Welcome to My Bonsai Blog!

Bonsai in progress...

If you are checking this out because you recieved a request card from me, here's the deal. Bonsai are not one specific kind of plant like many people think. Bonsai trees can be made out of almost any plant, including tropicals. It is a process of starting with plant material and grooming the roots and the top in artistic ways. It is never an overnight enterpriise.

I have been dabbling in bonsai as a sort of passtime for several years. Among bonsai enthusiasts, bonsai means different things to different artisans. Some love looking at already finished trees and will pay hundreds to thousands of dollars for "finished" trees that have taken years to finish. Others like to start with good trees and shrubs from gardens and nurseries, and bring them to their potential as bonsai. I am in this category, as well as collecting them from the wild. Permission to dig must always be obtained no matter where one digs from.

In order to simplify the process of asking permission, I leave calling cards when I spot something that could lend itself well to bonsai. More often than not, these potential plants are gangly or appear to be in bad shape. They are sometimes landscaping plants that home or landowners no longer want. That can be handy; I can remove an unwanted tree, shrub, or vine, for free. Usually I can do this in one day, and I try not to leave a huge mess. I replace soil if necessary.

So if I left you a card, and you would like to get rid of a plant or two, please give me a call.

Thanks, Michelle

Recent Cedar Elm Collection

Collection procedures started last year. It was hiding a few miles from my house. I got overeager and picked it out a week ago. Fingers crossed and lots of protection...

After recovery, this one is in for lots of carving. Depending on growth, I plan to make it a cascade.

Collecting Trip Next Week

I can't wait! I will be setting off next Wendnesday morning, early-30, to collect pinion pine (pinus edulis) and live oak from the South West. It's like I'm already there. I'm on my own. Louis doesn't want to go. There's nothing there for him in the area I plan to go.

He doesn't seem worried that I'm setting off alone. My collecting buddy George can't go. Thanks to him, I know how to collect in shale and limestone. I will drive for about 9 hours and probably be too eager to dig to wait until the next day. I hope to have at least two or three hours dig time on the first night and all of the next day I think I'll be there two nights.

I will be more prepared this time. I will have my rooting hormone with me.

I had planned to meadow crash like in my old scouting days, but my better half drew the line there. I'm not sure which predators he's more worried about; two-legged, four legged, or slithery. I'm still tempted to do it at least one of the nights I'm there. Nothing like sleeping on the frozen earth to remind you of who you really are and how much life matters. But then, after a few hours of hard work, I might feel plenty validated and crave a soft warm bed. Maybe I should save the sleeping on the earth thing for my back yard. Not all adventuring is desirable-I guess some of the enduring-the-hardships was out of necessity. I'm older. I have become attached to common comforts.

Our best friend Steve got it right away. "Oh, man, you're having an adventure aren't you?! I'm jealous!"

Part of this trip is as much about reclaiming part of myself as it is gathering potential bonsai.

At my age, I was beginning to think the adventures were over. Not that the married with a house, a dog and a fence is a bad life! I've got it good here. I'm happy. I am still madly in love with my husband. I love my stressful job! But I miss some of the old me. The fiercely independent, strike-out-on-your-own, devil be damned me. I only wish I could take my dog. It would be too much for her. She's old and gray since the last time I went.



I hope to find some old pinion like the old fella I collected a few years ago (pictured). It is doing well, considering the fact that I didn't secure it in its new pot a couple years ago.

I also hope to bring home some gnarly old live oaks. I'm still waiting on a call back from one of the land owners to grant me permission again.

I'll be keeping my eyes open along the way to see what else grows in the region besides miles and tumbleweeds.

I plan to take lots of pictures and post an article on BonsaiTalk.com.

Really, I'm now halfway planning a digging trip to Houston, Tx, too. I have family there I haven't seen in forever. I could see them and look for some tropical stuff. I especially would like to find some fat bougainvillea, some sea grape, and whatever else I can obtain permission for.

At this rate I'm going to have to make some money by selling collected material so that I can buy a jeep! Our little cars aren't really suited to this kinda thing. George drove last time so it wasn't a problem then.

So, as my thoughts race and I lose sleep in anticipation, I have started gathering the few tools I'm going to need. Oh, that reminds me; where did I put that chain?

If I never post again, it's because I became coyote food...(that would be my luck; that a gangly ol coyote ould get me instead of the noble and fierce eagle). I know, I ain't right. To end on such a morbid note!

Another Gardener's Trash

Well, I am still obsessed with bonsai. So I was doing a search for, of all things, "bougainvillea stump." I landed on someone's blog describing her brutal and merciless slaying of a huge bougainvillea stump on her property. With startling and gory detail she talked about using axes and chainsaws and trucks and fire and all other means of nasty torture.

All the while I am sitting at my desk at work muffling my cries so as not to get pink slipped. "NNNNOOOOOOOOOO" I wanted to scream out!

Wait! Let me have it!!! I will take your eyesore off your hands and coddle it and nurture it back to health as if it were my own, borne out of love and passion! We don't get bougainvilleas growing out of control here, in the land of heat-from-the-bowels-of-hell...and winters that would make an ice statue out of Satan himself. I know more Northern climes have snowdrifts as high as buildings but we have ice storms. Ice storms that prevent the very act of walking for days at a time. Unless you have some sort of sick hatred of your own hip bones, that is. If so then walk and slide your heart out! Because you WILL break a hip and no one will pity you for your folly, foolish girl!

This is a characteristic my husband deems aberrant; I want something so there MUST be a means to obtain it! Without losing my lunch money, as well. I call it resourceful. He has other words for it.

But I know, that as badly as I want a bougainvillea bonsai with a nice, fat trunk, there is some rabid woman in a sunnier place brutalizing the very thing that would quiet my yearning. If we were to meet at a gardening club meeting somewhere, we could have solved each other's problems.

Sigh...