Ficus Benjamina : Shohin Weeping Bunjin

[ Ficus Benjamina : Shohin Weeping Bunjin - Part I  ]

Follow up on this ficus benjamina,
The tree was starting to grow into the wires on the thinner branches and I decided it was not safe to keep it any further.
My main concern was on several adventitious buds that were starting to appear only to dry off after some days.
Since the wires on the trunk was mainly for anchoring purposes, I also removed them in the same process.





After roughtly one month, the tree started to revert back. The branches were slowly moving up. I decided it was time to rewire the plant and also re-pot in a bigger training pot.
Its best to rewire and do any major work on your plant BEFORE re-potting it.
The main reason being that before the re-potting the plant is more stable.
After a re-potting session, the soil is usually loose and the plant more prone to moving while you wire and bend the branches.
A moving tree = moving root ball = feeder roots breaking = NO GOOD.



Before wiring


After wiring

Some closeup of the wiring [ before / after ]:









After the wiring I went ahead and re-potted the tree.
Same old routine:
> Keep the feeder roots close to the base of the trunk/nebari
> Remove all thick lateral roots, this should also encourage the formation of new feeder roots.

DIY : Miniature moss garden

Was just fooling around, making a miniature moss scenery.

 

Now all it needs it some time to grow more moss all about.

Walter Pall : Field maple, Acer campestre progression

Beautiful picture progression of a Field maple, Acer campestre by Walter Pall

Full progression here : http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/2013/11/field-maple-3.html

Before - collected in Austria in 1995, first image of 1996 :

After - pot by Derek Aspinall. :

Full progression here : http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/2013/11/field-maple-3.html

Sergio Martínez's Yamadori Techniques

Interesting article from Sergio Martínez on Yamadori : http://cartagenabonsai.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/yamadori-techniques.html

Yamadori from the japanese "Yama" (mountain) and "Tori" (to take)  literally means "Taken from the Mountain" is a term used to describe that this bonsai was originally "collected" from nature and shaped into a bonsai.

Its a controversial subject among bonsaika, but I won't go into that debate in this post.
Collecting established trees / shrubs to turn into bonsai is made into a "joke" and "light thing" in some youtube videos and often its the "fun and excitement" in the "hunt for the material" that highlighted.

This article Yamadori Techniques from Sergio Martínez puts it all back into its proper context : The health of the tree and increasing its chances for survival.

The original article Tecnicas de Yamadori is in Spanish, and the english version Yamadori Techniques seems to have been translated, so even if there are some sentences with a bad grammatical structure, the meaning being conveyed is still understandable. So please take the meaning being conveyed and not the grammatical errors that you might see.

Full article here : http://cartagenabonsai.blogspot.com.es/2013/11/yamadori-techniques.html

Bonsai Lovers wins Eagle Entrepreneur Award 2013

The Eagle Entrepreneur Award was launched on Monday 7 October. This contest aims to promote business projects of young entrepreneurs Rodrigues and Mauritius.
The competition organized by the group Synergy Youth aims to help youth reach their dreams. Jessen Marden , president of Synergy Youth says "We want to boost youth. Many have plenty of ideas , but do not know how to materialize and Synergy Youth wants to give them a platform to present their project ."

Its with great pleasure that I wish Yajay Goindo congratulations on winning the 1st Prize for this competition.
Yajay Goindo's winning project is a bonsai oriented business called "Bonsai Lovers".
Bonsai Lovers will aim at creating bonsai and selling bonsai in Mauritius and why not Internationally in the long run?

This was featured in yesterday's evening news.

The facebook page for Bonsai Lovers : https://www.facebook.com/BonsaiMauritius

To showcase and promote the business, Bonsai Lovers is launching an event on the 21st and 22nd December 2013.
Location will be at Beaux-Songes, Bambous from 9 to 17
Here's the poster below.

Summer is finally in!

Summer is finally in!
Its slightly late, but still in time to start working on your trees, pre-bonsai and bonsai.
Seeds are sprouting, buds are swelling, trunks are growing, wires needs to be checked :)

Quick list of activities you can start to do :

• start re-potting your bonsai
• start to plant some seeds
• check on your wires or wire your trees
• start some air-layers
• take some cuttings
• balance buds and shoot growth

Little warning : Its Summer here in Mauritius in November, but Autumn or Winter elsewhere. So if its going to be freezing for you, don't start re-potting or working with roots or start making air-layers if its not the right time for you. What's important is the season, not the calendar month!
.
With that said, here's some the stuffs I've been doing over the last weeks:

Sowing Ambrevatte seeds - Sowed 3 weeks ago

I've been trying to find a bonsai suitable nursery plant for some time now without much luck.
Finally managed to get hold of a pot and some random seeds on the road and decided to sow them.
Out of six seeds collected only two sprouted.







There's still a long way to go before it turns into a bonsai, but that's still a first step/.

Lantana Camara [ Vieille Fille ] - Starting to work on the roots and preparing nebari structures.

Acquired at Medine Nursery last september when it was having its discount week.
The plant is not yet bonsai material with all those lateral roots and tap roots, but  now's the time to start working on the roots and preparing the future nebari.

Ficus benjamina - rewiring, repotting.

Third wiring session for this Ficus benjamina. I also placed it in a larger training pot to encourage more growth, the bonsai pot can wait, right now it needs to bulk up.

Shaping a Juniperus sapling.

This little guy's trunk is starting to harden off but its just flexible enough to get some tight bends in it without snapping off.