Thanks to my dog's strong and consistently wagging tail, my urge to grow things has been awakened. Since I'm a teacher (I love saying that!), I have summers off and was looking for an artistic project to engage in over the upcoming summer. I decided to give my horticultural urges a creative outlet. I'm going to grow bonsais from seed! Or at least attempt to do so.
Like any new venture, I always start with research. Nothing worse, at least for me, than wasting my time and money. Both are important commodities. After diligently researching, I learned that bonsai means "small tree in a pot" and that practically any perennial, hard wood plant can be made into a bonsai.
Rather than spend $50 on a two or three plants, I decided to invest the same amount of money in seeds and the other needed materials such as pots, small composting bin, etc. While this will take much longer, I have all summer to experiment and I'm not in a hurry to have mature plants. Additionally, I prefer to have the experience of growing from seeds, or at least trying to do so. With this decision made, I took to ebay.
After hours of daring to hog my own laptop, my daughter peered over my shoulder and inquired about what was keeping me so intently focused and occupied. She became a little excited and decided that she too wanted to plant a bonsai from seed. Her plan is to grow it and take it with her when she heads off to college in three and a half years. My summer project has now turned into a hobby that will afford my daughter and I time to build more memories together. Any parent of a teenager can attest that we take these opportunities whenever they present themselves!
We selected: Weeping Willow, Atlas Cedar, Dwarf Weeping Blue Cedar, Red Pyracantha, and Chinese Wisteria. All of these are said to have great bonsai potential. Some require scarification, stratification, and different lengths of stratification. For this reason, I didn't mind buying so many varieties at one time because they will not all be planted for germination at the same time.
The seeds have been ordered, except for the Weeping Willow (I bought that as bare root plants as I will need to use cutting from it to provide natural rooting hormone for later cutting), and I eagerly await getting started. While I hope to to have fun and get some plants out of this venture, I intend to keep the blog as a diary of my experience from which I and others can learn. Sort of horticulture lab notes, so to speak.
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