Bonsai Supplies

by oinomra

Azalea bonsai are great plants to cultivate. Here are some tips on their care. Satsuki azaleas are especially suitable for bonsai.

Repotting is best done just after flowering-late May to early June in temperate regions. It is also sometimes done in spring, before the buds burst. Autumn repotting is not so good. It is not necessary to repot every year, but only when the plants are found to be pot-bound.

The fertilizers used mostly are soy bean cake, rape cake, and dried fish (herring cake, etc.). These are pulverized and placed on the surface of the soil in the container, a small quantity once or twice every month. These fertilizers should be mixed in varying proportions according to the age of the plants and the season in which they are applied. Liquid fertilizers are simplest.

Water is given to young plants three or four times a day in spring, summer, and autumn; to old plants, twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.

In warm weather it is good to syringe the plants.

Exposure. A sunny and well ventilated place is the best for growing Satsuki azaleas, but in the height of summer they should be in partial shade; I place them under a marsh-reed screen.

The more they are exposed to the sun, the better they grow and the thicker the trunk and branches become; therefore to the extent that one can afford the time and effort, they should be watered liberally in order that they may thrive even under the hottest sun. With the approach of freezing weather (in November most generally), keep them in a sunny place and prepare the frost cover.

Propagation. Satsuki azalea bonsai are propagated by cuttings. When the young shoots attain a length of 2 to 4 inches and are somewhat hardened (that is in May or June), the shoots are cut off, a few leaves at the bases removed, and the bases recut on a slant and placed in water for two or three hours. These should then be inserted 1 to 2 inches apart and an inch or so deep into a good rooting medium in a cutting box. Water, let drain, and wrap box in polyethylene film. Place in full light (no sun) where they should root in 30 to 40 days.

After remaining for fifteen to twenty more days in the cutting boxes or pans, they should be transplanted into soil prepared as described above for young plants. Two weeks or so after this, fertilizer is placed on the soil to encourage growth. If liquid fertilizer is preferred, it must be very dilute, otherwise the fibrous roots often become damaged and may decay.

Application of Liquid Fertilizer
Use fish emulsion fertilizer or other commercial liquid fertilizer, diluted according to manufacturer’s directions. Do NOT over-fertilize. Liquid fertilizers should be applied three to six times a year, starting as the buds burst in spring, and every three to four weeks thereafter until mid or late summer.

How much. Use the diluted liquid fertilizer as though you were watering. Do not sprinkle the foliage with fertilizer-only the soil.

With this care, you should produce beautiful azalea bonsai.

More Bonsai Care Articles

Bonsai Boy’s Bonsai Tools – Entire Set Set Includes 6 Tools

• Bonsai Tool Set – 6 pieces
• Imported from China
• Save .67

Set Includes 6 ToolsA. – Satsuki Shears #1068.Made in China. Long narrow body which is great for trimming buds and reaching deep with minimum disturbance to the surrounding foliage. It’s finger rings are also well suited for smaller hands. 3/4″ blades, 7″ overall. .95 each. Buy separately. B. – Concave Branch Cutter #1070. (Beginner) This razor sharp tool is designed for cutting branches flush to the trunk. The resulting wound can then heal over quickly with very little scarring. Will keep a

Price:

Find More Bonsai Trees For Beginners Products

joebonsai mini leaf shear | scissor

• Great for delicate bonsai sized projects
• Shear measures exactly 4 inches long
• Comes in a very nice box which makes it an excellent, inexpensive gift

Great for delicate bonsai sized projects. Excellent for trimming new buds and leaves, and makes manicuring your bonsai a breeze. Comfortable to use, very precise and the red and white handle make it hard to misplace as you work. You’ll find this to be an essential tool. Shears measure exactly 4 inches long. This bonsai scissor comes in a very nice box which makes it an excellent, inexpensive gift. Imported from Japan by joebonsai.

Price: $ 12.95

When it comes to cultivation of bonsai trees, there are few essential bonsai tools that you need and only the right ones will assist in grooming a healthy bonsai plant. The choices for bonsai tools are varied and many but once you are informed of the relevant ones to use, selecting the proper tools will be a cinch.

