Maybe a Better Shot?

Walking around in the forest again today, being more broad minded about the fact that larger trees can be removed at turned into successful bonsai with care and caution, we stumbled upon this:



Which after a little research and examining a nearby tree which COULD be the mother:




As it has similar leaves but of perhaps a mature nature, longer needles, but possibly not, as the specimen looks mature by now with leaves like this:



And younger branches near the top like this:



So after a little ID work online we fund a few possibilities:

• alligator juniper Cupressaceae Juniperus deppeana
• redberry juniper Cupressaceae Juniperus pinchotii
• eastern redcedar Cupressaceae Juniperus virginiana
• Atlantic white-cedar Cupressaceae Chamaecyparis
• Sawara-cedar Cupressaceae Chamaecyparis pisifera

But most likely a Juniperus species, particularly the Eastern Redcedar by the new growth, but not trunk colour, as it is typically pale, but who knows, could be looking at the wrong mother tree!

The specimen has a few issues, being that we need to put it into something portable, and that by doing that the roots that are well established may be too wide or too deep to put into a suitable pot for future Bonsai use.

In this picture here, root A looks as if it will point straight down, not suitable for Bonsai that need to be in shallower pots than the plant normally would grow to depths of, and root B I believe is growing much too wide, perhaps pruning them back to nothing would be the best bet, or just a trim to allow them to stay whilst growing in a pot:


However an awesome little root round the other side, root C, is nice and large for looks, yet stops abruptly and splits off into lots of root-hair roots!:


So the plan is to work out how to transplant the specimen into a pot that will restrict root growth and allow the plant to get comfortable for a year until next season perhaps, then go from there!

First Potential Bonsai-to-be Cont.

So after a bit of help from a great online bonsai community called 'Internet Bonsai Club', we discovered the, now confirmed to some degree, Sycamore/maple is not so suitable for bonsai, largely due to the fact that the process of making the foliage smaller can be very difficult, so on to new possibilities! The plant would be good for practicing bonsai techniques on, but we decided that we might as well practice on something that will hopefully become a bonsai one day as well.

After looking into it we decided to collect some older plants that have larger trunks to skip the waiting for the plant to grow itself process.

Our First Potential Bonsai-to-be

So today Dani and I were walking through the forest on our property, when we stumbled upon our first potential bonsai, which we believe to be a maple of some description, as the trees close to it would have to have sent out winged seeds in order for them to reach that far away from the mother trees, here's a picture of one of the the mother trees' leaves:



And here is a picture of the trunk of the mother tree, roughly a foot and a bit wide:



So yeah this is the expected mother of this little thing, which looks like it has had a hard life in it's short time, only probably a couple of years young:



It had a strong vertical (?) root pointing straigt down:

That we removed to hopefully promote more lateral growth, suited to bonsai pots in the future. We then put it in a trimmed down plastic pot of roughly 1 foot wide (30 cm) and 9 cm (3 1/2 inches) deep, the root ball undisturbed in a soil clump:



And then covered  (with a little in the base) with about equal parts of well fertilized soil from the vegetable garden and seed-raising mix, which should make an alright mix, as we had limited things on hand. Finished product:





Trust us, it was well watered afterwards, especially in the summer heat. To what comes next, we aren't sure, but after much research today we discovered to achieve the trunk thickness we desire, we may have to plant it in full sun in the ground or in a training pot of some description. plans to train it to become somewhat upright are in the future if possible, we really are complete beginners here. Updates to come!

The Beginning

So. Here we are at the start of our journey, me (Karl) and my girlfriend (Dani) hopefully ready to take on the huge responsibility that is the art of growing Bonsai. But first a little about ourselves:

Hi, my name is Karl, and I am a young man hailing from a city of reasonable size (in perspective) called Hamilton, in the country of New Zealand! I live with my family in the country just out of Hamilton in the Waikato area, with my girlfriend Dani.

My interest in plants was sparked from a young age, as I grew up in the gardens every weekend with my mother, so I later went on to take horticulture for five years in high school, achieving NCEA (National Certificate of  Educational Achievement) level 3 in the subject. It was about this time I was fortunate enough to meet a lady by the name of Sandra at my first bonsai show in the Hamilton Gardens. She gave me a young Chinese Elm and sent me on my way (I didn't have the money at the time to afford lessons), which I managed to kill somehow.

It has been three years since that point, and I am ready to give bonsai a go again, feeling more patient with the process and ready to learn, along with Dani, but overwhelmed at all that go into creating one, and the vision you seem to have to have for the future.

My girlfriend Dani is eager to learn as well, and together we hope to create our first bonsai over the next few years!