名媛直播

I have always loved plants, and have some experience with them. This year, I was gifted a bonsai for Christmas. I am truly grateful, and wish to create something beautiful and keep it healthy. This is my first time owning a bonsai tree, and I have a few questions. Forgive me if they seem obvious, but I'd like advice and answers from those who are more knowledgeable and experienced.

1. The trunk of the bonsai is a concern of mine. This question is most important. If you look closely at these images, the trunk seems to be cleanly cut, almost like a stump. It does not appear to be natural at all. Why was this done? Will it grow correctly?

2. The roots. The roots seem to be exposed and too long for the pot to contain. Some of them even grow outside of the pot. They seem to be strong enough. Is there anything wrong that you can see? Should I prune them?

3. What type of bonsai do you think this is? It is most definitely a Ligustrum, it states this on the certificate confirming it is indeed a real bonsai, but it was never specified which type. I got this as a gift from my family this Christmas, but they do not seem to know either. It looks to be a Chinese privet? I may be mistaken. I'd appreciate it if someone could confirm so that I can research the type.

4. The pot. Should I replace the pot this year? As I mentioned earlier, it appears that the roots are too long.

5. Finally, how am I able to make it look better? I have researched all of the techniques, but which do you suggest I put into place currently, if any? Shall I simply wait for it to grow more?

I also received some money from my relatives this Christmas, and I am willing to spend as much money as I have (and I could try to earn more) into keeping it healthy and well. I will be patient for as long as I need to be, no matter how long it takes. It would mean a lot if you could give me the advice that will be best for the bonsai. I have some images of the bonsai attached to this post. If you need any more from other angles, I'd be happy to provide. The bonsai is very small, and I am assuming it will grow if I allow it? No matter what, I am thankful for my gift and would like to make and keep it strong and healthy.

Thank you in advance, any advice is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the empire, and congratulations on your first starter tree!

From your images, it looks like you have a privet (Ligustrum species). Quite likely a chinese privet. These are slightly frost resistent, say, up to -5c. So normaly, during mild winters, this should be outside, and with stronger frost, receive a little shelter.

That being said: Assuming you are on the northern hemishere it is winter already, and the tree has spent time inside, else it would be bare: Do not move it outside but keep it in a bright window, in a cool room.

The trunk has been chopped, which is a common way to get a thick short trunk in western impatient society. You can mask the chop by carving the cut to gently transition into a new trunk. Normally, one of the top branches is allowed to grow out again, resulting in a new trunk, and the chopped area is slowly grown over by the expanding trunk. It is a long process with privet though.

It has been potted up a little clumsily, indeed. I would not worry about it too much for now. Only small roots sticking out of the soil.

I am so happy to see a response, especially from someone as experienced and knowledgeable as yourself. I am getting into the hobby young, so I (hopefully) have many years to watch it to grow and develop, and will hopefully grow even more bonsai along the way. If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to ask a few more questions.

1. The bonsai was sold as an indoor plant, so It was never expected to go outdoors, but this isn't a problem. I live in England, and it rains a lot in winter (summer too, for that matter). I've heard this bonsai likes to be watered a decent amount, but is it too much? What should I do when it rains heavily enough to flood it? Take it inside? Cover it? Leave it? It very rarely falls below -5°C. In the very unlikely case that it does, what should I do? Will it be alright for a few days in weather below that?

2. What can we expect it to look like with proper care? Will it ever look like one of the attachments below, or is that too much to hope for? How long will it take for it to reach that stage? You mentioned it takes a long time, but exactly how long. No matter what it looks like, I will provide it with the best care I can, so please answer honestly.

3. When should I repot? This spring? Am I able to repot it in the pot we have, just more carefully, or should I buy a new pot of larger size?

4. Is there a tutorial on carving the bonsai? If so, how would you recommend I carved it? Should I carve it straight up or curl it to the side? When should I carve it?

You are very kind. Thank you so much for teaching me. I promise to do my best with the knowledge you have given me, and to study more.

1: there are no such thing as an indoor tree.

2: yes it can grow to become a nice given time and comitment. How long is quite much depending on your final design an size. To make trunk taper you need to grow a new leader for at least 10 years.

3: its possible to repot into the same pot in spring. However its not recomended to do any repotting first year as a beginner. You can shoose between growing it one more year or to join a club and ask someone more experienced to help you.

4: I have learnt most of my skills by interacting with more experienced bonsai artists and by watching Youtube. 名媛直播 empire also have a lot of bonsai tutorials.

