Spring is here in the Southern Hemi!

I started the art of bonsai at the end of last year and have made a personal mission of acquiring trees to work with. Here is an update of some of my trees soon after their first repot.

oh yeah..
1) crassula
2)willow
3 willow
4) cotonester
5) unknown? Mystery tree (looks pretty cool)
6) ficus
7) mirror tree
8-10) Juniper Chinensis, (got given this guy from a friend)

if you have willows in your area you can cut big branches off and they root well. i have one in my backyard that i am training branches to cut next spring

the unknown srub looks like a rose of sharon. srubby tree,nice flowers and they are good for root over rock plantings the roots get long fast

i like the start of the cottonester should form into a nice shohin/mame size

Yeah I do have some in my area, thing is I don't think anyone would be happy with me cutting a big branch off. Rose of sharon? That sounds awesome, I would be pretty stocked if its a flowering tree. The leaves are slightly hairy if that helps. I just looked it up, is is rose of sharon a type of hibiscus, if so then I don't think this is one. Yeah, i thought i might have killed it when it dropped its leaves after the repot, but is budding nicely now

Great trees, lovely pots also!

Tnx youri, I spent the year gathering pots, and it was so great to finaly pot them up in bonsai pots, although i don't consider any of the trees bonsai yet. The on willow pot with detail drawing on was brought in Italy when I was on holiday, it just needs a nice tree to go in it.

manofthetrees wrote:

if you have willows in your area you can cut big branches off and they root well. i have one in my backyard that i am training branches to cut next spring

Last weekend I took a bunch of ficus and willow cuttings, will post progression pics sometime one some of them start rooting, I used a pretty interesting method Im sure lots of people would be interested in, just have to see if it works as well as its said to.

If it doesn't: I did a bunch of willows this summer: Had a big tub of water. Placed the cuttings in very coarse medium (Split, gravel etc). Then placed the pots with cuttings in the sub with water. As soon as roots started to appear just above the gravel, I started reducing the water level a few cm every day untill the pots were completely out of the water. Worked a charm.

Interesting, it should work the same to just water often right? I brought a mix from the nursery called rooting mix haha, looked pretty good, its pretty much just river sand mixed with potting soil.

Yes it will be the same. HOwever, as they are already in a substrate, you don't have to have the plants re-root in a different medium. Effectively, you give them lots of moisture, but have the roots settle down in the substrate from day 1. It worked wonders for me.