Open for the Season

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Bonsai, display, Meadowlark, NVBS, pavilion

The Northern Virginia Bonsai Society and Meadowlark Botanical Gardens are partners in a very special little project. MBG built a permanent pavilion on their grounds to display bonsai, and NVBS provides and cares for the trees that are displayed there, as well as some bonsai that belong to the Garden.

Learning to Live in a Pot

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bareroot, Bonsai, box, boxwood, buxus, collect, pot, root, rootwork, training, wash

It might sound strange, but a tree needs to learn to live in a pot, and that takes some time. A year ago a large boxwood took the first step in the process (you can read about it here) and it was about as gentle a transition as there could be — you know, considering it just got cut from the ground, had many of its roots severed and most of its branches removed. After collection, this plant went back in the ground!

Choosing a Bonsai Pot

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Bonsai, boxwood, buxus, choose, color, pot, pots, repot, size

More decisions!

This little boxwood is due to be repotted and I’d like to choose a pot more suited to the design. The tree will be planted at a new angle. The current pot is propped up in the image below to approximate this. Also shown are a range of pots that might be about the right size.

Bonsai Planting Angle

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advice, angle, Bonsai, broken, juniper, pot, repot

What do you suggest? And please withhold suggestions to throw it all in the compost pile!

I know plenty of folks who wouldn’t waste their time with something that isn’t “proper bonsai material,” but I am the type who enjoys figuring out what to do with unusual material. It’s a puzzle… a challenge!

Collecting Virginia Pine

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Bonsai, collect, dig, pine, pinus, Virginia, yamadori

The landscape is still brown, and nighttime temperatures continue to dip below freezing, but I expect both of these to change very soon. That means it’s a good time to collect pines. The buds are starting to swell and extend, just a bit, which means the roots are starting to grow too.

Some TLC

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Bonsai, juniper, repot, roots, wire

Last summer I picked up this little juniper for a couple bucks from the section of the garden center where they put the plants that don’t look so good. In fact, this particular garden center calls it the TLC area.

Only February and I’ve already got my Taxus done.

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Bonsai, collect, dig, puns, taxus, yamadori, yew

See what I did there? That’s right. There’s more than one way to have pun with yew!

My taxes really have been filed already, by the way, but my wife gets credit for that. We made a deal a long time ago — and at times each of us regrets it — I pay the monthly bills, and she does our taxes. It works for us.

Anyway, to business and to taxus! I already posted about the yew dig on Bonsai Iterate. You can read that here if you like. Now I want to share the tree I got. Here it is before digging:

Diggin’ Yew (pun intended)

Tags

Bonsai, collect, dig, NVBS, taxus, yew

I spent a long day digging yew from a site that is about to go under construction. In all, eleven members of the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society came out to get their hands on some really fantastic material.

Glazed pots

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Bonsai, ceramic, color, glaze, pots, pottery

I love taking glaze ware out of the kiln!

A Late Announcement

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Bonsai, club, NVBS, President

While I have told many friends, and no doubt posted the news to social media long ago, I realize I have never made a notable, bonsai-related announcement here on Bonsai Iterate. I am now the president of the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society!