Crepe Myrtle bonsai inspiration

This ugly picture is of a crepe myrtle I have growing in a wooden box, and is overwintering in my root cellar, where it stays between about 38 - 50 degrees F all winter.

I haven't found many examples online of crepe myrtle bonsai that I like, but here are a few that have some potential.

This Spring I removed it from its grow box and trimmed the bottom of the roots. I improved the drainage of the pot by cutting a 1" wide slot most of the length of the box, and stapled some fiberglas screen over it to keep the soil in.  I added 2-3" of new soil in the bottom, since it was a little low in the pot, and replaced it in the box.  I am hoping it will add enough girth to the trunk that I can chop the trunk next winter and begin to train it as a bonsai.  I'm tired of bringing that huge pot into the basement every winter.

I may have identified this as the 'Potomac' cultivar of Lagerstroemia indica.

For some reason it did not bloom this year, possibly resulting from our cool wet summer.  It also did not add any girth to its trunk either, which is very disappointing to me.  I think I will try keeping it in my detached garage this winter, surrounding the box with bales of straw.  This will avoid having to haul it down to the basement.

Isaac's honesty

Tonight I was working in the garden trying to prep a raised bed for plating watermelon.  This involved wheel barrow trips to the compost pile, dumping peat moss and sand, and mixing with a pitch fork.  As I was working Mindy was following me around and talking to me,  and asking me what I was doing.  I really love it when she comes out to see what I'm doing in the yard, taking an interest in my gardening.  It really makes me feel loved since I know she doesn't share my enthusiasm for endless yard work.

Poor Isaac though, he wanted to help or be involved.  I tried to let him do some things, but generally he got in the way and he had to be asked to back off several times.  He began intentionally grabbing things and being a nuisance until finally I picked him up and said, "Isaac! why are you doing these things?  Are you needing attention?"  Isaac very sadly and pitifully said, "Yes, I do need attention.  Can you attensh me by coming inside to play with me?"I just love the way mind works, making up words to try to fit patterns he hears!
In spite of the interruptions, I have finally (almost) finished the deer fence, and planted most of the vegetable seeds and seedlings I started indoors.

Root washing

Isaac learned how to bare-root a tree tonight.  He was very into it.  My four year old is learning how to create bonsai, how cool is that?  

I've been growing these privets behind my garage for several years since I found them as seedlings under an arbor where I assume birds deposited the seeds after having eaten the berries.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, so I planted them in an empty bed to grow until I decided whether to use them in a hedge or create a bonsai.  They are about 4 feet tall and 1/2 - 3/4" thick.  I want to use the bed for vegetable gardening now, so they need to go.  I decided to try to twist some or all of them together to form a fused trunk tree.  I imagine it looking something like this...

Or more likely this...

...depending on how flexible the trunks are when I try to twist them, and how securely I'm able to fasten them together.  I expect it to take 2-3 years before the trunks become fully fused together.  I'll post more details about how I do it with pictures hopefully later this week.  It's been a challenge getting anything done in the yard over the last week because of the rain.  I have post holes sitting full of water waiting to dry out so I can set the posts for a deer fence.

Spruce bonsai inspiration

This is a Norway Spruce grown by a friend from seed about five years ago.  When I got it, it was growing in a three gallon pot.  I removed it from the pot, cut off about 2/3 of the root ball and planted it  in the ground on a tile in Summer of 2011.  The nebari (surface roots) and trunk base have both increased noticeably in size since then and the trunk just above the root flare is now1 3/8" in diameter.  I would like it to be at least 2" before I start training it as a bonsai, so I expect to leave it in the ground another two years to thicken up.  I do plan on pruning the roots on two sides this Spring, and the other two sides next Spring to prepare it for digging up the following year.

I think you can see from this picture that the trunk does have some nice movement.  I can increase the taper after chopping it down and carving the tip into a deadwood "snag top".

Here's the tree in October with Isaac (40" tall).  The trunk caliper is now 2" so I'm torn whether to give it another year in the ground or dig it up next Spring and put it  in a training pot.  I'd like it to be 2 1/2" for a finished height of 19".  

I photographed these two trees in Yosemite last summer, and I think they may serve as models for the bonsai.

Here are two spruce bonsai that I really admire, because I think they capture and epitomize the qualities I've seen in a lot of wild Spruces.

Noelanders Trophy via Walter Pall

Here are some images of bonsai from the recent Noelanders Trophy, bonsai extravaganza in Belgium.  With the exception of the last two pictures, these were taken by Walter Pall and posted on his blog.  I picked out 9 trees as my favorites from about 120.  None of my favorites are prize winners, but I find them somehow more believable as real trees than the two deciduous prizewinners which I post last.  I liked the conifer winners even less.  The two winning deciduous tree images are from Bonsai Eejit

And the winners are...

 Second prize (which I like better than the first prize) 

Acer palmatum by Udo Fisher

First prize, Fagus crenata by Luis Vallejo

I feel this is too perfectly shaped.  I like to see more irregularity, but none the less, it's still a beautiful tree.

Vision for the azalea

I found some pictures of azalea bonsai that not only appeal to me, but could possibly serve as inspiration for my own potential bonsai I wrote about in my last post (this first picture is not one of them). Many Japanese azalea bonsai look more like giant towering flower arrangements than trees - case in point:

...but here are some that have character, and are apparently from the same show, photographed and viewed by Clinton Lewis/Sam Shio.  This first one is probably the closest to what I want to create, since it has multiple trunks and interesting nebari.

 This next two are by an artist I recently discovered, Wolfgang Putz, who appeals to me because of the variety of species he utilizes, and also because his work seems more do-able than someone like Walter Pall, who I find incredibly inspiring, but relies heavily on very old collected specimens from wilderness areas, that I probably will never have access to.  This azalea is more upright than mine will be, but I like it.

 This is also by Wolfgang Putz, and I've always admired this tree, although I just found out who made it.

And this one is just really cool because of the exposed roots.  Don't know if I'll attempt that, but I like it anyway.  Frequently azaleas have very little trunk or roots visible when in bloom, so this is an interesting way of achieving that.

Azalea Potensai

A few months ago I noticed an azalea growing at the back of my property, which I had transplanted there about 7 years ago.  It has a thick, gnarly looking trunk base, so I thought it might make a good bonsai.  I began viewing Youtube videos on bonsai training for azalea, and I am very excited about the prospect of a new potential bonsai right in my own back yard (literally)!

So yesterday afternoon when Mindy was at a meeting for the afternoon, I bundled up the kids and went out to get a closer look and take some pictures.  I told Isaac we were going on an adventure, which seemed to be motivation enough for him to want to go outside with me.

I remember relocating this tree from a crowded area in my herb garden, cutting it back very hard, and just plunking it down in a mucky spot at the back of the yard, not even amending the soil at all.  Since then it has grown fairly well, blooms profusely, and has started to callous over on the cut ends of branches, which I find very promising for future bonsai development since it will need to be cut back very hard again, and will hopefully be in more conducive conditions for growth.

It seems to have some interesting roots just barely visible above the mud.  I hope I discover more when I dig it up.

In late Spring after it finishes flowering, I will dig it up, prune it back hard, and pot it up.  I will need to make some selections on branches since it has multiple competing trunks, some of which are dead.

Here are the adventurers who accompanied me, some willingly, and others didn't even know where they were going!