My desert rose. First blossom on this tree since I’ve owned it. Lots of other flower buds on this, I hope to see some more blooms this week. Finally after two years this tree is happy enough to flower.
Alaska!
Definitely time to defoliate this Kingman Ficus I have. All of these leaves came off the same tree. I’ve let it grow kind of wild for a couple of years, so I hadn’t defoliated it in a while.
After about $900 in shipping supplies and FedEx charges I packed up 11 of 53 trees and shipped them off to New Mexico. They all arrived okay, a few broken smaller branches, but otherwise looking okay. One however did not fair so well. It looked a little sickly after the move, I think it was a little too dry before I shipped it and then the cold weather we had did the trick. It was my natal plum that I’d had for almost 7 years. I’ll miss that tree and it’s beautiful flowers.
The others are doing fairly well and they have two new brothers. =) I recently purchased a dwarf korean lilac and a brown turkey fig. So my collection is now up to 12. The previous trees I had are all doing ok. Two were a little stressed out, but seem to be bouncing back well after getting used to the lack of humidity here in ABQ.
Pictures to come soon as the buds pop open.
- Ship 11 trees to Albuquerque
- Get final pieces of pottery from studio
- Research bonsai clubs and nurseries in ABQ for quality stock plants
- Join local club
- Find a new pottery class to join
- Learn about local trees and shrubs
- Start working with some larger, more developed stock
- Save towards attending workshop in Oregon or Florida
I just got a new job and I’ll be moving to New Mexico. Now I have to start the task of figuring out how to ship some of my trees out there. I’ll only keep 13 I think, the rest I’ll give away to friends or coworkers. I’ve also had to tell my pottery teacher that I won’t be able to continue classes with him. I’ll really miss my classes at both pottery and the bonsai nursery, but am looking forward to this new journey.
Two great things about moving to NM are the pottery there and the different variety of trees in the Southwest that I can use for my bonsai. Albuquerque also has cheap flights to Portland, OR where a few well known bonsai artists live/work so I could fly up there to take a class every now and then. I’ll most likely start taking some more pottery classes this summer or later this fall once we are more settled.
I’ve got 53 plants including trees in training, so I think it’s time to have a “going away and please take a plant party.”
I really like the work of Maria Martinez from New Mexico. She revitalized classic pueblo style of black on black pottery with traditional south western symbols.
I’ve made a couple of vases in class and plan on trying a different type of symbol on these vases. I really like the art nouveau floral designs that my teacher Darrell showed me. I also found this really interesting fan pattern that could look nice in black matt against black gloss.
I’ve also thought about trying to do a leaf pattern that is simple, maybe using some of my narrow leaf ficus leaves.
The Fujikawa International School of Bonsai (by bjorvalabonsai)
Would love to take courses here some day, a week long is only 70,000 Yen which is about $800.
Maybe someday.
Will have to try this out when we finally buy a house and have a yard. Looks nice.
