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Bonsai?
Has anyone here tried growing bonsai?
I've never thought it interesting, but I have a couple of Banksia Integrifolia that I've potted from root suckers and are looking quite healthy now. However, I've been banned from planting them, and after some thought, I've realized my wife is right! Too big and/or too hard to maintain. So I'm thinking of trying to bonsai them (can "bonsai" be used as a verb?).
Google shows a number of examples of this tree in bonsai. Here's one:
Comments
John.
Where do you find the time for all these eclectic interests?
I'm flat out finding time for existing intersts, let alone new ones.
Graham
Strikes me that bonsai simply makes something that big and difficult to maintain into something that is little and difficult to maintain...
Heh heh, you may well be right
But I posit that something that's a meter tall is at least not life-threatening to maintain (as opposed to something that's 12 meters tall...!)
Graham, with the days being longer I'm trying to spend an hour or so each evening in the garden, my theory is that eventually then I'll have "conquered" enough that I can leave it alone for a while again. I guess I'm not trying to do proper bonsai. Just an interesting experiment maybe? These banksias seems to be pretty hard to kill (how do I know that...)
Hi John I was into Bonsai many years ago the ex got this book as birthday present in another life.If you want a loan your welcome.
http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Its-Science-History-Philosophy/dp/0864391943
Awesome, would love to, Paul. Especially the science part is interesting to me. I've got my candidate plants lined up, my current theory is that if you cut it in half and it grows back, you (I) can probably do something with it.
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Will drop it over when I get back from Albury
Roses! Some forms of hemp, perhaps?
Hi Seano, I don't know anything about roses (or hemp) but could well be.
I realized I have some other candidates, some cissus antactica that I grew from cuttings (cut piece off, stick in pot). In the ground this grows very long vines, down the road there are some that have strangled the trees they are growing over. I have one growing along a retaining wall but nowhere (sensible) to put these. I pruned them back short a couple of weeks ago and almost every "knuckle" is now sprouting a new shoot.
We were in Canberra for a day visiting mates and they took us up to the new Arboretum which also happens to house the national bonsai collection. Quite a display.
Heck of a spot too...and free apart from the parking ($2 per hour, $7 a day).
Hi Seano, I must make a point to go when I next visit. The little grove is very cool.
Nice shots seano .
Yes they are...but I didn't take them
Hah hah, sneaky devil. i was going to compliment you on the pics too.
My "cheat" cissus vine is sprouting new growth, so this will be an interesting experiment. It's an easy way to experiment with shaping a plant with pruning.
I have lots of reading to do too, courtesy of mc240.