There are a few basic bonsai tools that you need and a pair of scissors is necessary but remember that the scissors used for cutting bonsai branches and roots is different from ordinary one. The pair of scissors is designed carefully to suit the use on bonsai and will not cause damages to the plant even when you are pruning and cutting the branches.

Next on the line is the branch cutter that will be very useful in cutting off small branches. The branch cutter will come in useful when you are developing the bonsai plant from shrubs or an older bonsai plant when the pair of scissors will not suffice.

Other essential bonsai tools in the grooming of healthy and beautiful bonsais are the concave pruner. This sort of tool will result in shearing of branches to heal in double quick time than just an ordinary garden scissors. To aid precision cutting, concave pruner is a relevant bonsai tool.

In the event that you need to trim small branches, buds and leaves, bud scissors is very useful as their blades are small enough to control it and assist in trimming closely. For bonsai wire cutters, the difference between them and those normal one are that it is smaller with pointed edges to shear the branches with precision. The design is done in such a way that the nip of the wire cutters will not remove the branches that are wired as they so small that you can easily trim them.

There are also the root hook and the knob cutter with the knob cutter being use to get rid of outwardly projected stubs or wood in order to shape the trunk the way you like it. Besides that, you can form the root and the roughest parts of the trunk to whatever shapes that you can envision. Root hook is especially useful to untangle roots when repotting. In addition to, the root cutter and saw form an essential part of the bonsai tools kit as they will make the pruning of the roots more easily as well as forming of the bonsai plants.

As bonsai tools will ease the process of cultivating a healthy plant, it is vital that you take care of your bonsai tools so as to prolong their life as well as saving you lots of headaches. When bonsai tools rusted and blunt, you will expend more effort in pruning and shaping the bonsai plant and the end result will not be as good. Therefore proper care is essential so as not to have to replace tools frequently.

Bonsai tools are a necessity in the cultivation of healthy and beautiful bonsai and with lesser effort. Do not scrimp when it comes to choosing the basic bonsai tools that will enable more accurate and precise cutting and shaping of the bonsai trees.

A Juniper Bonsai – about 9 Year Old Tree – Come with a Bonsai Care DVD!

• Easy Care Juniper Bonsai for Any Home and Office Settings.
• About 8 to 9 Year Old with Heavy Trunk Size.
• Handcrafted by Bonsai Etc. Nursery by a Resident Artist.
• Sitting in a Semi-Cascading Bonsai Pot.
• Come with Instruction Sheet, Bonsai Care DVD, Organic Bonsai Foods, and a pair of stainless steel mini shears or tweezers for buds trimming/pinching.

A beautiful 9 year old juniper bonsai tree crafted for any home and office settings. This juniper tree has fresh green needles throughout the year and requires only minimal care.

The juniper is indeed one of the most popular bonsais grown in the States, its evergreen features and naturally cascading branches shows the intrinsic beauty of nature. Though many nurseries have claimed to grow and craft the trees; we DO NOT stick a tree into a bonsai pot and call it bonsai. We select only the most f

Price: $ 38.50

Brussel’s CT9005CE Chinese Elm Bonsai

• Deciduous outdoor bonsai
• The small leaves are ideally suited for bonsai
• Imported from northern China
• 5 years old; 9 inches tall
• Ulmus parvifolia

Chinese Elms are deciduous trees with small leaves and fine twigging on their secondary branches. These trees are imported from Chinese nurseries where the branches have been painstakingly trained for years. Chinese Elms are durable and may be displayed indoors for extended periods of time.

List Price: $ 40.00

Price: $ 22.99

A Starter Juniper Bonsai Tree – NEW, Cute, Cool, Very Dwarf Tree

• New, Cool, Cute, Easy Care
• Shimpaku Upright (style) Juniper Mame (mini) Bonsai
• Hand Crafted and Nurtured by Local Bonsai Artists
• Sitting in An Approx. 3 Inches Bonsai Container
• Come with Juniper Bonsai Instruction Sheet by Bonsai Etc., Organic Bonsai Foods, Glass Humidity Tray, Pebbles, and a Pair of Mini Stainless Steel Tweezers for Buds Pinching/Trimming

A very dwarf in size Shimpaku juniper bonsai tree crafted for anyone, especially those who wishes to for his/her first bonsai tree. Although trained in a small pot, this tree has big aspirations and all the traits and beauty of it’s full-sized siblings. This juniper tree has fresh green needles throughout the year and requires only minimal care.
Other than the Japanese juniper, the Shimpaku juniper is originated in the Far East countries like China, Japan and Korea. Its evergreen feature shows

