2 Berberis thunbergii pre-bonsai's

Here are two barberrys that I found after looking through many over the years. I could never find material with single trunks. Most shrubs you find at these establishments have multi stem trunks. Although fine in a landscape, it doesn't work so well when it comes to bonsai.

Barberry 1

Barberry 1

Barberry 1

I forgot to take a picture of the work but here is the tree now cutback and in a bonsai pot. Still not a bonsai yet. 

The second barberry has amazing nebari also still no work has been done to this one yet. But it needs a repotting bad. I'm guessing both have these have been in these gallon pots for atleast 3 years maybe longer.

Barberry 2

Barberry 2

Barberry 2

The roots are amazing check them out!

This one I decided to put in the same gallon pot it was in but cut the pot to less then half. Here is the tree now.

3 Hedera Helix

Here are three Hedera Helix that were given to me by my great aunt. They were all planted in a hanging pot for more then 10+ years maybe even longer. When I received it I seperated them into 3 trees. The roots on two of them have a lot of nice nebari. The other stick like one is basically a cutting. all these trees still need major branch selecting and wire. Shout out to Hugo this ones for you bro.

Euonymus alatus pre-bonsai

This plant has been trained from a 5 dollar nursery plant. Still needs some wiring, pruning, and final branch selection. That will be done next season once it gets acclimated to the pot.

The pot which is even more exciting is from my great grandfather Paul Horiuchi who was a famous Japanese/American rice paper artist. He loved nature and trees which trait I think carried over to me. Hope you love the post. 

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