Journal of an Idiot Bonsaist

Trying to get everything ready for the winter.  I picked up some tarps today to make a wind dam for the plants to shelter behind.  Still trying to figure out what to do with the carnivorous plants.  The flytraps need to go someplace cool and protected, but our house is almost entirely heated.  The pitchers I think are supposed to stay outside, but I'm honestly not sure how that's supposed to work.

While reviewing my books a few months ago I read that it's best to rotate your trees about every week so that they get an even distribution of light.  Well, I finally did it yesterday (I resolve henceforth to rotate them 180 degrees every Sunday!)  Anyway, whether the trees need the even distribution of light, I can already see many other benefits to this practice.

-I'm more familiar with the overall design of my trees
-It helps make sure I inspect the whole tree for pests and deseases

and most importantly:

-It helps me feel connected to my trees.  It's one more thing that I can do care for them and that makes me feel good.

Let's hope that feeling persists and so does this new practice!

I've been promising photos for a while, so here I've finally added some, fresh from today.  I'm still trying to figure out how to categorize my many maples.

One really awesome reason to own carnivorous plants: they really really are that hard to kill.

My rosetta sundew is back =)

All the repottings went well.  I decided not to attempt the bog garden right now, so those pitcher plants are now in pots.  Now it's time to start planning for the fall...

I realized last week that the sphagnum moss I used to create the soil for my carnivores was Miracle Grow brand, which meant it was fertilized, which is a death certificate for carnivorous plants.  So today I made new soil with no fertilizer and repotted two of my pitcher plants, with one more repotting to go and I'll have to something about my attempt at a bog garden (which is growing a healthy layer of green something over it).

The venus flytraps and pygmy sundews are doing wonderfully!

Two of my maples have been turning yellow over the past week or two, so today I repotted them also.  One was severely root bound and the other also but to a lesser extent.  Both trees got major branch pruning (with ACTUAL sealant this time to keep them from bleeding) and lots of root pruning too.  Additionally I removed all their leaves before starting.  Now, they're soaking in water overnight and I'll be repotting them tomorrow.

On a totally unrealated note, I'm learning russian.

The hornbeam forest has gone under major work this past week... several of the trees died over the winter and I was hoping they would revive, but after checking their bark it became apparent that of the five that never leafed out, only one was still green underneath.  At that point, I made the decision to remove all the un-leafed trees.  To say it was un-enjoyable would be an understatement... it was a sad moment.  I mean, we're talking about a 15 year old forest worth hundreds of dollars.  15 years!  This forest was planted when I was ten!  But, two trees remain, so it's not a total loss.  I actually rather like the new look of the bonsai, which is kind of funny I think.  Every time a major disaster devestates one of my trees, I do my best to make sure the tree doesn't die altogether and, in the end, I actually like the transformation.

The elm is one example of this; it's no longer a double-trunk bonsai... one of the trunks died over the winter and never came back, so it's going through a re-stylizing.

The rest of the trees are doing fine.  I am in a fierce battle with red spider mites... this place is absolutely crawling with them!  Because we have pet rabbits, which are VERY susceptable to poisons, I can't use any fungicide, pesticide, or anything really.  However, I did manage to find a product called Organicide that is simply a water and (get this) sesame seed oil mix.  It claims to work on pests and fungus but is also 100% safe for all plants and mammals.  Supposidly it works much like neem oil, but it's amazingly difficult to find any info on the use of sesame seed oil as a pesticide.  Anyway, I've been using it for a little bit now and no problems so far.

I did lose the rosetta sundew a little while ago.  One of these days was just too hot and too bright and that's all there was to it.  The pigmy colony is doing beautifully and is actually in bloom.  I'm hoping it will propigate to the rosetta sundew's container.  If I'm able to harvest some needs I'll probably put them in my terrainium too.  The rest of the monsters are doing fine, the venus flytraps are pretty hardy (they get burned but keep coming back for more) and the pitcher plants are all surviving too.

