AusBonsai

To everyone how gave me advice for my Azelia leaf browning problem thank you I have put a pic for you to see just how things have come along. The two trees on the far left side are the ones that had the brown leaf problem. thank you Sheba

doesnt look like you would be getting to much use out of that table for dinners...

nice stuff. have you thought about getting some more advanced stock and working it yourself???


jamie

I would love to Jamie, funds are a bit short at the moment but working on it. Could you give me some advice on what to do with my Juniper please. I really am just a beginner and dont know for sure what to do I have got some books but your trees are just amazing. Your girls put me to shame. Sheba

hey sheba

the only reason why the girls tree's look like they do is because they started with older stock than what you have (which the shimpaku that they have are still only young) to be honest with ya that juniper needs to go in a grow box or in the ground for a few years.. bout 10 will get it to a decent size. dont get me the wrong way, there is still work that needs to be done while in the ground but it needs to mostly be left to grow, and get some trunk size. if you go that way get yourself something with a bit more size to it.

like my twins trees, they were bought from a standard nursery, springvale garden centre on torbanlea rd. for $20 and that is what they have made with them. now the two trees could go into some nice smaller sized pots and look fine when with height to trunk thickness ratio. its about 7 times the height to 1 times the thickness of the trunk.

we look at a perspective of about 6-1 for bonsai but this isnt a dead set rule as you can see a lot of bonsai dont stick to this. some are 10-1, 12-1 or even more or others are smaller like the sumo style you see which can be 1-1 for example.

i hate to have to say things like this to new people but that is the perspective of things and i am sure you will understand this as not being an insult but trying to help

jamie

Gday Sheba, may i suggest that you raid every nursery near you, look for anything with trunk taper and nice root spread. Look in the bargin section too, old and neglected is sometimes good material. With normal nursery stock the roots are hard work but when you repot just cut the root mass in half the first time then it gets easier. If funds improve go to Tess at morayfield north of brisbane. Its only a few hours away in the right car...

Sheba.... start sweetening your friends with gardens. Look at all the bushes, trunks, try to find a nice solid one with movement and put the subtle pressure on. If your luck is like mine none of my friends with gardens had anything worthwhile but you never know. What Jamie is saying is quite right, if you crawl the garden centres, particularly at sale times, you can find something decent. If you have a local bonsai nursery check them out REGULARLY. At mine I can get good stock for under $20. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but then it's there. Your plants are really small trees in pots. You will do well to keep on this website and see what can be done with young nursery stock and start your own. Find a local bonsai club. My main club has two members that are getting into bonsai but have nothing... they come along and walk around and watch and listen and learn. Another lass brought a tree that someone gave her that had become overgrown and we styled it for her and gave her a lesson while the work was being done. Our tools were used so there was no expense there.

If you are keen on bonsai you have to get out of the mall-sai and into the real stuff and the best way is to do your own.

I note all the humidity trays and the enclosed porch. Bonsai are trees and need the outside air, sun, rain, wind. Part of your leaf browning could have been too much moisture and not enough real life. If you keep them inside the growth will become weak and spindly. You would do better to concentrate on one or two more substantial trees then accumulate a quantity of the pre-fab stuff.

And the bottom line is the fact that any hobby takes some outlay. If you run you need good quality shoes. If you play tennis you need a supply of balls, a good racket and court hire. If you cycle you need a helmet, a bike and blind luck not to be knocked off it by a driver. With bonsai you need some specialist tools and decent stock to make this a serious hobby. Better less with more than more with less.

Thank you all, yes I do understand what is being said and Jamie I am not offended with your explaination of what to do. As now I can look at my trees and realize some don't need to be there. Bunnings is a trip for me tommorrow. What do you mean by a grow pot, I have heard this mentioned a lot. sheba

A grow pot is shallower than a nursury pot. you can make it from wood, use polystyrine box from the shops, cut down standard pots in half, anything with good drainage and not too much depth. Why??? to develop horizontal root growth and also to thicken the trunk. Dont forget that the biggest pot isnt the best, go up in stages so the soil doesnt stay too wet around the sides etc.

Sheba, forget Bunnings. Do you have any rural nurseries in your area. Rural nurseries tend to have advanced stock that is advanced because it hasn't sold. You can often find something good in the throw out bin. Who cares if the foliage is ratty, burned or bug eaten.. you are going to remove most of it anyway. You are looking for a stout trunk with movement and character... the rest can be developed. Just be sure your selected tree shoots back on old wood. Start bigger, cut back and grow on. It will take you 5 years to develop one of your wee trees to something nice, it will take one to two years to work a cut down tree back up to a small bonsai.

Remember, in the words of John Hanby, English Bonsai Master, the additional money you spend on a good stock plant is buying time. You save yourself years of development by putting a bit more into a starting plant than buying small and cheap and giving up after awhile when they don't come to anything.

Hell, you're in Bundeberg... Matie go look for someone's bougainvillea, dig it up and cut it back hard. Planted in good soil it will soon develop roots and branches and you can learn bonsai while you are teaching your bougs to be a bonsai. You could also look for a bougs in a garden centre but you don't want a spindly bit and in Sydney it is $19 for a spindly bit. You can occasionally have luck and find one on sale that has a thicker trunk with movement. Don't worry about the branches... cut 'em off and grow your own. But the trunk is what you are after..... start snooping in gardens and vacant lots at bougs...