeing Chrysants in Japan which were trained to look like a rock. Never figured out how they did it ...

A bit like this: http://gojapan.about.com/library/photo/blnature_kiku3.htm

 

Wow, they are weird looking. Why would you train a chrysanthemums to look like a rock, not enough rocks?