My 3 Hemlock yamadori

I am very proud of these trees, great find. I love that these trees are almost a bonsai. They just need a little more refinement after they are fully recovered and growing vigourously. Here are 3 youtube videos I made for the hemlocks.

Bonsai doesn't have to cost money. Just time.

Bonsai does not have to cost one money. I really needed a turntable for my trees so I could start styling. I now have over 200 trees. Atleast 20-30 of them can start to have their first styling..

So I got the idea to make my own bonsai turntable from an old computer chair, thanks to the other bonsai blogs around the net. 

I took a computer chair, disassembled it just to use the spinning mechanism.

Screwed on a piece of scrap wood.

Spray painted the wood with outdoor spray to make it look somewhat decent.

The free turntable in all of it's glory with its first client.

Azalea meet turntable. Side 1

Side 2

Side 3

Side 4

Oh yea that's my yamadori azalea. All it costs was my time. I love Bonsai. 

One day, Bonsai and I will be one

Mugo Pine yamadori

Ok folks I have collected my first big yamadori Mugo Pine. Here is a picture of the Mugo before collection.

Now I'm not out of the clear yet. With a little research through Startpage.com(google alternative) and reading through bonsainut.com forums I have learned pines or conifers for that matter. Take up to 1-3 years to recover from being collected. It is a lot of stress on a conifers to take it from its environment and stick it in a pot. So when I got home I did not have a container or a pot to fit the tree in. So I had to make a container out of the materials I had. The container I made was mostly oak I believe.

After making the pot I drilled about 50-60 drainage holes. Plus extra holes to hold the pine from moving.

Potted up mugo pine. I left the rootball with original soil attached. I added 40% peat moss, 30% diatomite, 10% pumice, 20% perlite.

I made a video of the repotting on youtube.

mugo pine yamadori

Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis)

Beautiful little Hemlock I've had for a year now. It's promising I just don't know what can be done with it yet. These little conifers do not back bud unless they are ancient trees. These hemlock's love the shade with indirect sunlight. I found this plant growing a long tap root about 2.5 feet deep with some root around the trunk.

The eastern hemlock in a shallow pot.

The tree was growing from a composted  stump.

Boxwood hedge

Here is a korean boxwood on my back porch that has been here since I've moved in. Ugly little hedge isn't it. I was looking within the tree itself and it is so overgrown I don't even know where the trunk is.

Taken right after I pulled from ground and potted it up.

Pruned and already growing.

When I Take a tree/plant out of the ground. I will replant more of the cuttings from the tree I just removed. Dab the end with rooting hormone and replant back in the soil, add a little bit of my 100% diatomaceous earth aggregate back in with the soil. 

Cotoneaster Yamadori

This is a yamadori I got from a groundcover. It does need a lot of work that still needs to be done. Enjoy.

Time for some pruning and wiring.

Pruned up, side 1

Pruned, side 2

After pruning I grabbed some aluminum wire and post-it notes to protect the tree from wire damage.  Then quickly wired up the tree to pull some of the branches down to let some light in on the trunk for ramification.

Wired, side 2

Wired, side 3

Wired, side 4

Wired , side 5

Wired top view

Well that's it for now. This is nowhere near even a pre-bonsai but it's on it's way. Please leave comments, I would like to hear from my fellow viewers.