There are hundreds of varieties of minature trees to choose from when cultivating a bonsai garden. The gray-barked elm (Japanese zelkova) can be trained to form miniatures of the naturally grown forest trees, and will make beautiful bonsai. These bonsai elm are much sought after.
Unwanted sprouts. At budding time in the spring and after leaf thinning, sprouts appear at unexpected places on the trunk and branches, and these should be rubbed off or cut off. Autumn. After the leaves have fallen, any disproportionate and undesirable twigs and shoots are removed, so as to enhance the symmetrical and delicate beauty of fine twigs and shoots which produce the atmosphere and image of a great tree throughout the winter.
Branches in a circle and a branch parallel to trunk should both be avoided. Then the renewing and rewarding beauty of the young leaves is awaited.
General Care For Bonsai Elm
Soil for growing bonsai should be selected to match the variety of plant. For potting soil for zelkova bonsai I use loamy soil from cultivated land or sandy loam from the mountains. The soil is sifted through a sieve (â…›-inch mesh), and used only after it has been well and thoroughly dried. The tree should be planted in the dry soil in the pan, and the pan shaken several times after planting. The surface of the soil is then leveled and immediately watered gently and thoroughly with a watering can. The soil should never be pressed.
Surface roots. When a zelkova bonsai becomes older, several roots become thick and appear at the surface of the soil. Such a “root-surfaced-on-the-soil” tree is much sought after and very ornamental. However, if the roots are surfaced when the tree is young, they never thicken; only roots in the soil will do so. After learning by bitter experience, I cover surfaced roots slightly with soil, and on this place moss.
As the roots develop, the moss becomes scanty and the roots gradually appear on the surface. I have several trees of the same age that do show surfaced roots. Bonsai merchants often show surface-root formations in young trees for commercial reasons, but this is not good for nice root formation on the soil later on.
Shading. In the hottest weather, July and August, the trees are shaded; I use marsh-reed screens.
Watering. Over watering is not good for the trees. Learning how to grow bonsai and watching them evolve over time is a beautiful way to appreciate plants and gain hours of enjoyment.
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Originally posted 2009-07-26 12:12:08. Republished by Old Post Promoter
If you do not have a conservatory attached to your home and live in an unpredictable or harsh climate, using a greenhouse can assist. A gardener wishing to establish seedlings for transplantation, grow crops or plants that are temperature dependent, or establish plants that might be damaged by the current weather conditions, can use the greenhouse to do so. As well as temperature control and weather protection, greenhouses may be used for genetic purposes. This is when plants need to be pollinated by specific partners rather than in general. It can be done by hand, or by enclosing the relevant plants in an area separate from other species.
Also called a hothouse or glasshouse, the greenhouse is usually a small shed-sized building situated somewhere in the back yard. If it is situated against a house wall and does only has a pair of walls and a roof, perhaps not made of glass but netting, it is generally called a shade house. A lean-to is a variety of greenhouse that shares one wall in common with a building, yet the rest of the structure is made of glass or glasslike substance. A genuine greenhouse will be made of either glass or a similar transparent plastic based material. A glasshouse has to be made from glass and a hothouse can be made from either. In addition to the smaller garden type, commercial establishments may have larger greenhouses, either to display a collection of plants to the public or to generate new plants and crops for sale.
Being an enclosure, the greenhouse can be controlled in various areas. The temperature can be set at a certain level to ensure plants requiring a certain level of heat can gain maximum growth whatever the outside weather is doing. This is useful for commercial premises wishing to grow early crops r all year round crops of plants that are sensitive to weather conditions. It also helps the home gardener bring on an early vegetable crop when weather conditions are inclement. The home gardener can buy oil or petrol running heaters to keep the greenhouse warm on frosty nights. This ensures that frost sensitive crops will not spoil.
Light is also controllable within a greenhouse. For the home gardener, you can mix a bucket of mud and water and paint the glass walls and roof of your greenhouse if you want to have less harshness in the sunlight or keep your delicate crops from burning up in summer heat. For commercial growers, extra sunlight can sometimes assist to bring a crop to ripeness prematurely, allowing them to be read to sell at an earlier date than naturally grown crops.
Water needs to be taken into account. In an enclosed space such as a greenhouse, the rain cannot get in – unless you have leaks. Commercial growers usually utilize an irrigation system, whilst home gardeners tend to use a watering can. The controlled use of moisture, heat, and light can be used to provide a rainforest style environment for special plants. These are sometimes displayed by having people walk through the greenhouse itself, but on a smaller scale the greenhouse is used to grow the plants ready to show under these conditions.
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Originally posted 2009-09-19 03:41:38. Republished by Old Post Promoter