First Post
Let's start with a few tidbits. My name is Chris Lee. I'm currently 31. I live in Boise, Idaho which is a high desert climate. We don't really get a lot of snow, but it does get chilly and it is very hot and dry in the summer.
I've been interested in bonsai for several years now, starting around 2010 but am just now feeling serious enough to start a blog. I've tried many sources for material and have killed more than my fair share of small big box store junipers and pines. I went on a trip to Sequoia National Park shortly after high school and it remains an awe inspiring place for me to this day. One of my first attempts in bonsai was a pair of giant sequoias from Giant-Sequoia.com ( http://www.giant-sequoia.com/sites/giantsequoia/cart/ ) It was about a hundred bucks for the pair and they didn't wake up after the first winter. I'm also fond of maples but I quickly killed several, and I'm still not entirely sure why some of this stuff dies but that probably says more about my memory than my bonsai education. This pic defines a lot of my bonsai career thus far:
Some stuff died less mysteriously. A large table umbrella hit this boxwood:
I was having a hard time getting some clay off the roots of a burning bush so I thought I'd saw off some of the root ball. I learned the importance of finding where the root ball actually starts.
I made a lot of little guys like these and many lived for awhile.
I ordered a trident maple from the internet, I think Brussel's bonsai. I made a spruce tree out of a big box store plant, it didn't last long.
Always wire your tree into the pot by the way:
I joined the Boise Bonsai Society and got a nice juniper from a workshop and a collecting trip.
Here it is at the workshop:
Later on and even later than that after I got some more help with it:
The collected juniper:
I've collected some stuff on public lands with permits but it has proven difficult. Mostly I've dug lodgepole pines many of which have died. Here is one that has lived. I planted it in pure cat litter and even though it worked I quit using it because it wasn't very popular on the bonsai forums I read. Possibly a big mistake. First pic was right after collection and the 2nd is very recent:
Here is a more recently collected pine that didn't make it which was a large emotional blow:
In 2012 I got to attend the Pacific Northwest bonsai convention which was an eye opening experience in that it was both beautiful and a reminder that what I was doing was barely bonsai.
This is me next to a tree in the exhibit:
I took a maple workshop and took home this lovely maple. Relatively cheap as well (I want to say around $100) I still struggle to find material. A yearly trip to the bonsai nurseries in California would probably ease my suffering greatly but I'm a combination of cheap and poor. This pic is right after working on it that first time in the workshop:
I've also tried growing from seed but it hasn't gone very well. The pines all died some quickly and some slowly and the deciduous take up a lot of space.
My mom likes to buy ficus and I've joined in. They stay above the fireplace under grow lights in the winter.
For the last couple years I've gotten some help from a very experienced ex-Californian bonsaist that moved to Idaho. He has helped me with several trees including the shimpaku juniper cascade posted above from a workshop and this juniper here:
I've continued to work with nursery material, generally larger than what I started out working with and I am also willing to spend a little more. I'm also planting more stuff into the ground. Several of the following pics are plants still in need of creation prunings.
Dawn Redwood:
On the left is a Chinese elm I purchased from Brussel's around the time I got the Trident maple.
I've been interested in bonsai for several years now, starting around 2010 but am just now feeling serious enough to start a blog. I've tried many sources for material and have killed more than my fair share of small big box store junipers and pines. I went on a trip to Sequoia National Park shortly after high school and it remains an awe inspiring place for me to this day. One of my first attempts in bonsai was a pair of giant sequoias from Giant-Sequoia.com ( http://www.giant-sequoia.com/sites/giantsequoia/cart/ ) It was about a hundred bucks for the pair and they didn't wake up after the first winter. I'm also fond of maples but I quickly killed several, and I'm still not entirely sure why some of this stuff dies but that probably says more about my memory than my bonsai education. This pic defines a lot of my bonsai career thus far:
Some stuff died less mysteriously. A large table umbrella hit this boxwood:
I was having a hard time getting some clay off the roots of a burning bush so I thought I'd saw off some of the root ball. I learned the importance of finding where the root ball actually starts.
I made a lot of little guys like these and many lived for awhile.
I ordered a trident maple from the internet, I think Brussel's bonsai. I made a spruce tree out of a big box store plant, it didn't last long.
Always wire your tree into the pot by the way:
I joined the Boise Bonsai Society and got a nice juniper from a workshop and a collecting trip.
Here it is at the workshop:
Later on and even later than that after I got some more help with it:
The collected juniper:
I've collected some stuff on public lands with permits but it has proven difficult. Mostly I've dug lodgepole pines many of which have died. Here is one that has lived. I planted it in pure cat litter and even though it worked I quit using it because it wasn't very popular on the bonsai forums I read. Possibly a big mistake. First pic was right after collection and the 2nd is very recent:
Here is a more recently collected pine that didn't make it which was a large emotional blow:
In 2012 I got to attend the Pacific Northwest bonsai convention which was an eye opening experience in that it was both beautiful and a reminder that what I was doing was barely bonsai.
This is me next to a tree in the exhibit:
I took a maple workshop and took home this lovely maple. Relatively cheap as well (I want to say around $100) I still struggle to find material. A yearly trip to the bonsai nurseries in California would probably ease my suffering greatly but I'm a combination of cheap and poor. This pic is right after working on it that first time in the workshop:
I've also tried growing from seed but it hasn't gone very well. The pines all died some quickly and some slowly and the deciduous take up a lot of space.
My mom likes to buy ficus and I've joined in. They stay above the fireplace under grow lights in the winter.
For the last couple years I've gotten some help from a very experienced ex-Californian bonsaist that moved to Idaho. He has helped me with several trees including the shimpaku juniper cascade posted above from a workshop and this juniper here:
I've continued to work with nursery material, generally larger than what I started out working with and I am also willing to spend a little more. I'm also planting more stuff into the ground. Several of the following pics are plants still in need of creation prunings.
Dawn Redwood:
On the left is a Chinese elm I purchased from Brussel's around the time I got the Trident maple.
citrus tree I cut back and later cut back again:
Mugo pine "tannenbaum":
A pic of plants growing in the ground or buried in the ground to aid in winter protection. Several of my smaller pines are not looking good. I tried growing in a pure inorganic mix and I just didn't stay on top of the watering. You can also see the greenhouse in this pic but there aren't many bonsai in there:
My favorite pine that I grew from box store nursery stock and one of the ones that is currently not looking so good. It's hard to see in the pic above:
Some deciduous in a cold frame I dug in 2012 but the pic is from this winter:
Phew. I think that is enough for now. I didn't post every plant I've slaughtered or still have but I think I've given a pretty good overview.
