I’m supposed to be transplanting and weeding and working on orders for next spring, and helping customers at the nursery, but Thursday was sort of a social day. Our friends, Judy and Mike Garcia, stopped by in the morning, and we got to talk gardening and bonsai. Judy was the first friend I made in Colorado. I met her shortly after moving here when I took the Master Gardening class back in the 1980s. She is an avid gardener, and in the time I’ve known her has grown a house full of orchids, kept a beautiful unattached greenhouse filled with cuttings, seedlings, and flowering vines, and started and maintained countless bonsai plants. She did all of that in Trinidad, and now that they live in Florida, she’s still gardening. And bonsai is still a big part of her life.
She and Miked walked around our nursery and spotted plants that they thought would make great starter bonsai plants. They even took a couple of them with them, planning to pack them in their suitcase when they fly back home. I was honored that they saw the potential in some of our plants, and inspired to try my hand at bonsai.
If you have a Facebook account you should go to Bonsai Empire and like that page! They post amazing pictures of bonsai from all around the world. Here is one I really like called Forest Landscape.
and this one, a juniper:
We have some little junipers and Judy and Mike thought they would make good starter bonsais:
Wyoming native creeping juniper–and Xander.
Judy said that these junipers are fairly fast growing, and forgiving, so it is easier to learn the techniques of bonsai with them. We have some small maples that will also be interesting bonsai subjects. I’m going to experiment with one of each and see how it goes. And watch one of the Karate Kid movies, too, just to hear Mr. Miyagi say “Close your eyes, concentrate, think only tree.”
