Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about my bonsai collection. This is mainly because I've been neglecting the plants and they really need a lot of work.  While we were in Washington last week on vacation we saw a road sign pointing to the Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection. Since it was pretty close to Seatac Airport we had time to visit before our flight last Wednesday. What a wonderful place.

They currently have about 50 bonsai on display and every one is beautiful. It almost makes me discouraged considering the state of my own plants but I think I'm going to use this experience to inspire me to take better care of them.  Here are just a few.

To give you some perspective, none of the pots in the following photos are more that about 2-3 inches high, some are no more than an inch.

If this interests you at all, you can find the museum on the web here.

Staghorn Sumac

This tree started growing in 1976 and has been a bonsai since 1986. This is an unusual bonsai in that in that neither does it look like a natural tree, nor does it follow traditional bonsai forms.

Coast Redwood

Started in 1957 and made into a bonsai in 1967. In the wild, a coast redwood can grow to be almost 400 feet tall. This guy is about 2.5 feet tall.

Japanese Beech

Started in 1953 and made into a bonsai in 1957. These trees grow on the slopes of Mt. Fuji and generally don't make good bonsai subjects because they grow very slowly.

Trident Maple

Started in 1945 and made into a bonsai in 1950, this is called the "root-over-rock' style. The plant is started in a deep pot to get long roots, then it is dug up, the roots washed and draped over a suitable rock and wired on. I have one such style in my collection that I developed myself. It is my favorite bonsai.

Japanese Maple

It's hard to believe but there are 59 separate trees in this pot, all propagated from the same plant. The 10 largest were from cuttings in 1970. The rest were grown from seeds starting in 1980. Click to enlarge and you'll see multiple trunks in the leaves.

Chinese Elm

This is from 1985. It is meant to mimic a rocky shore line. This is actually the Chinese version of bonsai, called penjing.

Tucker Oak

Some of these plants came from nursery stock, but many were collected from the wild. This tree, which started growing in 1840, was made into a bonsai in 1940. It was already a dwarf due to the harsh conditions where it was growing. Most of the trunk is dead, there is just a thin layer of living wood (on the left side) which supports the crown.

Chinese hackberry

 This is another example of "found" material. The original tree had sprouted in the artist's yard and eventually got tall enough that it started damaging his roof. He cut it down but found interest in the 4 inch stump he left behind. 50 years later and you have this.

Dwarf Schefflera

My first bonsai, a gift from my wife and daughter over 10 years ago is a shefflera. You may know it as an umbrella tree. Mine is getting kind of leggy and sparse of leaves but so is this one and it's in a museum! This bonsai is 35 years old.

Oleander Bonsai

I haven't posted a bonsai photo in awhile.  One of my retirement plans is to spend more time with my bonsai plants. They do not thrive well in neglect.

In late 2008, I got the idea to try and produce an oleander bonsai. My reasoning was that they grow pretty quickly and in no time I'd have something. Here in Texas, oleanders are evergreen, and have flowers from early spring into late summer. I took a cutting from one of the plants in my back yard and got it to root. Then I planted it in a small pot. Here's what it looked line in February 2009.

This was pretty much how it looked when I took the clipping. But there was some encouraging new growth near the base.

The whole plant looked kinda goofy and I wasn't really sure what I could do about it.

Flash forward to today. All of the original greenery gradually died and it only grew two new branches, the one above and another which also died.  But that little branch above, has now, finally, produced buds, and a flower. The first flower in 5 years!

It may not look like much but I'm pretty excited about it. The art of bonsai is pretty much an exercise  in patience. I've been patiently tending this thing for 5 years and finally my reward.

Umbrella Tree Bonsai

I've been cultivating (and or killing) bonsai trees for about 6 years now. I've always taken lots of photos of the plants so I can see how they've changed over the years. The the first bonsai I have was a gift from my wife and daughter for my birthday in October 2006. Here are some photos to show how it has progressed (or regressed) over the years.

 

Here's the first photo I took of it in May of 2007. It was pretty bushy with large dark green leaves.

