Hey guys, i have not actually introduced myself yet although i have been a member of this site for a while now.

My name is Jonathan Cohen i am from Cape Town, South Africa. I have been doing bonsai for just over a year now. I am 19 years of age my birthday is in July. I got introduced to Bonsai from my cousin Justin who i have persuaded to join Bonsai Empire as he has been doing Bonsai for about 3 years now. He is very knowledgeable and has loads of magnificent trees. He gave me a chinese elm tree which i unfortunately killed, well my mom did because when i was travelling europe she left it in 29 degrees celcius weather in the heart of summer in Cape Town with barely any water. LOL but i did do stupid things like fertilize it at the wrong times etc. Oh well im drifting off the point here..

I practise bonsai with two friends and my friends father too and he is a large inspiration to me as he has an amazing EN, he is more interested in Mame Bonsai. I learn more and more everyday from reading great articles and sharing information on this site. I need to get myself a decent camera though because i want to show you guys my trees. I currently have the following trees in my collection:

Wild Olive (Olea) yamadori
Chinese Maple
Juniper (Cascade style)
Serissa (Chinese Snow Rose) This one i am going to make a Mame style
A bunch of olive cuttings
An Acacia
A Crassula (Think thats how you spell it)
A lavender bush that has lovely deadwood and taper to the trunk. stolen from my mother
Will be getting a Ficus soon that i will do root over rock style with

I am seriously going to stock up now on cuttings and young saplings because growing season is around the corner here in S.A. EXCITED TO SAY THE LEAST. BOOM!

Hi Joncoh101!

Glad you could join us on the forum. Thanks so much for gathering recruits. Ahhh, now I see where part of your username comes from...very cool. You have a very nice collection of trees...I look forward to seeing photos of them. The photos you took of your Olive with your cell phone turned out quite good, really. And you've traveled Europe already!!! What an enriching experience.

You are so fortunate to have friends who are also bonsai enthusiasts living near to you to share and support each other.

I very much appreciate your input here on the forum and your excitement is definitely shared. See you round on the forum!

Leslie

JoanieOaks wrote: I'm currently cold stratifying 11 Juniperus Chinensis seeds and am patiently looking forward to my Bonsai experiences in the years to come! I believe that it's important to start completely at the beginning and learn from the mistakes along the way - and will look at getting a pre-grown tree to practise wiring and other techniques along the way.

Hey John,

Welcome here. How is wolverhampton? Are you having as bad a summer as we here on the mainland?

I was surprised to hear you are cold stratifying right now. I have some 100 seeds sitting on a shelf in my study. I decided I will plant them end of September, and let nuature do it's thing. It will be cold-stratified by itseklf, and when nature starts life again, it is time for the seeds to show their faces.

How are you planning on going about this? Not worried about winter hitting young seedlings?

Hey Jonathan,

Nice to se eyou active here. I was very impressed to see you get wild olive trees. Now, knowing you are from the cape, I am even more jeaulous. I used to work in Kruger NP, and made some visits to Cape Town. You live in a *very* nice part of the world. When go and visit friends there, I'll let you know and pop by to see the olive in real..

Good to have some friend around on the same hobby. It helps tremendously when you can discuss the route to take while looking at the tree.

Thanks for your feedback guys, leslie it is a pleasure to get recruits it will just make this forum even more of a pleasant place to share information! As for the photos i am trying to find the time for my friend to get some really nice photos of my trees, school is hectic as i am in my final year of high school so maybe i can get photos this weekend.

Leatherback if you are in Cape Town definately drop me a message and we can go to the local nursaries like Bishopsford in Hout Bay and Rudi Adams' nursery in Durbanville and you can meet the fellow Bonsai enthusiasts!

Hello people,
My name is Milica and I'm from Montenegro. I like bonsai very much and I would like to start doing it so I'm a very beginner here :blush:
I'll be very glad to share information with you as I gain experience
That's all from me for now

Hi Milica,

Good to see you on board.

Are you new to Bonsai, or new to growing plants? One of the big challenges is taking care of the plant appropriately. It is more dificult than keeping a normal houseplant alive. If you have no experience growing plants at all, start off with some strong plants, such as ficus (indoors) or willow (outdoors) to get experience in what you can / cannot do to your plants. buy some cheap nursery stock as this will have a good steady rootball and will be easiest to keep alive in a pot.

I have some experience in growing plants, mostly houseplants, my geandad taught me some things... I have tried growing a houseplant from a cutting but not for bosai, now I would like to start doing it
I hope I will find more useful advice here and that I'll be in position to give some as I gain experience

Hello again, Milica,

So glad you found us and came on board!

I am quite new to the art of Bonsai (only a month) however, by doing a lot of research here on the Empire's site and asking questions on the forum you will be surprised at how quickly you pick up a lot of valuable information. Members will often share a link to another site that has additional information to help with answering your questions. You will do just fine! I look forward to seeing your posts and photos as you begin this wonderful journey into the art of Bonsai.

Leslie

Hi Milica, good to have you here! Once you begin with bonsai, you'll never stop with it, haha. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask it, everyone has begun with it

Good luck, see you on the forum!