Dawn
I received a surprise gift from a friend who knows me well. A gift without any fancy wrappings waited at my door step a few days ago. It was a bonsai which has been poorly maintained but one with a lot of potential. When I laid my eyes on it my heart missed a beat, this was something I have been itching to work on and even offered to do it for free when I first saw it at my friend’s place. This is a tree with a double trunk.
I had to start right from the roots. The soil was in poor condition. I had to completely remove and replace the soil. I also had to untangle the beautiful roots and lay them out well ( root training) to give the tree a majestic aged look.
The branches were a tangled mess. The bonsai looked like a overgrown forest. Sadly there were only three branches i could save. the others had grown weirdly and did nothing to the look of the tree. After a few hours of work the tree does look better. But it needs to get back its strength and grow in a way it looks like a tree in tray (bonsai) and not like mess.
Working on my bonsai was so much fun that I forgot the passage of time. With a little training and a lot of love I will hopefully preset to you a beautiful bonsai, though it may take a few months to a year. Training to me is just clip and grow, I hate the use of wires and clamps. This method takes longer but works well too.
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Question of
Do you like bonsai?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Would you like to have one in your garden?
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Yes
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No
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I love bonsais, but they seem to require a lot of work
They do require a lot of work and patience.
Takes a lot of patience I am told but would like to have one.
That is so true Carol, but it will be worth the effort .
I want decorative in a pot
Yeah, I understand. I checked out some pots yesterday and man are they expensive. Right now I will go with this and probably paint it in a metallic blue or green
I hope the work was not in vain and that bosai would work fine for you, dear Dawn …. they only sell small bonsai for us in the apartment …. I would freeze outside
I understand , you would have to have a green house or bring it indoors in winter.
With us you get small bonsai that you can have in a smaller pot and on the table
That looks like a lot of hard work. I think they are lovely and I cannot grow anything.
I would call it labor of love. That is okay you maybe good at other things.
My husband says I shouldn’t even look at a plant, because I am toxic to them!
I look forward to seeing how its recovery evolves!
I am super excited too to see how it will turn out, i do have a shape in mind but nature takes the call first.
What a lovely gift to receive. I am sure you can restore the bonsai though and make it look beautiful again.
It is a special gift to me since I love bonsai. I really hope to make it look amazing.
this requires someone with as much talent as you have, not what I have! I hope you will share the progress of this beautiful art!
I don’t know about talent, but I have the patience to work on this for a long time to come. I will surely be posting some pictures here. Thanks Doc.
it is a talent, you have to see what isn’t there!
That is true right now its just roots and three branches but I have envisioned how the tree would look in the future. However nature makes the greater decisions,
the gardener must listen to nature!
Well said Doc, We need to make nature our friend.