 

This is in March of 2008. I'd done some trimming but it's still pretty bushy but a bit more compact. It had been growing more on the right side and had looked very unbalanced.

Here it is in November of 2008. This particular plant has always been kept inside on a window sill. One thing I was learning was that the plants have to be turned once in awhile to get it to grow in all directions. It had been sitting in one position too long and all the leaves were turned in one direction.

This is in October 2009. Another thing you have to do is pay a lot of attention. This is just sad, I'd been neglecting all the plants all summer. If you don't keep them water, they start to loose leaves. I was also suspecting some rood bounding problems. You're supposed to replant a tree like this every 2-3 years. This one had been in the pot since at least October 2006. I pulled it from the pot, trimmed back the roots and all the branches before repotting in the same pot.

Here it is again in October 2011, two years after the repotting. It's looking pretty good. I've also starting doing some landscaping at the base of the tree, adding some large and small stones and a plastic frog.

November 2012. Another year of semi-neglect has produced some character, although it looks rather bleak. I have rededicated myself to the hobby. I've got 4 inside plants and 4 outside plants which is a manageable number.

I've done a bit more landscaping and am really satisfied with the base now.

New Bonsai Plants

It's been awhile since I've done a post about my bonsai plants. I'm afraid they suffered horribly in the Texas drought last summer and a lost a couple of plants. But it's a new year and we've had plenty of rain so far. I bought 2 new plants to replace the ones I lost.

There is a very nice nursery near us called Maas Nursery. They've always had a few bonsai but they recently enlarged their offerings, which you can see behind me on the right. While we were there we bought some other stuff.

I've been wanting a Japanese Maple bonsai for a long time but never saw anything I could afford. This is a nice little one at a good price.  I added the gray stones. I like to put stones on top of the soil to keep the soil from eroding while watering.

This is called a Serrisa. It gets little white flowers but it has already bloomed. It needs some trimming.

The bench is looking a little lonely (note the empty pots on the right). The Japanese Maple is on a windowsill in the shade. The Texas sun will damage it. Next weekend I'm going to build a sun shade for the bench, something I should have done years ago.

Bonsai Saturday

I have been sadly neglecting my bonsai plants. The outdoor plants are doing well, as we've had a lot of rain recently. But the indoor plants need to be watered everyday and I've not been doing that. My wife got me a new juniper bonsai for my birthday this week so I'm taking this as an opportunity to get these indoor plants in shape. First, a photo of me with my new baby. Never in a million years could I make a bonsai plant that looks as nice as this.In addition to not watering them enough, I've got aphids in my indoor plants. I'm not sure how that happened. I have had them outside on occasion so I guess one of them got infested. Aphids are nasty pests. They are so small you can barely see them, and they excrete this sticky stuff that gets on everything. Below is my willow ficus which appears in the banner photo above. Every leaf it still has is sticky. After this photo, I cut off the rest of the leaves, cleaned up the pot (the sticky stuff is at least water soluble) and sprayed it for bugs.
Next is my umbrella tree bonsai. This was was a Christmas gift from my wife in 2004 and is what started me on my bonsai hobby. It's now over 5 years old (who knows when it was actually planted?) and overdue to be re-potted. I'm going to spare you what it looked like before this photo but it didn't look good. So in addition to re-potting it I've decided to trim it back and start over. Here it is in the pot ready for soil.
It was severely root-bound, which is probably another reason it didn't look too good. In addition to trimming off all the branches, I also took several inches of roots off. I really like the above ground root structure so I got a little creative with the stone placement.
One idea of bonsai is to make the plant look like it's a miniature tree growing in nature. So I've tried to make it look like the roots are growing over rocks. I'll be pretty happy with the look if it gets new leaves. As long as I water it every day and fertilize it once in awhile it should look pretty good in about a year.

Bonsai - Spring Review

A couple of times a year I like to take photos of my bonsai plants so I can keep a running record of how they change over time. Spring is usually one of the times I like to record. It's pretty early spring here in southeast Texas. We're starting to see days in the 70s but with some nights in the 40s.

