Hey guys and gals,

 

You may have noticed I haven’t posted in a couple of months. There’s a good reason for that: I no longer have any trees. Over the past few months I’ve slowly been selling off my collection, partially due to a lack of interest, and partially because of a lack of time to care for the trees. Mites were savage and relentless, and I just watched my trees yellow and fall apart. So I ended up selling them to a couple of local hobbyists who still have that “bonsai passion.”

 

Fear not, for my love of growing trees is still alive and strong. Instead of growing Ficus bonsai, I’m considering growing Ficus FOR bonsai. My idea is to start growing seeds again, the very thing that got me into the hobby in the first place. What I’d like to do is grow the harder to find species such as ingens, virens, and some others, from seed with the specific purpose of using for bonsai later down the road. Meaning once the seeds sprout and have grown a bit, I’d wire movement into them and do rootwork that will give them great futures as bonsai. I’d then sell them to those who love to grow Ficus.

 

What say you? Would you be interested in this?

 

 

Ryan

After a short, several month break, I’m diving headfirst back into the hobby. There are two trees that I kept, but sold every other one. Those two trees are a Ficus I grew from seed, and a Ficus obliqua that I received from Jerry Meislik.

Both trees were placed next to the dining room window. The obliqua dropped all of its leaves and went dormant, and the seed grown Ficus began to sulk and drop in quality. The leaves began to weep, which I learned is a sign that the tree got too hot, too cold, or the roots are rotting:

See the sad looking, drooping leaves? I took this picture today, and the tree was repotted a couple of days ago. It used to be in a poor, packed soil that was staying far too wet. It’s now in a mixture of pumice, lava rock, and pine bark. 

Now onto the obliqua. This guy has been dormant for about a month or two. It’s still alive, because a gentle scratch to the trunk revealed green underneath. 

Those little branches are still pliable, a sign that there’s still life in them. 

Both trees went into my signature PVC greenhouse setup to recover. 

I figure if I can get them to recover, it’ll show that I’ve still got the ficus skills that I had, well, months ago.

Today I did a thing. I traded one large tree for one small tree. It may sound dumb, and looking at pictures it may just be dumb, but in the winter smaller trees are just easier to deal with. Less foliage means less lighting needed.

This is a tree I recently received, but realized was too big for me: 

It’s a gorgeous microcarpa, but in order to fit it inside under lights it’d have to be reduced by a lot. I also don’t feel I have the styling knowledge necessary to take it to the next level.

So today I visited a friend who owns a 700 acre farm down the road from me. He’s bought all my trees off of me over the past year or so, and he was willing to trade this guy. What did I trade for? A tree he had bought from me that I regretted selling to him a while back. This Shohin Willow Leaf:

It’s not in the best health right now because he’s had it indoors since he bought it from me, but I’ve got it outdoors where it should bounce back nicely. This is a fantastic little Shohin with a great future and I have missed it dearly.

It will also be much easier to handle indoors under lights. Stay tuned.

Hi everyone!

Has it really been 3 YEARS since I last made a post?! Wild. Since then I’ve gotten married, had a child, bought my first house with my wife, and fully jumped back into the bonsai hobby. Bonsai means a lot to me and is something that I truly love; it’s a part of me. It’s helped me through some hard times of my life, like when I had brain surgery. I remember repotting trees and visiting bonsai nurseries while I still had staples in the side of my head!

I made the mistake of selling my beautiful collection years ago, and have regretted it ever since. The trees went to a guy down the road from me, and I’m able to visit them whenever I want to, but it’s hard. The trees helped me get through some hard times and seeing them in another home is tough for me.

I’ve started to rebuild my collection over the past couple of years and I’m starting to feel OK with where I am headed. I’d still love the old trees one day, but I’m happy with where I’m going. I’m still growing my trees indoors in a big tent, but now I’ve got a backyard to play around with when the weather is warm enough!

All this to say, I’m back into the hobby and collecting trees at a fast rate. Check out just a few of them below, as well as a quick shot of them all tucked away in the tent!