Interviews with Professor Margaret Burchett, University of Technology Sydney Australia, who talks about the latest research on plants removing VOCs from office environments and how many plants you need to have these benefits; Robin Mellon, Green Star Executive Director, Green Building Council Australia talks about the indoor environment and how plants can improve the air quality and contribute points to the Green Star program; Ray Borg, Ambius talks about the benefits of plants in the workplace on air quality and productivity.
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Television show featuring Shunkaen Bonsai Museum in Tokyo, home of Kunio Kobayashi. I apprenticed here for over four years and I am featured here speaking in terrible Japanese. Also featured is top Italian artist Sandro Segneri and American Matt Ouwinga. In 2 parts
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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GIANT INDIAN BAMBOO - BAMBUSA ARUNDINACEA - GREAT HOUSE PLANT - 10 SEEDS

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THIS IS A WONDERFUL LOW COST HOUSEPLANT THAT IS VERY EASY TO CARE FOR. BAMBUSA LIKES A DROUGHT FREE, HUMID ENVIRONMENT WITH PLENTY OF LIGHT, BUT NOT DIRECT SUNLIGHT. THESE SEEDS ARE SLOW TO GERMINATE AND COULD TAKE SEVERAL MONTHS TO BREAK DOWN GERMINATION INHIBITORS, YET WELL WORTH THE WAIT. AFTERCARE: BAMBUSA LIKES A DROUGHT FREE, HUMID ENVIRONMENT WITH PLENTY OF LIGHT, BUT NOT DIRECT SUNLIGHT. THE ROOTBALL MUST BE KEPT MOIST. THEY LIKE WARMTH, IT IS A HUNGRY PLANT AND SHOULD BE FED WITH A BALA

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Bonsai are miniature trees grown in pots.  The goal of bonsai culture is to develop a tiny tree that has all the elements of a large tree growing in a natural setting.  A presentable bonsai can be created in a few seasons. Cultivating these miniature potted trees is both an intriguing hobby, and a means of adapting a wide range of plants to specialized and decorative uses.

How Do I Care for My Bonsai 4 Easy Ways to Love and Care for Your Bonsai

1) New bonsai are started in the spring. This is the time for any pruning and training of last season's bonsai.

2) Cool nights, sunny days and mist (or rain) each day help them thrive in the summer. Place your Bonsai where they receive 3-5 hours of direct sunlight a day. Water the entire bonsai -- plant and soil -- daily.

3) Be sure to water the trees less frequently, in the fall season, to slow their growth for the approaching winter. Do not prune or cut branches after mid-August. To reduce winter die-back of flowering trees and maples, make a light application of 0-10-0 fertilizer.

4) Bonsai can only be left outdoors where the temperatures drop no lower than 28 F degrees -- so you may need a pit or coldframe, if necessary. Winter frosts will seldom bother bonsai that are sheltered under the foliage of a spreading tree.

Bonsai require daily watering during their growing season, and, because the plants are rooted in shallow pots, they need careful pruning. Bonsai are kept outdoors most of the year, but from time to time these miniaturized versions of nature are brought indoors for display.

Indoor Bonsai Concepts

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American gardeners have taken bonsai concepts and have applied them to houseplants. You can combine traditional procedures for handling houseplants with bonsai concepts of design.  Only certain tropical trees, shrubs, and vines can be continuously kept indoors full time.

Outdoor Bonsai Concept

These are plants that are suitable for traditional bonsai. This is not intended to be a complete list. Specialty nurseries often have a wide selection of dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties of many of these species. Dwarf plants, however, do not always convey the same impression as their full size counterparts Ix-cause their growth habit is quite different.

Show Off Your Bonsai

Your indoor bonsai needs to be placed on a raised stand in front of a plain wall. If you bring your outside bonsai inside for a short visit, place it on a raised stand too. Try placing a small Japanese folding screen behind the bonsai.

For your outdoor garden, display bonsai on simple shelf set on concrete blocks. Bonsai in large containers look better displayed alone. Place these on some kind of a stand too.

Where Can I Buy a Bonsai Tree? Here is a Great Web Site

You can look at all the beautiful and graceful Bonsai trees and accessories and select the perfect Bonsai tree for your home or for that special person at Essential Bonsai

Related Bonsai Articles

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Strategically placing your house plant isdiscussed in this free educational video series. Expert: John Mueller Contact: www.ParadisePalm.com Bio: John Mueller has been the Manager of Paradise Palm in Salt Lake City, Utah for eleven years. He has worked in plant care services for close to two decades. Filmmaker: joseph wilkins

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There are five basic styles for bonsai trees: formal upright, informal upright, slanting, cascade, and semi-cascade. These classifications are based on the overall shape of the tree and how much the trunk slants away from an imaginary vertical axis. The numerous Japanese bonsai styles are principally variations of these five basic styles. The single trunk style is the basic design that is simplest to shape because the one trunk determines the overall composition.