Willow Ficus
You may recognize this from my banner. I acquired this as a 'starter bonsai' from a local nursery in February 2005, so it's one of my oldest plants. It is an indoor plant and survived the indoor dryness pretty well this year. For some reason, it's got a sticky residue on the leaves and branches. After the photo I cut off most of the leaves and branches with the goo. It will look even better when it grows back.

Umbrella Tree
This is my oldest plant. It was a Christmas gift from my wife and daughter in 2004. It too is an indoor plant. This is a very hearty plant and has never given me any trouble. It's 16" tall and requires constant trimming. It is starting to get root bound so I will re-pot it this year. I'm nervous about that but it's going to have to be done.

Silver Cloud Ficus
I bought a pot of these at Home Depot in Spring 2005. The pot had 7 plants in it. 4 of them went into this little pot, the other three went into a bigger pot. I've just let the others grow and they are now about 2 feet tall, while these 4 are about 9" tall. I learned much too late that planting an even number of plants is considered to be unlucky but these have grown very well for me. Another indoor plant that did well over the winter. The problem with indoor plants in the winter is that if you don't keep them well watered, they can dry out. This one and the willow both lost all their leaves after the previous winter.

Oleander
This is an experiment. I have no idea if oleander make good bonsai or not. Oleander grow fast so I thought it was worth a shot. It's been in the little pot since July 2006 and is an outdoor plant. Oleander are evergreen here in the winter. It's about 15" tall. It has not gotten any flowers since I potted it. I trimmed it back so it will get new growth.

Lemon Tree
This was originally a Father's Day gift from my oldest son's girlfriend (now wife) in 2003. Last summer I decided to turn it into a bonsai. Citrus tress do well as bonsai. You can see the bonsai process for this tree here. It lives outside and grew well over the winter. We did not get a frost this past winter, so it stayed evergreen. I'll be happy if it gets fruit this year but I don't expect it.

Juniper
This started life as a 2 1/2 foot high bush I bought at Home Depot. It's about 12" high now. I potted it in March 2007. I picked this particular bush because it has that big bend near the roots. I designed it so it looks like its growing out from under a big rock. The summer of 2007 was cruel to this plant as I couldn't seem to keep it watered enough. You can still see some of the brown needles as a result. But last year it rebounded well and has lots of new growth. It also lives outside. This one is tough to work on. Those needles are sharp!

Ivy
Another experiment. I saw an ivy bonsai in a book. We've got a prolific ivy plant on the kitchen windowsill so I took some cuttings. The pot is small, about 2 " square and a piece of quartz takes up most of the dirt surface. It was planted in January 2007. I trimmed it back after the photo. I'm trying to encourage the stem to get thick and woody like the one I saw in the book.

Japanese Maple

Last spring I bought a Japanese Maple tree to bonsai. I showed the process here. I didn't take a picture because it died over the winter. I left it inside which I think was a mistake. Hopefully I can find another tree this year to try again.

Crepe Myrtle
It doesn't look like much but it's alive. It is too early yet for this to bud. This is kept outdoors. I planted it in the summer of 2005. The crepe myrtles around here don't normally show signs of life until mid-March. I am planning to re-pot this as well. Unlike the umbrella tree, I've got this in too big a pot. This grew very well last summer but never got any flowers. More fertilizer this year, I think.

Brush Cherry
I acquired this already potted as a bonsai last summer from a bonsai dealer. It lives outside and is evergreen. It grew very well last summer. It is supposed to bloom in the spring so I'm hopeful. It's about 10" tall.

Bougainvillea
Another southern plant. I bought this as a 5' high vine on a trellis in a 2 gallon pot in July 2006. It's about 9" tall now. I learned something new about this plant recently. It has gotten many red flowers on it (you can see some at the end of the long branch on the right). If you look close you can see a main trunk going to the left, and a smaller trunk going to the right. This trunk now has light purple flowers on it. I believe I have two different plants in the pot. The leaves don't look too good as it isn't warm enough here in the winter for it to stay evergreen. I cut them off.