List Price: $ 24.99

Price: $ 18.50

Find More Bonsai Tree Products

Bonsai pruning is one of the most important things in bonsai care. By doing the pruning youll give to the bonsai tree the shape that you want, you can shorten it and get the bonsai tree stem thickening too.
First of all, we want to point out that you have to:

name it for a better contact with the bonsai tree, which is good too for its health and vigor
water bonsai plant once a day or two, but dont over water it
keep it in high humidity places
do not expose the bonsai in direct sun and hot temperature
make the pruning in spring (there are some particular species of bonsai tree that are admitting the summer cuttings)
prune the bonsai crown so that it takes the triangle shape

cover the cut sector or branches lesion with diameter over 0.5 cm with lute, for helping the bonsai healing.
use only clean and sharp gardening and cutting instruments
the above part of the bonsai tree is growing faster than the inferior part of it, so cut mostly the edge of bonsai treetop

Conifer bonsai pruning

There are no pruning for conifer bonsai, but pinching. If the conifer bonsai branch remains without needles, it will die. This thing never happens to the other bonsai tree species, deciduous ones, which are increasing the ramification after the cutting, but in case of conifers, the cutting is favoring apparition of the new buds behind.

Flowering bonsai tree pruning

Dont prune the flowering bonsai plant in the same way as the green bonsai, because there is the risk of loosing the bonsai flowers. So make the pruning in summer, after the flowering period, when you can distinguish the floral buds and the new sprigs.

Enjoy your bonsai tree!

What are the basics of effective Bonsai care.

Caring for your Bonsai tree involves many of the same activities associated with caring for a pot plant or an indoor plant. Well developed and healthy fibrous roots are essential for the continued good health of your Bonsai tree and repotting is an essential way to manage this process. Normally a young or fast growing Bonsai will need to be repotted roughly once a year; for less prolific growers or older trees it can be done as infrequently as once every five years. You should always try to repot during late winter or early spring when the buds start to swell.

How to repot a Bonsai tree.

The process of repotting a Bonsai tree is one that you should take seriously and follow these simple instructions:

First, you should tidy the tree by carefully pruning off any unwanted, long branches. Also, make sure the tree has been under cover for a few weeks if it is an outdoor Bonsai, this way the soil will be relatively dry. Once you remove the tree from its pot you will be able to see whether it really needs repotting. If it is root bound then you should repot it, however, if there are another few inches of room so the roots can grow a little longer then you can carefully replace the tree in its original pot and continue as normal.

You should remove surface soil from the roots either by hand or using a nylon scrubbing brush. Brush away from the trunk and be careful not to damage any of the roots. Removing the loose soil will give the Bonsai tree a healthier look and feel. Once youve removed most of the soil in this way, you can use a small, fine bristled paintbrush to remove the soil stuck in the roots or that has collected in the roots.

Use a Bonsai fork to comb out the roots. Do this by combing out the roots from underneath and then use scissors to prune up to a third of the roots and then cut out small wedges around the root base to allow fresh soil to collect and keep your Bonsai healthy. Add a layer of grit to the bottom of the pot and then add the Bonsai compst of your choice.

Take the time to position your Bonsai tree in the pot and then push a little more soil into awkward places. Complete this as often as you need to as mentioned above.

When it comes to cultivation of bonsai trees, there are few essential bonsai tools that you need and only the right ones will assist in grooming a healthy bonsai plant. The choices for bonsai tools are varied and many but once you are informed of the relevant ones to use, selecting the proper tools will be a cinch.

There are a few basic bonsai tools that you need and a pair of scissors is necessary but remember that the scissors used for cutting bonsai branches and roots is different from ordinary one. The pair of scissors is designed carefully to suit the use on bonsai and will not cause damages to the plant even when you are pruning and cutting the branches.

Next on the line is the branch cutter that will be very useful in cutting off small branches. The branch cutter will come in useful when you are developing the bonsai plant from shrubs or an older bonsai plant when the pair of scissors will not suffice.