The formal upright style has classic proportions and is the basis of all bonsai. It is the easiest for a beginner bonsai to develop because it requires the least experimentation, avoids the problem of selective bonsai tree pruning, bonsai trimming and should almost immediately become a displayable bonsai plant.

In this style, the form is sometimes rounded and the bonsai tree has an erect leader and horizontal branches. One of the branches is lower and extends a little farther from the trunk than the others .

Bonsai in the formal upright style look best in bonsai pottery that are oval or rectangular. Do not center the plant when placing it in the container. Plant it about a third of the distance from one end.

The informal upright bonsai style has much the same branch arrangement as the formal upright style, but the top — instead of being erect as in the formal upright style — bends slightly to the front. This bend makes the bonsai tree’s branches appear to be in motion and enhances the look of informality

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The informal upright style looks best in an bonsai pottery that is oval or rectangular. It should be planted, not in the center of the container, but a third of the distance form one end.

Many bonsai nurseries trees are naturally slanted. This makes them well suited to the informal upright style.

In the slanting bonsai tree style, the trunk has a more acute angle than in the previous styles. The lowest branch should spread in the direction opposite to that in which the tree slants. The top of the tree is bent slightly toward the front. Slanting trees in nature are called “leaners” — trees that have been forced by the wind and gravity into non-vertical growth. The attitude of the slanting style falls between the upright and cascade styles.

In the cascade bonsai tree style, the trunk starts by growing upward from the soil, then turns downward abruptly, and reaches a point below the bottom edge of the container. For this reason, the bonsai pottery container should be placed on the edge of the table, or on a small stand.  This bonsai style is representative of a natural tree that is growing down the face of an embankment.

Training a tree in the cascade style takes longer than in the slanting style. Choose a low-growing bonsai species instead of forcing a tree that normally grows upright into an unnatural form. The cascade bonsai tree looks best in a round or hexagonal bonsai pottery container that is higher than it is wide. The tree should be planted off-center from the cascading side.

The semi-cascade bonsai style has a trunk that is allowed to grow straight for a certain distance, and then is cascaded down at a less abrupt angle than in the cascade style. The cascading branches are thought of as the front of the tree, and the back branches are trained closer to the trunk than in the other bonsai styles. The semi-cascade bonsai should not reach below the bottom of the container, but should go below the level of the soil surface.

No matter what style you choose — whether single trunk specimens or groups of bonsai trees from single roots — everything depends on your selection of bonsai plant material, and your ability to visualize the bonsai’s final form.

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Bonsai Secrets: Designing, Growing, and Caring for Your Miniature Masterpieces

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Lily of the Valley Memories:

My first memories of Lily of the Valley were visiting my grandmother’s house in the country as a child. The small bell shaped blooms were just the right size for a child to grasp and make a small fragrant bouquet to carry into the house, to be put in a mason jar, and admired by all who enter.

As the years passed and my grandmother moved to the city; the adults had the foresight to dig up her most favorite flowers and plants and transplant into their own yards. As an adult now with my own home, the Lily’s have been planted in my own yard. They love it there, like it was meant to be. The Lily’s make me feel special like I was meant to be keeper of the Lily’s. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of my grandmother, especially when I stroll by the Lilies and smell that sweet aroma.

 The delightful aroma that wafts in the car window while driving down the driveway; or walking up the garden path to the back porch; The Lily of the valleys bloom with fragrant flowers twice a year. The Lily’s spread wildly from year to year. The foliage stays green all year, just like a shiny houseplant. I have given many admirers starts from my prize collection of Lily of the valley crop, but I’m told later they did not survive. My mind is reaffirmed I am the keeper of the Lily’s

Lily of the Valley Plant:  (Convallaria majulus)

The lily produces a small white bell, fragrant delicate, cluster around a central stem. Lily of the Valley is a long old time favorite. The lily was a favorite in older gardens and cemeteries; growing 6-8 inches tall. The leaves arise directly from the bulb or pip. They are oblong and thick. The flower stalk grows about 8 inches to 10 inches are borne on the stalk, scattered along the upper half. The lily is a hardy plant that needs to be thinned or it will not produce as many flowers when crowded conditions exist. The Lily is a woodland plant that comes into bloom twice a year. Mid-spring and loves cool moist shady spots.

The lily of the valley is propagated from a collection of roots and from a growing point or pip, Vausbeck Germany, is the center of production of these pips and supplies the world. Many millions of plants are produced and sold each year from Germany... As these pips are placed and moved in cold storage, florist or indoor plant growers can have pips for forcing at any time. The indoor grower can take one or more of the pips, pot them up, keep the soil moist and in a 75 degree f temperature have flowers produced in 4 weeks.

