My Field of Dreams

I think you should know that if not for my husband, I wouldn't have a blog, nor would I live here I always think I am more like Lisa Douglas from Green Acres than anything else. I used to have pretty hands with painted nails. Once we moved here I started having dirt under my nails, I found out the other day, I even have callouses on my knees! I thought I wish it was from praying, but it is really I think from scrubbing floors and crawling around on my hands and knees in the garden. Anyway, I wanted to share today about all of the fun things my husband does.

The above photo is a Japanese maple. He had a bigger tree and he took and scraped  bark off one of the limbs and then put a pot around that limb put in potting soil and left it. Then about a year later he had a brand new tree. See the little things that look like blooms? Now they are tiny seeds. This is going to be one of his little Bonsai trees.

I thought you might like to see what is called the air layer tree that the little one came off of. I love the leaves and the red tips.

Here is another shot of the parent plant. I love the lighter green leaves and I just love how they get those red tips.

Here is another one of his experiments. This one starts differently than other plants. He wanted to start some of these because they do make pretty Bonsai specimens. You have to let them callous.   You take the leaves and you put them in a dark place. I thought it was interesting because you don't put them in water or in soil or anything. My husband thought the best place for them to be in the dark was his underwear drawer. So for three days that was where they were, that week when I would be putting away laundry I would open the drawer and there were the leaves. It always made me laugh. It worked too now we have so many of these plants.

Now I love these things. I am not a big fan of succulents. but I love these. This is called a Jade Plant.
 watching him clip and wire and do all of the things to make the trees look more appealing.

This is a Trident Maple. He started this from a cutting from another plant. He just put it into his potting soil and now he has this tiny tree.

We love these kind of trees. We have about 10 Cork Oak trees from acorns we gathered at a park downtown. We just love the way the bark looks on them. We didn't know there were other varieties of  Cork but then we found out about Cork Elm Trees. He started this little tiny tree for a tiny limb from the Cork Elm we bought from the Bonsai nursery. I love how tiny and beautiful it is.

See that tiny little spout? That is called a Black Pine Sprout. One of my favorite Bonsai looks are the ones done with Black Pines. We had looked and looked and we couldn't find any at the nurseries around here.
So my husband in October drove around and looked at parks. They have them planted in parks so he gathered pine cones and did experiments. One bunch he just planted into potting soil, another group he soaked in water and the ones that float you remove and plant the rest. He now has 10 little tiny trees.

This is a Japanese Root Stock. It will someday be an awesome Bonsai. See that curve in the trunk? You want lots of different shapes for Bonsai so you see the movement in the tree. It is very important as it appeals to your eyes. Now growing them for your yard you wouldn't want that  But in Bonsai the more curvy and twisted the better it will look.

When my husband was taking pictures he took some of the blue berry bush. It is so pretty and I like how you can see they look like tiny bells.

I hadn't shared about his trees in awhile. It is so fun this spring to see all of the things that he has coming up. I enjoy watching his hobby and all of his experiments. I have always loved growing things but I am just not that good at it. I don't have the time or the patience. My school of gardening is if it can't take a little abuse then it isn't the plant for me. My husband on the other hand, is patient and gentle and loves to see what works and what doesn't and will keep trying until he accomplishes his goal. Kind of like our marriage. He just never gives up on me. Thank goodness. I would have got rid of me long ago. ;)

I just thought I would share a bit of what we do on Saturday mornings. We sit and stare at trees a bunch.

Have a nice Saturday.
~Kim~