I got a new batch of carnivores about a week ago, ordered off of californiacarnivores.com.  Two venus flytraps, a rosetta sundew, and a colony of pygmy sundews.  It's pretty exciting, to say the least :-D  On top of that I bought three pitcher plants from our local pet store.  They're in pretty good condition--they weren't in death-cubes, but rather had their roots wrapped in some sort of fiber that is meant to retain water.  They sat on my desk in water for about a week and then earlier this week I put them over into pots.  The pygmy sundews were knocked loose in their container during shipping, and when I called California Carnivores the gentleman was very apologetic and explained that these little sundews are pretty fragile.  He asked me to keep a close eye on them over the next week and if they die to call back so they can replace them.  Considering that their official replacement policy says that they will only replace plants that are dead on arrival, I felt this was very awesome.

Originally I was keeping the plants on our deck, but I felt they weren't getting enough sun there so I've moved another bench over by my bonsai out on the patio and now the monsters are residing there.  I definitely think they're happier since they're now getting the sunlight they want.  The downside is that it's getting around 45F at night, which I'm to understand that the plants can withstand but it seems low to me.  Anyway, I'm ust trying to be brave and seeing what happens.  The cape sundew (which IS supposed to take those temps, apparently) is in a heck of a state.  It's putting out some new leaves, but the old leaves were starting to die so I cut them off.  I'm only a little afraid for it.

On the bonsai front, my hornbeam forest is officially a forest of two.  None of the other trees have put out leaves, so it's not looking good although it's still possible that the other trees aren't dead yet *insert spontaneous Monty Python re-enactment*.  The twin pines have yet to bounce back, but I'm convinced that at least one of the two trees will survive.  The other one isn't so sure, but I don't regret my decision yet.  The azalea is in full bloom right now and looks amazing.  I remember when it had ONE flower, now it's absolutely covered in them!  The crab apples are doing great and I had to trim proto-fruit off the one that flowered earlier.  The many young maples continue to do wonderfully as well, many of them have even developed what can reasonably be defined as a canopy.  There's still repotting I wish I had been able to do, but at this point it may have to wait until late summer.  But, maybe not...

Anyway, I have photos, I just need to get them off Bran's computer and upload/label.

Not much recent happening with the trees... spring is continuing pretty well for them.  I'll possibly have an update late this week or next week.

As for the carnivores, the cape sundew got put into a larger pot today with a sand/peat moss mix soil.  It wasn't looking too great before so I decided to do the repotting rather spontaneously.  Literally the next day I spotted a new shoot, so I'm convinced I did the right thing.  It's looking better and better all the time.  Now that the weather is getting better, I may move it outside.  The minimum temp for the cape sundew is 70F, so I've been waiting for the nights to get warm enough to leave him outside where he can thrive.  I admit, part of me is a bit impatient... I've heard the cape sundews reproduce like weeds.  Since I only have the two plants and I want more... bring on the seeds!

But yes, I said two.  The Drosera Adelae died some time ago, yes, but many forum posts said that it might grow again from the old roots of the former plant.  Well, it would appear that this is finally happening!  It's slow going, but I'm sure it's there.  I've continued to water it and light it, so here's hoping that those little green dots really are new plants!

Lots has been going on.

The trees have been out of their winter shelter as of around March 25th.  I was planning on repotting them then, but for a multitude of reasons I didn't get around to it until... well, now.  It's a couple of weeks late, but it's going well enough.  I did a really nice de-twigging trim on the hornbeam and boxwood1.  I'm really happy with how both of those are coming along.

The twin pines were repotted today and I decided to cut their trunks down considerably.  For two reasons: their current state had no taper or any aesthetic design at all, and also because they were both infested with rust fungus which, after a number of years, was finally starting to spread.  I've cut both trunks below the infection so hopefully it won't be an issue any more.  Here's hoping that the trunks are able to put out new buds.

So as it stands, I've repotted both of my boxwoods and the twin pines, but I'm still planning on doing the hornbeam, black pine, and the spruce pine.

On another front, the monster I previously mention, the drosera adelae, has died.  I'm hoping that the roots are still down there and will eventually put up shoots.  I've heard it can take several weeks, so I'm trying to be patient.  In the mean time, I've acquired another monster, a cape sundew.  It's having a hard time too, but so far it's doing OK.  Part of the problem is that we don't have any windows that I can put it in and it's still too cold at night for it to go outside which means it's on my desk with a UV lamp.

Filled the monster's terrarium with soil tonight and potted him in it.  Turns out he's been in regular potting mix this whole time, which isn't very good for him.  Anyway, he's in a nice sand/peat moss soil now.  I'll post photos tomorrow.