Posts

Wrapping up all the loose ends

 Hey Guys,       This week has been a bit of a rollercoaster, balancing school projects, plant care/work, and the spider mite battle I've been fighting over the last couple of weeks.       For those that don't know, spider mites have been the number one killer of my plants. I'm careful, so overwatering isn't a problem but when the spider mites move in some plants are really at risk. They are very small so it can be hard to identify who is infected and who isn't. they can be hard to get rid of because they have to get under the leaves where they live and either wipe down each leaf and/or spray them down with insecticide. They feed on the sap of the trees which is essentially the blood of the tree. You can notice their effects when the leaves start to yellow and fall off, this can kill branches or the whole tree itself. they are prolific on indoor plants because there are generally no predators such as ladybugs or spiders and it doesn't rain in...

A Brief Look into Making Pots

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     Hello everyone, this week I was a little pressed for time so it will be more brief than usual.        So, to start, I just want to say that everything is alright with Nigel's channel. Youtube was able to get back to him and restore all of his videos. Everything is back to how it was before he was hacked, so that's good.        What I looked at this week were three videos that Nigel put out. these give some good insight into how pots are made for bonsai.       The first one here is Izabella making a pot on her own to give Nigel and opportunity to see it being done firsthand.      The second video is Nigel giving it a try with Izabella helping him along the way. He was working with a smaller amount of clay which must be easier to work with. One thing I noticed was that Nigel always had the potter's wheel at a low speed, likely because it could be pretty intimidating when you haven't done an...

A look into Vietnam

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Hey guys,       This week I took a look into Vietnam's bonsai presence. This topic was a bit harder to find information about online. Like a lot of other areas, it was carried over from China and Japan. They created their own version of the Japanese bonsai, these take a lot after the Chinese Penjing in the sense that they want to create a small landscape. This is called Hon Nam Bo.       Their trees look very similar because the branch selection and pruning techniques are the same as Japan’s and China’s. These trees are generally kept larger and are either in the ground or in very large pots. below is an example of one of those trees. you can see it's got the same pads that Japan's bonsai have but the scale of it is much larger and it located in a public place.      Bonsai is used as a symbol of good luck, that’s the reason that they have them placed all over. Inside, outside, on the streets, and on balconies. This art has such popu...

Taking a Break This Week

 Hello Everyone. I did not take a break last week but I will be this week. I have a unit plan due that is taking up basically all of my time. This week I have been pruning up my trees and keeping them well watered and fertilized.  Also, I think it important to note that a couple of days ago Nigel Saunders' youtube channel was hacked and taken down. I'm praying that he will get his channel back and that there hasn't been too much damage done. I know that his youtube channel is his only income, so I know it must be a rough time for him now.  That's all for this week, Until next time, Luke   

The Art of Penjing in China

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 Hello Everybody! This week I looked into the origins of bonsai, which is the ancient art of Penjing which is also called Penzai. This originated in china with evidence of the idea beginning in the first century.   Penjing can be broken up into three groups, which I have mentioned before.      Shumu Penjing: Tree Penjing that focuses on one or more trees and sometimes has other plants. The main focus is on the tree(s).      Shanshui Penjing: Landscape Penjing focuses on creating a landscape using rocks, water, etc.       Shuihan Penjing: A water and land Penjing style that effectively combines the first two, including miniature trees and optionally miniature figures and structures to portray a landscape in detail. Timeline      In the first and second centuries, very fundamental versions are formed at this time to be miniature forms of religious and spiritual sites. Having the miniature version helped them t...

Intro to the history

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Hello everyone, This week I looked into some of the more fundamental things with regard to Bonsai and Penjing. Basically looked into some of the definitions and a brief overview of the history.  To start let's define what bonsai is. It's a Japanese word that means tree in a tray or something to that effect. it just refers to basically a very refined plant that is in a pot or tray.   Next, there is Penjing, which is a Chinese art that incorporates more natural aspects and includes a lot more than just the tree and pot. Below is an example of one. they are very dynamic and rely less on the beauty of the tree itself and looks more at building a miniature world.  Next, I did some research about the ancient history of the art in China and how it was moved over to Japan where it really took off. Japan's iteration of the art is what we are all familiar with. It then moved from Japan to other Asian countries where they basically personalized it from there. Next week I want t...

A Deep Dive into Bonsai Tools

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 Hello All! This week I found a video by Peter Chan at the youtube channel Herons Bonsai. I like his videos because it really feels like a one on one even though it's on youtube and thousands of people are seeing it. The video in question is basically just peter going through all of the tools you could possibly use when working on Bonsai.  He went through a lot of tools so I'm only going to go through the main ones.  A link to the video can be found here . To start we have the basic garden pruners. These are a tool that basically anyone doing garden work has and I have been using over the last few years. they are generally good but don't allow you to get a close cut when taking off major branches. Root cutting shears area tool specifically for root pruning. This can be tough on the blades because of the soil that could be present when pruning the roots. Root pruning is almost as important as branch pruning when it comes to bonsai. Twig cutting shears or Satsuki shears are...