Other essential bonsai tools in the grooming of healthy and beautiful bonsais are the concave pruner. This sort of tool will result in shearing of branches to heal in double quick time than just an ordinary garden scissors. To aid precision cutting, concave pruner is a relevant bonsai tool.

In the event that you need to trim small branches, buds and leaves, bud scissors is very useful as their blades are small enough to control it and assist in trimming closely. For bonsai wire cutters, the difference between them and those normal one are that it is smaller with pointed edges to shear the branches with precision. The design is done in such a way that the nip of the wire cutters will not remove the branches that are wired as they so small that you can easily trim them.

There are also the root hook and the knob cutter with the knob cutter being use to get rid of outwardly projected stubs or wood in order to shape the trunk the way you like it. Besides that, you can form the root and the roughest parts of the trunk to whatever shapes that you can envision. Root hook is especially useful to untangle roots when repotting. In addition to, the root cutter and saw form an essential part of the bonsai tools kit as they will make the pruning of the roots more easily as well as forming of the bonsai plants.

As bonsai tools will ease the process of cultivating a healthy plant, it is vital that you take care of your bonsai tools so as to prolong their life as well as saving you lots of headaches. When bonsai tools rusted and blunt, you will expend more effort in pruning and shaping the bonsai plant and the end result will not be as good. Therefore proper care is essential so as not to have to replace tools frequently.

Bonsai tools are a necessity in the cultivation of healthy and beautiful bonsai and with lesser effort. Do not scrimp when it comes to choosing the basic bonsai tools that will enable more accurate and precise cutting and shaping of the bonsai trees.

Bonsai Care

Well, you have got the watering and feeding of the Bonsai down. Think you’re home free. Not a chance. There are still things you need to do successfully to realize the full beauty of these little Japanese wonders. Since the care of the root system is essential to the survival of the trees you need to know the how and when of re-potting your bonsai. This is one of the many steps to proper Bonsai Care.

The importance of Re-potting

The young bonsai trees grow quicker and need to be repotted about once a year. The older trees not so often and eventually get to a point where repotting every 5 years is sufficient. Repotting should be done in the late winter or early spring. This is when the buds begin to swell. First, you should prune your bonsai. Take away any unwanted or long branches. If your bonsai is kept outside it should be placed undercover for a few weeks before repotting. This will help dry the soil. You need to carefully remove the tree from its original pot. Check the root carefully. If they are bound then it is definitely time to transfer it to another pot. If the roots still have some space to grow (a few inches is sufficient) then it does not need repotting.

Remember, repotting at the correct time is essential for Bonsai Care. Place it back into its original pot. Now the fun parts. You dont simply stick the tree straight into a larger pot. Your tree has to be almost groomed before it moves into its new home. First, the original surface soil must be removed from the roots of the tree. This can be done by hand or by using a nylon scrubbing brush. Be careful not to damage the root system while doing this. This is a sure fire way to kill your tree and make all of your previous Bonsai Care skills worthless.

Preparing the roots

Once you have completed this task you need to use a small paint brush to remove any dirt that is stuck in the roots. Soil tends to collect around the roots and using a paint brush will help insure that you do not do any root damage. This process helps the trees look and feel healthier. The next steps require a Bonsai comb. The roots need to be combed out and due to the delicate nature of the trees it is doubtful that the use of a human comb would be advisable. You need to comb from the underneath and using scissors prune away up to 1 third of the roots. Once you have done this you need to cut small wedges out, around the base of the roots. Sounds radical, but this allows for fresh soils to collect and will keep your tree healthy.

Well if you havent run away by now you probably wont, time for the last bit of Bonsai Care. Now that your tree is happily groomed it is time to prepare the pot. You should put a layer of grit on the bottom of the pot and then what ever compost you have chosen to use. Now that its pot has been prepared, our little friend needs to be positioned. Once you have him sorted out begin putting in the soil. You have most likely figured this out by now but place the soil in gently. Why? You guessed it, to avoid root damage. Hopefully the information that you have learned hasnt sent you running and your Bonsai trees to the compost heap. There is a lot to learn and a lot to do correctly to insure your tree makes it to adult hood. It maybe easier just to have kids. Bonsai Care is an art and it has been said that the care and maintenance of these trees is an art form in and of itself. However, the rewards can be grand. The trees are beautiful when cultivated properly and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have mastered the art of Bonsai Care.