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Rants, Raves, and Musings from the Heart of Dixie
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ANOTHER BALD CYPRESS REPOT
I haven’t had time to update the website lately so I am trying to catch up on a few posts. The repotting work was actually done on March 11 of this year. I know it is a little late for repotting season now, but maybe there might be some nuggets...
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IT'S ALL ABOUT BALANCE, ANOTHER BALD CYPRESS ARTICLE
I am still catching up on my posts on the work that I did earlier this year, this tree was actually trimmed in May, a couple of months ago. This is a short post on managing apex growth on bald cypress. Bald cypress (BC) are very apical dominant, no...
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THE BEE'S KNEES
This repot was do done about a month ago, but i thought i would share it. Thee tree is much more than I have seen anywhere on the 'net and deserves a some recognition, IMHO. So here it is: My Dad ask me if I would help him repot one of his bald...
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SHOHIN SIZE CHINESE ELM REPOT
Well, up until tonight (1-30-2019), it has been a pretty balmy winter in the Heart of Dixie and a few of my trees have been waking up kinda early. This small elm was one of them. To be fair, it had a position on the bench where it caught a lot of...
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CALAMONDRIN ORANGE
Not something that you see everyday as a bonsai, but if you have a little patience, you can make a really nice tree with them. The tiny oranges that they make are just the right size to be in scale with a medium size tree. The fruit peels land...
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NAKED ARAKAWA MAPLE
First, let me apologize for the quality of the photos in this article. It was rainy and cold outside when I had the chance to work on it, so I brought it inside and the lighting was not the best for taking pictures. OK, now that we have that out...
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CAMELLIA BONSAI
I got this camellia form the Mobile Botanical Gardens plant sale several years ago and have been slowly working it into a bonsai. This is a pretty unique variety, "Curly Egao", in that it is a contorted cultivar. Being contorted, it lends itself...
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THE FLYING DRAGON
After the storms finished rolling through the Heart of Dixie today, I managed to squeeze a little tree time in. I decided to work on a Poncirus trifoliata "contorta", aka, the Flying Dragon, that I have been growing for several years. With a name...
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JUST PLAYING AROUND
We are experiencing a really warm winter this time around in the Heart of Dixie, not a night yet below freezing. I a little free time several days ago and used a little of it to play around with a few trees. If you have played the bonsai game for...
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WINTER COLORS FOR AZALEAS
Living in the Heart of Dixie does not afford one a chance to see a lot of fall color on trees. Most of the time it does not really start getting cold until November and most of the bonsai like maples and elms are tired and the leaves just turn...
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A PLETHORA OF POTS
At a recent club meeting, Joe Day showed up with a trunk full of pots for sale. They had belonged to a member who is no longer in the hobby and was looking to sell them. It is always nice to have a selection of pots sitting around to select from...
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RHIZOCTONIA FOLLOW-UP
I took a little time to work with this poor satsuki azalea (gumpo white) today and I thought that I would post a follow up to the rhizoctonia web blight article. As you can see it can be very devastating to the plant that it attacks. It lost...
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RHIZOCTONIA WEB BLIGHT
As some of you may know, I have been on the mend for the last couple of weeks. I was in a car accident in which I broke the patella on my right knee into six pieces. I had surgery to fix it and have been confined to the couch. Yesterday, I was...
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THE FICUS FUSION PROJECT
I had a few ficus retusa, or tiger bark ficus, sitting around in pots so I decided to do something with them. I have read numerous articles on the internet on ficus fusion so I thought I would give it a try. What is ficus fusion? It is, in a nut...
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LATE SUMMER BALD CYPRESS TRIM
Normally I don't trim many of my trees this time of the year since fall is right around the corner but bald cypress are very aggressive growers and being atypically dominant, you have to keep the top in check so that it doesn't get too thick. Here...
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LATE SUMMER GROWTH ON BALD CYPRESS
As Summer starts to wind down and we approach Fall, the bald cypress are getting that last bit of trunk thickening in. In fact, I think that they thicken more at this time than in the spring. I grow all of my bald cypress with the pot submerged...
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HEDGE TRIMMING A COUPLE OF ELMS
I do this many times throughout the growing season - hedge trimming. Walther Pall has an excellent article on the subject, read it here. It is a great tool for development of your trees. I mean why not hedge if it is not a show tree, who cares...
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SAVING A SERISSA
If you have been keeping up with the blog, earlier you nay have read, "A Goodbye for an Old Friend". I posted an update to that article showing how it had recovered today and it was an impressive recovery. So, I thought that I would try it on...
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OK, MY AZALEA HAS FINISHED BLOOMING, WHAT NOW?
I see this question asked a lot on various bonsai forums and, at times, on Facebook so I thought I would write and article about how I treat my azaleas post flowering. Before I get started, let me offer this little disclaimer: This is by no means...
