Bonsai!

For a while now, I have been interested in the art of bonsai. I love to watch things grow and I also feel the need to be more creative. I also just think that bonsai trees are beautiful and captivating. So several years ago, I decided to learn more about bonsai and try my hand at it. My first attempt, I purchased two shrub juniper trees from home depot and then hacked away at them. I am not sure what I did wrong (probably a few things!) but one plant died within a year. the other plant lived for a while but never flourished, and eventually died before I started medical school. Anyway, for my birthday this year, by mom rekindled my interest in bonsai by purchasing a very nice tree for me for my birthday.

Anyway, I totally killed that tree:

It was actually very sad… we tried everything we could to keep this tree alive.

However, even though the tree died, it really reminded me of how much I do enjoy bonsai. So, 2 weeks ago we when we were at home depot and all shrubs were 50% off, I decided to start anew!

The first plant I bought (for like $3.50) was a blue star juniper. I pretty much just cleaned it up and removed a few branches.

I am not exactly sure what direction I will be going with this plant, but for now I am just going to let it be , grow a little more, and then maybe next year really decide what I will do with it.

Being that the shrubs were still %50 off I went back to home depot and got two more trees.

The first is another juniper, although not a blue star (the tag said juniper chinensis, but I am not sure if that is right.) Again, I mainly just cleaned it up a bit and removed some of the more unruly branches, but feel like a informal upright will be the eventual style I will shoot for.

The last tree I got was a Korean boxwood. I am interested to see how it turns out.

Here it is:

I am really excited about these three trees, and hoping that I can keep them all alive (or at least one of them)! I will update the blog with any new updates!