What kind of gardener are you?

[ChanellG]

Oh, no! That is not good; the flowers bloom and then close up again. That is so weird that the fruit vine does that; it would seem to me that the flowers would produce only fruit and the seeds would be inside the fruit. I have lost track of the pupating so now I have to go out and check daily to make sure there are no butterflies waiting for me to let them out. The most recent pupa should be no more than a week old, but you never can tell with butterflies, lol. Sometimes they sneak up on you!

 

[ChanellG]

The sensitive ones could be kept indoors all winter but I choose not to do it that way because the change in the light will make any new growth much less compact and it would have to be removed in spring. There are some species (like ficus) that can be kept indoors permanently, but they grow much quicker outside.

When I first started out with bonsai I was only interested in indoor trees, but once I started experimenting with keeping them outside, I started keeping all my trees either outside or in my greenhouse. The only reason I need to bring trees inside now is because my greenhouse is too full. Besides I enjoy having them inside at night. That's the downside of summer - the kitchen looks so empty.

I never realized bonsai were so much work. I think for now I more than have my hands full with butterflies, let alone with all my containers of flowers and herbs. I have so much else that needs to get done from home improvement to, well, you name it, lol. Bonsai trees will just have to wait - though I really love this image I saw of a rose bonsai.

 

[Gina145]

I never realized bonsai were so much work. I think for now I more than have my hands full with butterflies, let alone with all my containers of flowers and herbs. I have so much else that needs to get done from home improvement to, well, you name it, lol. Bonsai trees will just have to wait - though I really love this image I saw of a rose bonsai.

Bonsai trees don't have to be so much work unless you let it become that way. I've made life difficult for myself by buying and propagating far too many trees. It's also a lot easier if you choose trees that are suited to the climate you live in, so that all the winter problems fall away. If I had restricted myself to trees like maples and olives all this would be unnecessary as the only time they need protection of any kind is when they've just been repotted. But I love my ficuses, which are tropical trees which can't take extreme cold or frost.

If you get one tree that is suited to your climate, or suited to being kept indoors if you prefer that, then all that it requires is similar watering and feeding to your other plants (though bonsai trees must never be left standing in water for risk of root rot), a little bit of pruning every now and then to keep it tidy, and occasional repotting. Of course if you start with an unstyled tree then there may be more pruning and a bit of wiring required, but it's still not so bad.

Looking after one or two bonsai trees seems like a lot less work than what you do for your butterflies.

 

[ChanellG]

Oooh, you can use olive trees for bonsai? I saw an olive tree at the farmer's market the other day and it reminded me of my trip to Spain. I would LOVE to be able to have an olive tree, keep it small, and have it produce a small crop of olives. That would be awesome!

 

[Gina145]

Oooh, you can use olive trees for bonsai? I saw an olive tree at the farmer's market the other day and it reminded me of my trip to Spain. I would LOVE to be able to have an olive tree, keep it small, and have it produce a small crop of olives. That would be awesome!

Olive trees are very popular for bonsai here. All the trees I've seen are our indigenous olive, which only produces tiny little black "berries" which aren't suitable for eating, but I've seen photos of other varieties of olives used as bonsai. I'm dying to buy one, only all the edible olive trees I see are really thin and quite expensive. Sooner or later the right tree will come along, but for now I've only got a few of the indigenous ones.

The tree in the photo is one I bought from a garden centre about five years ago. It was about five feet high when I bought it, but I cut it back to about one foot with no branches. Everything but the trunk has grown since then. Sorry it's not the best photo. This was taken about a year ago on one of the rare days when it snowed here, shortly before I repotted it into a proper bonsai pot.

A lot of the serious bonsai enthusiasts I know have really old olive bonsais which were full size trees dug up in the wild (with permission of the landowner) and cut back to stumps. I've got a small one of those which I bought last year, but I haven't started styling it yet as I'm saving it for a workshop by a famous bonsai artist from Germany who will be visiting South Africa in October.

 

[ChanellG]

I may have to look into this, @Gina145. I think the ideal bonsai for me will be some type of fruit tree, like a plum or some type of citrus, but I love the look of olive trees - the leaves are so beautiful. (Even though I guess, technically speaking, olives are fruit) I still need to relocate that loquat tree so I guess I could start with that since it's a free tree, lol.

