Paul Pikel has a new video that explains how to style a Podocarpus bonsai. His pal Cosmo loves to watch him work especially when he’s preparing a tree he hopes to display at the Epcot Flower and Garden Show. Podocarpus is a common shrub in Florida so maybe you’ll want to try your hand at styling one of these too.
Click on the YouTube link below to watch.
It feels like forever since I have posted on Orlando Bonsai. I have been creating instructional bonsai videos and it has pretty much taken all of my free time to do. However I want to get get back to updating my site with still pictures of my trees so that I can capture the progression of their development. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks aI can get my trees cleaned up enough to do some nice shots.
The following video shows the steps I take to redefine my trees and get them better looking every year.
I was given a ficus tree a few years a ago because the original owner could no longer care for it. After years in my collection I finally was inspired to change the style of the tree and hopefully turn it into a great bonsai. It all started with a large rock in my yard and a very horizontal ficus.
Here is the before picture. As you can see the tree is just a shapeless mound and really needed to be restyled.
The rock had a rounded bottom so I chiseled it flat so it would sit securely in the pot.
Here is a video that shows how I went about creating the root over rock. Please keep in mind this is a strangler fig and is known for growing on top of other trees and the slowly enveloping them by lowering aerial roots to encase the tree. In this case the tree will slowly attach to the rock. Therefore I didn’t have to bury the rock to produce roots to cover the rock or wrap it in sphagnum moss to keep it moist.
Finally the finished (but not styled) Root-Over-Rock. It still needs to be wired out and some branches removed but I see great potential in this tree.
There is a large amount of tools available for bonsai, and not knowing what you need could be costly. I wanted to go over the top three most needed bonsai tools so that people new to Bonsai could have an idea of what they need.
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