I was contacted a short while back by a woman who I had met a year or so ago.  Her brother was ill and she couldn’t keep up with his bonsai collection and asked if I would accept it as a donation with the agreement that I cared for the trees.  I could hear the sadness in her voice, and how deeply these trees meant to her and her brother.  I agreed without seeing them, but knew there would have been some neglect because of not being under the care of a bonsai hobbiest.

Ficus Nerafolia in need of pruning

Surface roots in too shallow of a pot

This is one of the trees that I was given to look after.  It is leggy, and the roots were in poor condition.  I know these trees are very forgiving though and knew after being repotted that it would be fine.

Of course this got me to thinking about my own collection, and what my trees mean to me.  Not to mention what will happen to them after my time on Earth comes to pass.  I often think that if I am able I will simply take the trees out into a nicely wooded area where I could plant them and allow them to grow into their full sized relatives.  I guess only time will tell

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I have been working on this tree for years now, and it is so close to being a finished bonsai.  This winter when the leaves drop I will wire this tree one more time, and it should be pretty amazing come Spring, if I say so myself.  It filled in this year in all thright places.  The canopy is sio full that the tree rarely even puts out shoots of the full sized leaves of its previous life.  As you know, all these branches were thread grafted from a dwarf variety of crepe myrtle.

Grafted Crepe Myrtle Filled in

I am still hopefull to get  some blooms this year, but it is late in the year and no buds are present.  I have had this tree pretty shaded this year so I think that effected the flowers

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I wanted to show an update of my little Black Pine that I have worked over the last year.  It has come a long way, added new branches and is doing very well.  This tree is pictured straight off my bench.  So there are weeds, a dirty pot, and a tree that really needs wired.

Shohin Black Pine

I hope to have it wired out in October, and will post a new photo at that time.

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I finally realized that I never showed the finished daiza carving for the Suiseki that I did a few months back.  It has been sitting next to my television for a long time and I just recently took the time to complete the sanding and apply a nice fish to it.  I still have a lot to learn but I think this is my best one so far.

Finish Daiza

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