 

[Gina145]

ChanellG I love the idea of fruit trees too, but most of my trees don't get fruit. I have a mulberry bonsai which produces quite a lot of fruit for its size but when it comes time to eat it, sadly it doesn't go very far. It looks good though. We've had a particularly mild winter this year and my mulberry tree thinks that spring has come early, so it's already starting to form fruit.

I recently bought a crab apple tree, which hopefully will produce fruit one day. It's a long term project though as the tree was seven foot tall when I bought it and it's just been cut to the lowest branches, which are about two feet up, so I can't expect much of it for the next year or two while it develops a new branch system in the right place.

Free trees are good. I've grown quite a few from seeds I've found at various places we've visited and some of my little mulberries have grown as weeds. I hope those will eventually produce fruit as well.

Oh, and if you're interested in trying citrus, go for ones that get small fruit. It's possible to reduce the leaf size on bonsai, but the fruit will always grow to the normal size.

 

[ChanellG]

ChanellG I love the idea of fruit trees too, but most of my trees don't get fruit. I have a mulberry bonsai which produces quite a lot of fruit for its size but when it comes time to eat it, sadly it doesn't go very far...

Oh, and if you're interested in trying citrus, go for ones that get small fruit. It's possible to reduce the leaf size on bonsai, but the fruit will always grow to the normal size.

Gina, maybe there is way to make the fruit go farther such as mulberry preserve or wine? Or maybe just a sauce that you can use over something else (like cheesecake!) I think eventually an olive tree and some type of lime would be good for me to try unless I could dwarf a satsuma. I already have a Meyer lemon that I don't want to get too big, but I am not sure I want to experiment with it as a bonsai.

 

[Gina145]

Gina, maybe there is way to make the fruit go farther such as mulberry preserve or wine? Or maybe just a sauce that you can use over something else (like cheesecake!) I think eventually an olive tree and some type of lime would be good for me to try unless I could dwarf a satsuma. I already have a Meyer lemon that I don't want to get too big, but I am not sure I want to experiment with it as a bonsai.

There really isn't enough fruit to do anything else with. I wish there was. If I'm lucky I'll get about a dozen ripe mulberries on one day and after a week or two there's no fruit left.

How big are the fruit on a satsuma? If you can get a nice olive tree without spending too much, I highly recommend it. They make lovely bonsai and they're very easy to look after.

While small fruit is desirable, I've seen photos of the odd bonsai with one or two fruits which look much too big for the tree and it can be an interesting and quite pleasant effect. One of the important things with fruiting bonsai trees is never to allow them too abundant a crop because, with their small root system, too much fruit can kill them.

 

[ChanellG]

Good to know, Gina. I am hoping my lemon will set flowers and fruit next year, but it is still quite small so I will have to limit the fruit. Satsumas are not big at all, larger than a small lime, but smaller than a navel orange. The shape is different as well. I guess they are kind of tire shaped? I've just learned they can be grown in a container: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/fruit/satsuma.html

 

[Gina145]

With the right care I imagine most trees can be grown in pots though, when it comes to bonsai, some are more fussy about having their roots cut than others. But if you're growing them for fruit rather than trying to style them as bonsai, then it's probably best to use as big a pot as you can manage.

 

[mj512]

I'm very beginner. This was the first year for us. We rent so we couldn't put in a garden at our place so we had to rent a plot at a community garden. I would much rather have our garden on our property but it just wasn't an option. I do have a few of my own flowers out there though!

 

[kristyleann]

I guess at this point I'd say I'm an extreme amateur. I've always wanted to start a garden but people in my family can't seem to grow anything so I always figured it was pointless to try. My dad was raised by his grandparents and they were farmers so they could grow anything but it's like the green thumb died out with them. But over the summer I bought some flower seeds and planted some around the house. Most of them came up but some didn't come up at all and I'm not sure why. I don't know much about gardening but I'm learning...especially since I got so excited about them when they came up.

 

[Ruth B]

Mine would be like a buffet. One of this, one of that, two or three of that......... I love a bit of everything.

 

[Pat]

I like to have house plants, potted plants on the deck and veggies in the garden for food. I have not gone past looking at pictures of what I would like as designs in my garden so I am not sure what you would call me. I just like to get in the dirt and see things grow.