The main purpose of this blog is for me to keep track of how my bonsai grow over time. I’ve found that the Word Press blog structure is a good format for building up images. Each tree (or set of trees) gets a category. Each post has tags for type of activity (e.g. update, repotting, maintenance, termination). Pictures are supported. I get to record commentary about what I’m thinking (if I post close enough to the actual event, which isn’t a given). Finally, viewing posts to reverse order is more or less perfect.
The secondary purpose of this blog is to share my bonsai. So: hello. There’s a gallery below or you can look at the blog roll to see recent posts, including things not yet ready for actual bonsai. Or somewhere (to the right on a desktop view, probably at the bottom for mobile) there’s a list of trees.
The Gallery
Here are my active trees. Click on the image to see all posts for that tree. This page is something of a lie… they have the best(ish) images over time – they mostly don’t look like this at any given time.
Oriental Juniper
(Juniperus chinensis)
Silver Birch
(Betula pendula)
Japanese Maple Solo
(Acer Palmatum)
Crepe Myrtle
(Lagerstroemia Hybrid)
Silver Birch 2
(Betula pendula?)
Clumping Bamboo
(Fargesia natida var)
Stumpy Lemon Myrtle
(Backhousia citriodora)
Lilly Pilly
(Syzygium luehmannii)
Brush Cherry
(Syzygium australe)
Cherry Plum
(Prunus cerasifera)
Chinese Elm
(Ulmus parvifolia)
Wild Pepper Tree
(Schinus molle)
Chinese Elm Cutting
(Ulmus parvifolia)
Japanese Maple Cutting
(Acer Palmatum)
Copper Beech
(Fagus sylvatica purpurea)
Senkaki Forest Trio
(Acer Palmatum)
Pink Flowered Ironbark
(Eucalyptus sideroxylon rosea)
Weigela
(Weigela floridia)
Grape Ivy
(Cissus striata)
Blue Alps Juniper
(Juniperus chinensis)
Common Fig Mame
(Ficus carica)
Common Fig Regular
(Ficus carica)
Yellow Banksia Rose
(Rosa banksiae Lutea)
Buddleia Raft
(?)
Black Wattle Solo
(Acacia mearnsii)
White Stonecrop
(Sedum album L.)
Chinese Wisteria
(Wisteria sinensis)
Senkaki Forest Solo
(Acer Palmatum)
Black Locust
(Robinia pseudoacacia)
Box Elder
(Acer negundo)
Water Gum
(Tristaniopsis laurina)
Weeping Larch
(Larix decidua Pendula)
Shady Lemon Myrtle
(Backhousia citriodora)
Black Wattle Forest
(Acacia mearnsii)
Common Fig Semicascade
(Ficus carica)
Common Fig Slim
(Ficus carica)
The Graveyard
Bonsai is working with living trees. And sometimes those trees turn into dead trees. Sometimes the tree just isn’t suited for bonsai, or it was a bad season, or there was an accident, but mostly it’s because I did something wrong. Here are where I’ve failed.
Mini Pepper Tree
(Schinus molle)
Avocado Trio
(Persea americana)
Silver Sheen
(Pittosporum tenuifolium)
Hippy Lemon Myrtle
(Backhousia citriodora)
Acer Forest
(Acer neguno)
Grevillea Bronze Rover
(Grevillea acanthifolia)
European Beech
(Fagus sylvatica)
Azalea Shirazz
(Azalea indica)
Japanese Plum Yew
(Cephalotaxus harringtonia)
Smoke Tree
(Cotinus coggygria)
Buddleia
(?)
Common Fig
(Ficus carica)
Not dead but undone.
Technicalities
My bonsais are in regional Victoria, which is USDA Hardiness Zone 9. I don’t know how useful that is – the main factor in the USDA Zones is lowest temperature, which I find more or less irrelevant to my problems. I have much more trouble with dry summer heat and high winds.
I use an inorganic soil mix of scoria, stones, vermiculite, pumice, and charcoal. I find this allows me to water heavily and not worry about getting waterlogged. UPDATE 2023: Now using less scoria and stones, and more perlite, which is doing very well for me.
During growing seasons I use a simple Seasol mix each week, because I haven’t reached the point of different fertilizers for each tree.