Here is the latest with the mesquite trees we dug up this spring- one of them has produced quite a few shoots and seems to be surviving quite well! We dug them on March 4th, right after it had been raining for a week- We weren’t able to get any sort of a root ball as the taproot went
straight down into the sandy soil, and the only other roots went off in opposite directions horizontally for several feet, so we were worried that we had just spent a couple hours digging up firewood. We chopped the roots off at about a foot long and put it in a 15 gallon container- we potted them in almost pure pumice with a bit of the native soil, and crossed our fingers.
The trees sat with no signs of life for almost 4 months and sadly I actually threw away the larger tree with the bent trunk because I thought it was dead. The multi-trunk tree also showed no signs of life, but Randy held onto it. Then out of the blue, Randy called me up with news that the remaining tree burst to life in late July!. It had been sitting neglected in mostly shade and had been getting watered lightly every day from misaligned lawn sprinkers. I have been watering and fertilizing for the past few weeks and it has put on even more growth. I plan on waiting for the leaves to drop before doing any pruning or wiring this fall, but it seems to have taken quite well, and we are excited for next spring to dig up more at the same location. It was collected on a cleared commercial building lot, that is still for sale, there are more trees there that are doomed to be plowed over.
This morning, Randy and I dug up some Mesquite trees with permission on a piece of commercial property in St. George. We’ll see if they survive! Its been raining off and on for a couple of weeks, so hopefully that works in our favor, the roots seemed to be juicy and easily cut. We couldnt get much of a root ball, the second tree had a few fine roots, but the first had virtually none within view.
This first one looks like it was run over by a tractor a few years back and then sprouted some new shoots, we of course chopped this all off.
And the second one, which I think has a better chance of survival, was more vigourous and had more roots and better branching. This is our first year of collecting, hopefully it makes it through the transplant and becomes more than just firewood.
Thursday August 20th, 7:00 PM
Star Nursery,
385 W Telegraph St
Washington, UT
map
This month we will be learning how to style either a Bougainvillea ($10) or a Cotoneaster ($5) if you want me to pick up the plants just let me know which one you want to do and bring some cash. Or just buy your own plants and bring them. If you need any tips on selecting nursery plants, let me know. Casey - 435-668-0844
The July meeting will be held on 7/16/09 at 7:00 PM - Star Nursery in Washington, UT.
Activities TBD.
Here is the inspiration of the day, brought to you by Xemanhdep Stock Images:
http://gallery.xemanhdep.com/2009/06/the-art-of-bonsai/
We had a great meeting last Thursday, with five founding members attending (including myself) we styled some trees and talked over some basics of bonsai. Here are some photos of the trees we created:
 Our raw nursery stock about to be styled.  Bob wiring a branch |
 Bob pruning his juniper, you can just sense the concentration here. |
 Rhian and Nicole collaborating on a their tree. |
 Malea wiring the basic branches that will lead to an awesome tree. |
 Malea and her creation of bonsai prefection. |
 Nicole and her finished tree. |
 Rhian holds his tree after styling it from raw nursery stock. |
 Casey wielding his bonsai like a weapon. Those jins could kill. |
 Bob proudly shows his excellent first bonsai. |
|
Much thanks to Annette at Star Nursery for allowing us to use the historic Cotton Mill building in Washington, and thanks to all who came! Hope to see more of you at the next meet up.
Bonsai Club meeting this Thursday the 18th!
We will be having our first official meeting this week at 7:00 PM at Star Nursery in Washington.
We will be going over an introduction to bonsai and creating a tree from a Japanese garden juniper. Please call Casey at (435) 668-0844 if you are attending so I can get the plants- cost will be $5.
The Southern Utah Bonsai Society is currently gathering interest and will be forming soon. If you are interested in joining, please call Casey at (435) 668-0844.