Banyan Ficus
I bought this in February 2005 as a bonsai plant from Home Depot. It was a bit of a rescue mission as the pot it was in was badly cracked. I had it in a regular clay pot for awhile but moved it to a real bonsai pot last summer. I have pretty much given up hope on trying to shape this into anything as it grows very fast. It normally stays inside but last summer I put all the plants outside while we were away for a week so a neighbor could take care of them. I left them outside for about a month total. This developed a lot of aerial roots during that time. I may move back it outside when it gets warmer.

Azelia
My very first attempt at making a bonsai in February 2005. I originally kept this inside but it never got any flowers. I put it outside last summer. It is an evergreen bush and did very well, and now it has flowers. I am thinking of transplanting this into a real bonsai pot soon. It's currently in a shallow clay pot.

Southeast Texas Snow

Here's something you don't see every day, snow in the Houston Texas area. 2 months ago we were suffering through Hurricane Ike, today, it's snow. It's been very cold all day here not getting out of the 30s. There was snow reported north of Houston. It started snowing here in League City at about 8:30 PM. Large, wet, heavy flakes. There was about an inch on the ground at 9:30 when we took these photos. This is the second time we've seen snow here, the last time was Christmas Eve in 2006. Before that, it had been 15 years since there was snow here. Global warming, indeed. This is our Empress palm tree in the back yard.
This is part of my bonsai bench. The plant with the red flowers is a bougainvillea. Its supposed to get the red leaves in the summer. After 2 years of no red, it chose this winter to bloom. The plants are up against the house and I don't expect the snow to hurt them.
Here is the front of our house. This is such a common place scene in many parts of the country but just flabbergasting here. I almost wish I had put out Christmas lights.
After last Christmas, my daughter and I decided to see how long we could keep the poinsettias alive. We've tried this once or twice before but they always succumb in the summer. But this year, we were successful. And they were even producing red leaves. Don't they look nice in the snow?

Bonsai - Lemon Tree

I've had this lemon tree for about 5 years. It was a Father's Day present from my oldest son's girlfriend. It has been growing in this plastic pot out on the back porch ever since. It's been pretty unruly but has had a lot of stamina. It gets 6-7 lemons a year, mostly about the size of marbles. This year it actually got two which approached the size of small lemons. Some thing had to be done, it couldn't stay in the pot much longer. So I decided to bonsai it.

Here it is after trimming. You can maybe see how root bound it is in the pot.
I was surprised to find out that there were actually 2 plants in the pot. Here they are after the preliminary root trimming. I'll had to do some more trimming before I could get it into the pot.
After potting. The soil is special bonsai soil I got on eBay. It's very dry. The soil doesn't allow much water to hold up in the pot. Root rot can be a problem for bonsai plants if you give them too much water.
I always like to put down a layer of small decorative stones on top of the soil. This serves two purposes. One, it looks nicer than the soil. It also protects the soil. It doesn't get too disturbed during watering and doesn't blow away when it gets dry.

Now for the patience part of bonsai. There isn't anything I can do now besides watering and feeding it to make it grow. It's either going to grow or not. I'd hate to lose this one since I've had the plant so long. This will be an outside bonsai. I think its a good time to start an outside plant down here as it isn't so hot as summer and the sun doesn't dry out the soil so much.

Bonsai - Ivy

In some bonsai book, I saw a photograph of a bonsai ivy. I wouldn't ordinarily think of an ivy being a candidate for bonsai but the the picture was intriguing. The 'trunk' of the plant was maybe a half an inch thick, and it looked like a long established ivy you might see growing up a wall.

We had an ivy in the kitchen which was there because we've got an ivy-themed kitchen. But the plant wasn't doing well. I moved it upstairs to my bonsai window and it thrived. So much so, I took some clippings which readily rooted in water. Here was the raw material for a bonsai. I planted the cuttings in February 2007. It did well but then the winter of 2007 struck. It was dry in the house and I wasn't paying as much attention to the plants as I should have. Here is what it looked like by March of 2008. Pretty sad. To give you a sense of scale, the pot is about 2 inches high. But in the world of bonsai, as in real life, rebirth is possible. I decided to trim off the dead leaves, give it some fertilizer, and see what happened. By July, it looked like this. It's a happy plant now.