Beginning Bonsai

My dad has always been really big into Bonsai trees, and I think they're pretty neat, but I've always felt very ill-equipped, and so never started up. That is until this afternoon during an outing with my mom. We visited that wonderful Bonsai shop together, and she set me up with a cute baby Fukien Tea Tree, and an appropriately sized pot, as well as soil, top dressing, and a tiny ornament to decorate with!

When I brought my little tree home, I was hesitant to do anything with it until after I did some research into the appropriate care. After doing the appropriate reading, I took out all my supplies and got started. First thing I did was remove her from her old pot. Afterward, I removed as much of her old soil as possible by massaging the root ball, and gently shaking. Once I felt that I had gotten most of it, I put her root ball under a bit of running water, and then picked the rest of the soil out with a small poking instrument. The Bonsai reference book that I have says to use a rake to "comb" the small roots, but I just used my fingers to untangle the roots as best I could.

From there I trimmed the roots a little so that she would fit into her new pot. I fixed some wire mesh over the drain holes, and then added a mound of new soil right where I wanted to place her root ball. I gently massaged her into the pile of dirt, and then secured her with a couple twisty ties before filling in the rest of the space with more soil. I then added the top dressing - some simple pebbles, and then added my cute little Elephant decoration.

New Acquisitions

In the last couple weeks I've impulse purchased a couple plants. The first one is Kalanchoe tomentosa 'Chocolate Soldier'. How can you not like this fuzzy little guy with such a strong name? He's just adorable. I've got the panda plant, which is identical except mostly green, and just had to have the Chocolate Soldier variety.

I also had to get Kalanchoe blosfeldiana 'Sarah'. It's the typical Kalanchoe you see sold everywhere, but I just love the bright red-orange blooms. It's such a delightful happy plant. I enjoy seeing it's prolific blooms when I wake up.

I recently obtained a few plants from my mom during my last visit. One of my very first plants was an Airplane Plant (Chlorophytum comosum 'Variegatum') which I named Fred. It was a baby of one of my mom's plants. I took him to college, he survived the terrible Rochester, New York winters, and even the super hot road trip back to Texas, but when I moved into my own apartment, he died from lack of sun, while he lived in the center of my apartment, because I was too lazy to buy hooks to hang my macrame outside! Anyway, my mom gave me another one, and this one is thriving in his new home.

She also gave me a couple Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina) cuttings and a cutting of something I haven't identified. They're all three rooting in water until I can pot them up somewhere.

While my mom and I were talking about each other's plant situations, she mentioned how she was going to pretty much take on stalk of her Aeonium, and then toss the rest. I couldn't let her plants go to waste so I offered to take the mother plant home.