Hi,

Good to see you back for more

indoor is usually used for plants that are not frost hardy enough to stay outside all winter, and therefor need winter protection. That however does not take away from the fact that plants do much better outside than inside, so rule of thumb: Protect when it is too cold to stay in the weather. But out and about when the weather is good enough. If temps do drop well below freezing, often a shed is enough. Bringing it fully indoors in a warm room makes it more susceptable to cold afterwards, so that is not a great idea.

The potting soil that has been used will hold a lot of water, which might cause the roots to drown due to lack of air. I myself grow all my trees in a very open substrate, which allows water to run through it easily. Downside.. During hot summers I need to water twice a day . In periods of continued rain placing it under an overhang often does the trick. But when repotting, consider going for an open substrate. Take a look at seramis, which I think is sold in UK too.

In order to develop the tree, a little more legspace is nice, so a slightly wider pot can help.

As for development times.. Dificult to say for sure. It depends on a lot of factors, your local climate, fertilizer, health of the tree etcetc. Where some may take a decade to get results, others need 2-4 years. But think in years, not weeks or months!

Maybe this helps:

As a start you can google trunk chop.This is a common ( western) practice in the development of 名媛直播.
名媛直播 are developped by applying a multitude of techniques, on specific times during a year, depending on a lot of variables and this during decades...
Start with the basics first: keep it alive. Might seem ridiculous but horticulture ( iow a healthy tree) is thé main thing to master in developping bonsai. Without a healthy tree you cant do anything to it. First thing to do it place it outside, or, as LB suggests in the coldest room you have ( but if temps go up like here in belgium next week up to 15°C) , bring it outside and leave it there. Forget about indoor trees, as Tropfrog says , there is no such thing as an indoor tree. It is a common mistake, but indoor means :"this is a (sub)tropical species that needs protection in colder temps, or frost, or deeper frost, depending on the species. Indoor is never our living room which is a lethal environent for trees( too hot, dry, dark). Trees have evolved over millions of years to the change of seasons and temps, but die in our living rooms- if you do a search for "help my tree is dying" here on our forum you will see that 99% of these questions come from people with "indoor " trees. In the 6 years i am here i have never seen one of these people come back to show how good their tree is doing inside.
While you master the keeping alive part , the internet is filled with usefull info about growing bonsai. This site is a good start, with lots of online lessons to see/buy, Youtube is a vast resource of good tutorials ( Peter Chan of herons bonsai f.i.), find a local bonsai club,....
A last point: this is an international forum, for a lot of us English is not our native tongue, so try to find the meaning of what we say if we make mistakes, or even appear to be rude...( LB is Dutch, i am from Belgium, and Tropfrog is Swedish...)

Thank all of you very much, lucR, Tropfrog and leatherback.

Each of you are so kind, and all of you are excellent at English, it never even crossed my mind that English might not be your first language. I am so grateful to all of you for responding to me. I was so overwhelmed with all of the contradiction from different websites that I needed someone to either correct me or confirm. Of course, my first priority is to keep it alive. This is why I came here for advice, and I received far more than I expected. I must admit, I was very nervous to ask on a forum, because I've seen a lot of disrespectful and confrontational behaviour in forums for other plant and animal species, but each of you have been so welcoming and you all seem very knowledgeable, patient and experienced. This is the first time I have ever posted in a forum. I have done a lot of research on them today and yesterday, and have taken your advice. I am looking forward to watching it slowly grow in size and beauty. I will do my very best to care for it and update you all on it.

A lot of websites contain misinformation about bonsai, and it appears many shops, at least in England, often sacrifice the welfare of the bonsai for cheaper, easier care, from what my mother told me. I will try to join discussions to learn more, buy some lessons, and come to you with any problems I may have, and I will update you all yearly on my bonsai. I am still very young, so I have plenty of time to watch them grow and learn more about them.

I will move my bonsai outdoors in spring when it starts to heat up a little. I watered it just enough yesterday, and it remains damp. I will buy seramis substrate to buy when I repot it the year after next, which will hopefully prevent the soil from becoming too wet with the English weather. Do you recommend liquid or solid fertilizer?

Once more, thank you so much for helping me. It honestly means a lot to me.

Where will you keep it untill spring? If the answer is: in my living room you might/probably have a dead/dying tree in spring...

No, you have already warned me against that, so I am currently thinking up an alternative, which I am sure there is. Unfortunately, every room is heated, so I will have to either come up with a way to keep one of our rooms cool by either turning off the heater in one room or cooling it down with the heater on.

Am I able to take it outside sooner, or will the shock of the cold kill it? If not, where shall I put it in the meantime?

Currently, I have it near a slightly open window, letting some cold in, but not enough to shock it.