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OVULINIA AZALEAE, OR PETAL BLIGHT, THE BANE OF THE AZALEA ENTHUSIAST
You may have experienced it, I know that I have. One day you are outside admiring your azalea bonsai’s beautiful blooms, the next day you check them and they have all turned to jelly and are hanging off the plant like some type of slime. What...
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TRYING TO TAME A JAPANESE MAPLE "ARAKAWA"
I have had this cork bark maple for a while and lately have been focusing on trying to make it look somewhat decent. The spring flush is almost finished its push so I decided to thin it out and give it wiring to position the new growth. I started...
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MAKING AN ELM BROOM
I have always admired broom style bonsai trees, especially the elms. What’s not to like? A nice flare at the bottom and spreading branches up top, spreading out to make a perfectly round canopy. I have had this elm that was in a batch of...
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CHINESE ELM GETS ITS FIRST TRIM
Chinese elms are very prolific growers and since we have a long growing season, usually at least 9 months, it is not uncommon to cut them back 2, 3, or even 4 times. This one looked like this on February 12
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CHINESE ELM REPOTTING
Elms, everybody needs at least one. I have four or five, all were started from either air layers or cuttings. They were just before budding out so it was time to repot, and this time into some nicer pots as they had both been growing in larger...
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REPOTTING SATSUKI TSUKI NO SHIMO
This is one of my favorite varieties of satsuki azalea, it has a curled leaf that looks pretty cool and the growth habit is perfect for bonsai, nice and tight. The flowers are a very light pink and have kind of a pearlescent sheen to them. The...
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JUST AN ACCENT PLANT
I don't have many accent plants, I just never really took the time to put many of them together. Plus, I don't need that many as I don't show my trees in many shows. I planted this one last year, nothing fancy, just some resurrection fern, moss,...
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KINGSVILLE BOXWOOD REPOT
Have you ever held a mighty oak in the palm of your hand? Me either, but I think about it whenever I am working on this tree. I am trying to style it like a Southern live oak, I think it kinda looks like one, or maybe, it looks more like a Dr....
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IS MY AZALEA DYING?
...it has dropped a lot of leaves? If it is winter, probably not. While most are considered evergreen, they should be called semi-deciduous, as most of the ones that I have seen lose some or most of their leaves in the winter months. A case in...
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SERISSA DOESN'T LIKE WET FEET...
Or moss on their trunks. Unfortunately, I knew this. Last years extremely wet spring and summer kept the pot too wet and fed the moss plenty of moisture, add that to a busy schedule and you have a recipe for disaster. Moss crept up the trunk and...
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A FEW AZALEAS
Spring is upon us in the Heart of Dixie and some of the azaleas that I have been growing as bonsai have started blooming. This is my favorite time of the year, I wish the flowers would last longer.
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MY BEN OKI AZALEA
Favorite Minion came across some pictures of me attending a Ben Oki workshop from 2013 and asked me if I still had the tree. Of course, I did, and after comparing the drawing that he made for the future tree, I thought it would make an interesting...
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AZALEA WINTER COLORS
Azaleas are usually classified as deciduous or evergreen, but actually it is not that cut and dry. I have been growing azaleas for many years now, indicas, kurumes, satsukis, and some that I am not even sure of; but I have come to the conclusion...
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SUMMER ROOT GROWTH ON BALD CYPRESS
I was hoping to write this article and post it sooner, sometime around the end of October, but I did not have time to get it done. So, I still thought I would share my experiences with this super species for bonsai. If you have been reading on...
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THE GREAT BLIZZARD OF 2017
On December 9, 2017, the Heart of Dixie, got some snow. I know that this is not a big deal for some of you who are reading this, but for those of us who live in Lower Alabama, it is magical, and, well, a catastrophe, too. It is beautiful, but no...
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"A" IS FOR ANTHRACOSE
Those who keep bonsai for any length of time usually have some sort of fungus or virus infect their trees. This year I have been battling two on my azaleas, ovulinia petal blight and rhizoctonia web blight, and another on my maples, anthracose. ...
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A GOODBYE FOR AN OLD FRIEND
This one really hurts. I have had this tree for probably 10 years, it was started from a cutting and I spent a lot of time throughout the years working it to try to make a decent tree. This spring I decided to give it a repot because it had been...
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IT'S UNCANNY!
The aggressive growth of the bald cypress never ceases to amaze me, they are truly amazing trees. This growth rate and their forgiveness for mistakes makes them and excellent tree for beginners. Results are achieved quickly and it helps keep...
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NEW SHEARS
When I am out and about, I always have my eyes open for things that might be useful when I am working on the trees. The other day, my daughter and I were at the local flea market (why do they call it that) and I happened across these shears. Now...
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BALD CYPRESS REPOT
The following work was done in February of this year (2017). I wanted to use this repot as an example of the root and tree growth that can be achieved by submerging your bald cypress trees in a tub of water Spring through fall. If you would like...
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LARGE FICUS FOREST REPOT
The following repot was performed in late July of 2016. I decided to write an article about it in case there was an interest in repotting a large tree or group planting. It was a major undertaking that took several hours, in the rain some of the...
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