record snowfall in metroplex

I was supposed to attend the Ft.Worth Bonsai Society meeting tonight & I was on my way
until I had a flat tire. I pulled off the freeway & got stuck in the snow; I had to call a tow truck to
bring me home.

This is the second snow fall this year so I thought I'd record it, since it was a record in Feb. Here are some pictures of my nursery. The troppicals are safe & snug in the green house and some are in the cold frame; the rest are out in the cold! Read more!

White Honey suckle bush

Mid December /January/February are prime months in the Dallas/Ft Worth area for collecting suitable trees for Bonsai.

If you know someone who owns some acreage & they allow you to collect trees from their property, consider your self lucky. When the weather turns cold every bonsai enthusiast I know starts hunting for a new place to go digging!
There are certain rules : get permission from the land owner / be sure to cover any holes you've dug/& try to leave it like you were never there...no trash ect.



You are hunting for a tree that you can
turn into a respectable bonsai in 5 yrs or less.
This 30 yr. old honeysuckle happens to be on my property so I dug it up yesterday on the last day of January. The latter part of 2009 a larger tree had fallen over and broke most of the branches.

I think the mishap gives it a rugged look of survival and I've started to dig it up.
I cut most of the roots already except for the large tap root . Notice the size of the trunk











Having used the saw to cut off the sizeable tap root the honey suckle is laying on its side.








This side shows a good shot of the root ball. It will have to be thinned out quite a bit to fit it in the training container.











Here is the honey suckle potted up after some severe
pruning. It is potted in a large shallow black nursery pot containing lava rock with compost and worm castings. The gray spots you see on the tree is lac balsam used for the sealing of cuts.








This is the other side of the bush. The pictures are kind of deceiving the nursery pot is quite large and heavy it took two people to move it in to the green house.







We had a few days of sunshine & unseasonable temperatures which resulted in buds starting to swell & show you can see some in the middle right of this picture.

Buds are starting to break in the center of this picture so I'm not going to take any chances with this honey suckle, it going to stay in the green house until all chances of freezes are over; wish me luck!

I will post on its progress in the spring.

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new green house

My old green house was pretty much torn up by fall storms this year & I decided not to rebuilt it at this time instead I built a new green house.

I started with cinder blocks for the walls & 2"steel pipes for reinforcement for the walls and center posts. Then I used 2x4's for the trusses to hold up the fiberglass panels for the roof. Dirt was used to fill up the holes in the cinder blocks & to help with the insulation. The floor was cleaned up and a weed barrier installed . water was installed & also electricity was run to the green house.

Here is the almost completed green house.

The outside cinder blocks are covered for added insulation. A front door has been added and bricks have been laid on top of the weed barrier & new benches for the trees were installed.
All that remains to be done is lighting & sprinkler system installed ;along with a propane furnace for heating. At the time heat is being provided by electrical heaters,just in time for the first freeze of the year.


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Excerpt from Dallas bonsai society newsletter

" Click to enlarge articles"
This an excerpt from the Dallas Bonsai society newsletter
published in September 2009.
The tree is a twisted pomegranate which received preliminary styling ,wiring ,root pruning & was potted in a chinese pot,using
lava rock mix , compost & worm castings.
This twisted pomegranate belongs to the Dallas bonsai society
and is destined to be raffled off in the Dallas bonsai society convention. Updates will be posted on its progress.

The following is an other article from the September Dallas Bonsai Society newsletter featuring Lone Star Bonsai Federation visiting artist Roberto Martinez Acosta. Roberto hails from Puerto Rico and is here to do a demonstration on a ficus subulata (nerifolia)

Update September

This is the ficus subulata (nerifolia) that was styled by Roberto Martinez at the Dallas club demo.in August.

Diane Lowe, Dallas club member is working on her own twisted pomegranate.She has a couple of air layers going and is in the process of wiring.

While visiting Bent Tree Bonsai, Diane graciously agreed to wire Dallas club's twisted pomegranate that was demo'd in August.

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Boxwood

Boxwood before/after repot and trim.






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Brazilian Rain Tree Repot

Before/after repot and root/foliage trim. Still haven't wired.

Healthy tree, ready for repot early spring.

Japanese pot

Base drainer lava

Second layer (can't really see) is home cooked compost and worm crap.

Got stick, poked air pockets, and topped with mix of calcined clay, lava, pine bark and Akadama.

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Scary 'Fukien' Tea

This is my scary Fukien Tea about 30 yrs old it looks scary huh?

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Trident Maple Make Over

I got this Trident Maple looking bad in a slab. After a few minutes contemplating I got my shears and this is what became of it. Can't wait for fall now.





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Buttonwood

I got this buttonwood from a friend and he offered me a "good deal" which I've come to consider more of a gift. Reason was because he didn't have time to train it as it deserves and trusted I'd do a good job on it so he practically let me have it.

When I got it, it was in bad shape, it had scale and leggy growth. I got it in early spring and after 2 months in my posession it still had no signs of buds.


Finally one day in April the buds showed up and I went into Edward Scissorhands mode and trimmed it all around and left two leaves on all the branches I chose to keep for the final design to promote back budding. After the new leaves reach 1/4" to 1/2" in length I plan to cut all the old leaves in half to and repeat as necessary to reduce leaf size, promoted back budding to bald areas and to densify leaf pads. The new buds will form in the axils of half-leaves remaining on the tree and emerge as a pairs of leaves.

***UPDATE 1 - 06/10/2009***


It's almost summer and my buttonwood is still budding all over. As it buds back I cut whatever is above the bud which is not going to be a part of my final design. Therefore, the energy is redirected towards the trunk and not wasted on higher up buds and leaves. I also got a new pot and is looking good what do you think?

UPDATE 06-26-2009

I'm doing windswept, wired all branches, and lime sulfured dead wood. Won't touch until next spring.

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