section of our blog………….no one even posts anything for me to make a wise guy comment……………sigh………………I’m not even gonna tell them about our spider mites…………lets keep them guessing. Congrats on having your Dwarf Crepe Myrtle selected for the exhibit…………..it’s killer bad…………rj
For those that did not see the report on Bonsai that was on the CBS Morning show this week.
Bought a nice salicaria ficus at Jim Smiths. Nice nebari… a real beast to root prune…………………but worth it. Here is a picture from the front.
Here it is rotated 90 degrees and then from the same side after cutting off the short, thick back branch.
Here’s the tree wired and in the pot after removing most of the top.
That was fun….bet it looks really good in two years. rick
It should be up and running again in a few weeks. Bear with us. rj
I’ve been asked to fill in for Paul P at the Morse Museum in Winter Park this Friday night. Access to the museum is free (check their webpage, I think it’s open from 4 until 
and the Tiffany Glass artwork there is amazing. I will be in the pavilion with a small bonsai presentation from 6 to 7:45 PM. Mostly a question and answer session with some visual aids. I’m at Epcot all day so maybe by 7PM I will know a bit what I’m talking about. Should be fun. rick
Often, I find that I am unable to glean the information I need from the internet. I am sure most of this is there……..finding and accessing it seems to sometimes be problematic. Do you think we should add a section on our webpage or maybe just start a blog, where we can develop a species specific care/maintenance calendar for Ag Zone 9a. Obviously, Alan does a calendar section for our webpage but I’m wondering if we could provide more detail. Please refer me to your resource…. if I’m trying to reinvent the wheel. I would love to have all this info available without doing a bunch of research (although finding this info on my own would probably help with my retention). I’m really hoping we could create something built on our experience. Having someone from New York telling me when I can hard style and wire trident maples is not the info I think we need. I need Adam to confirm that “collecting ilex shilling can be successful into the first week of May” or Paul confirming that “blue alps juniper can flourish inside a pool enclosure provided the sunlight they receive is only shaded by the screen and nothing else” or Mike Rogers telling me anything………….as I would believe him. If we could get Mike on line, he would be editing all the misinformation. Paul could develop the site “Bonsaipedia” where only trusted bonsai folks from say zone 8 thru 10 could post.
I would hope to include the following information but I’m sure there are other tidbits of info that some of you would want. This would be a work in progress.
Repotting/hard root pruning……….(this would probably include collecting)
This would include best times and “never” times, how much?, corresponding
foliage removal and after care. ex.- Don’t fertilize until you see new growth, place in the shade for two weeks…etc.
Hard pruning/styling…………best times, worse times, never times
Wiring – best times….. “bending characteristics” (ex. Bougainvillea – once limbs have
hardened up they become fairly rigid and can easily be broken)
Defoliating – best times, never times………..how much at one time?
Pests – specific problem pests and different ways of eradication.
Ex.- natural – lady bugs, picking, water stream
contact insecticide – proven safe for species
systemic insecticide – safe for species
Disease – tendencies and prevention/care (ex. Root rot, fungus, sooty mold….etc)
Root rot – immediately remove soft, damaged roots and repot with well draining
Fungicide – baking soda, garlic, safer, neem, benemyl
Preferred Soil – well draining – maybe on a scale of 1 to 10
Ex. (natal plum/juniper is a 2 – cypress is an
Maybe a couple of mixes that work in different micro-climates and specific irrigation techniques.
ex. 1/3 turface, 1/3 sifted pine bark, 1/3 colorado red lava rock
1/3 pumice, 2/3 colorado red lava rock
½ lava rock, 1/8 pumice, 1/8 Texas grit, 1/8 haydite, 1/8 blasting sand
Preferred sunlight intensity
Temperature range
Thanks, Rick J
It was a great workshop! Very nice trees and the results were awesome. We had huge boungainvilleas, ficus retusa, ficus nerifolia, dwarf crepe mirtle, podocarpus, etc, etc
Below some of the pictures to give a hint of the night.
To see the final results come to the club meetings….
Boy…..those two sure are nice! I really like the way Erik talks you through his design ideas. He has “the talent” and his ability to communicate seperates him from some of our other guests. I think our newest members Denise, Jimmy, Steve and Dianne were lucky to have Erik explain the basics……………… We should have suggested that Dianne and Jimmy take a before and after picture…………..I believe Denise took photo’s of her ficus. You can learn much from before and after pics. I’m getting better at documentating with photo’s. Next time we have a rainy day I may post a few. Check out Paul’s website. OrlandoBonsai.com and see what an excellent job he does, documenting all his different tree progressions. It helps that he is a professional photographer/brewer/techie/diaza’ier/eaglescout/ treasurer…………..his talents are starting to irritate me. rj
Some members from the Central Florida Bonsai Club went to Jim Smith’s nursery in Vero Beach this past Sunday. Betsy and I drove together. As usual, Betsy’s only job was to make sure I do not buy any plants, however once again she failed! I puchased a couple of Ficus and 3 junipers. Two of the junipers are P. Nana. They looked like the usual nanas…ones that could make nice cacades.
Some of our club members have been taking the S shaped Chinese elms and reducing the height considerably and making them into nice shohin or even mame sizes. So that gave me the idea to think out of the box and look at this tree differently. As I began to look at it I noticed something a little different on the back of the tree. Instead of making a cascade out of it I decided to cut off both cascade branches turn it around and make an informal shoin/mame with a nice size trunk, good taper, and complete with jins! So what do you think? Was it the right decision?
The needles even make it look like a Shimpaku. Please ignore the bunjin pot, it was the only appropriate size I had available.
Several club members spent some time at Jim’s today. Betsy, Alan, Paul, Mike L and David V. David met a friend that drove up from Ft. Lauderdale. I arrived around 10:30 (after the early birds, Paul, Betsy and Alan) and left around 4…………..Jim had to basically ask Lebanik and I to hit the road. Fascinating place. Here are two pics. Enjoy, I did!
