I decided to wire my bonsai today, I used a 19GA black coated aluminum wire. I couldn't find the size I needed in a copper wire and online it said coated aluminum would work.
I started by wrapping the wire at a 45 degree angle on my longest branch because I wanted to bring it down a bit. I also snipped a branch off shown in picture 1.
I then wrapped a second smaller upright branch that I wanted to bring down a bit as well, shown in picture 2. Once wrapped I basically just bent the branches to whatever shape I wanted and because those branches are so young the bent very easily.
Next I wrapped a section of two branches (shown in picture 3) because I just wanted to twist them a bit.
In picture 4 you can see the before and after look of the tree, I think it opened it up quite nicely and I can't wait to see what will grow. I have two new branches starting a the very top of the tree and can't wait to see what happens with them. I will give them about 3-4 months to grow and adjust to their new shape.
BTW I have no idea what I'm doing, but it's very neat and I like it :)
So while continuing my fall cleanup I had a really hard time throwing my lemon trees away. I've had these lemon trees for about five years now, they do not produce fruit. Probably because I grew them from grocery store lemons.
Every fall I haul them into the house and keep them for the winter, and every year they are full of spider mites, and every year I regret bringing them back in. This year was no exception.
As I stood there staring at them I still couldn't bring myself to throw them out, so what to do. Well I decided to get rid of one and turn the other into a Bonsai.
I have never had a bonsai nor do I know what to do with one but I figure why not, then I can keep my lemon tree and hopefully it will live.
It was about 2 feet tall but it had a nice little cluster of leaves about 8" from the roots so I cut just above that cluster of branches and leaves and wa la, bonsai... I hope.
I uprooted the whole thing and washes all the roots and the entire plant before bringing back inside, I had also bought a mini evergreen about a week ago and thought it would look nice in the pot with the lemon tree.
Now I wait, I hope it works out. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of youtubing and reading about bonsai's :)
I didn't realize I had so many ;)
But I finally have most of my gladiolus dug up and ready for storage. I placed quite a few in a shallow cardboard box and sprinkled some of the hamster bedding in it. I didn't wash them or dust them with anything because I didn't last year either, so far it hasn't been an issue.
If for some reason I do get a fungus in my stash I will make sure that I don't put them away without dusting them with anti fungal dust again. Right now I don't use anything like that because I have a dog with really bad allergies and sensitivities so I don't have anything like that in my house.
I still have a good day or so of clean up and then I'm done for the winter. Which is good because I've just about had my fill of clean up.
If anyone has any other methods or suggestions please feel free to leave your comments.