 In some green houses the pips are planted under benches in group-successions, the blooms and some leaves are then cut from the plant and made into bouquets. They also can be grown outside. Select a northern exposure or partial shade where the soil is rich and plant the pips from 6 to 9 inches apart. Plant in late fall early spring. Each year top dress the plants with compost. After a few years the pips should be lifted and replanted, more to thin out the plants than anything else. Thinning increases bloom in size and number. Do not cut the foliage before it dies. This will injure the crop and bloom. Cutting the flower does not.

 You can purchase indoor varieties and these can be forced to bloom from mid winter through late summer.

The crowns (rhizomes can also be forced into flowers from plants raised outdoors; these must be stored outdoors at a temperature of (32 degrees f)  before potting, to imitate winter conditions, Treat the crowns like bulbs, and pot up to 10 of them 6-in (15-cm) pot in autumn. Cover and keep in a cold dark place for at least four weeks, then bring into a warmer place and uncover.

The most common variety of lily of the valley is white and single flowered, but a rose colored single and a white double are also available.

Start a tradition in your own family, appoint yourself the keeper of the Lily’s, then pass the sweet fragrant plant on to your children when they get their own homes.

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Learn some professional tips for growing healthy bonsai trees, in this free video. Expert: Mike Hansen Bio: Mike Hansen, owner of Midwest Bonsai, has been growing, caring, selling, and instructing others in bonsai care for years. Mike is an expert bonsai master.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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In Part I of my article on Indoor Bonsai we talked about the distinctions between an indoor and an outdoor bonsai, and typically what characterizes an indoor bonsai tree. In this report we're going to focus on a few of the most widely regarded indoor bonsai plants, and additionally recommendations on how to pick the top plant material from your nursery or garden center.

There are lots of different suppliers from which you may easily find very good quality plants and trees for your project. A specialist bonsai nursery is the very best place to buy a bonsai tree, and here you will be able to find out what kind of potting mixture is used and when the plant should be repotted.The very best place to find bonsai plants and trees is at a nursery that specializes in bonsai trees. The men and women at the nursery can provide a great deal of care suggestions, including the type of potting material that was used, and when it ought to be re-potted next. If you don't plan to start from scratch with your bonsai tree you could purchase a plant which is already established as a bonsai. This can be fairly expensive however. Another great place to get plants and trees which might be suitable for bonsai is at your nearby garden center. Remember that employees at these kinds of retailers are going to be less knowledgeable about bonsai however.

Another approach is to take a house plant that you already have at home and begin training it as a bonsai. This is a a lot less pricey approach to get started in the hobby, and would be a little less painful if you lose the plant. Don't improve the likelihood of killing your first bonsai plants by purchasing from the bargain table. These plants are usually unhealthy and definitely will lower your chances of long-term success.

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Be sure that the foliage on any plants that you are considering buying are bright green and healthy looking, and that there are no clues of insect damage or disease. If there are any new buds on the plant they should have firm young shoots. It will be easy to determine if the plant has not been getting enough water because the buds will be dried up. Trunks and limbs need to be strong and healthy. If you familiarize yourself with the many different styles of bonsai before you go to the nursery you will be able to choose plants that are ideal for the style that you want to create.

The following is a list of plants that would be highly suitable as an and for beginner bonsai enthusiasts:

(Ficus benjamina) You can buy this as an established bonsai or you can buy it as a houseplant and modify it into a bonsai. The java fig will stay green all year round. Several bonsai styles work well with the Java fig including, the broom style, the cascade and semi-cascade style, the informal upright, and the slanting style.

(Ulmus parvifolia) You can buy this as a houseplant and train it as a bonsai yourself, or it is widely available as an established bonsai. Ulmus parvifolia is a semi-evergreen. It can be grown either inside or outside. As an indoor plant is will keep it's leaves and stay green all year.

(Murraya paniculata) You can buy this as an already established bonsai or you can buy it as a small potted houseplant at a reputable garden store and modify it into a bonsai. The Chinese box is a favorite indoor bonsai plant. It is native to China and India. After flowering it produces small berries that change from orange to bright red.

(Juniperus californica) This plant is commonly available as an established bonsai. You can also buy it as an ordinary houseplant and train it yourself. Juniperus californica is a favorite for an indoor bonsai, and is a great plant for the novice bonsai grower. Typical styles that you will often see this plant trained as are the informal upright, the slanting style, and the cascade and semi-cascade styles.

(Crassula ovata) You can buy this as a houseplant and train it as a bonsai yourself, or it is widely available as an established bonsai. This is an evergreen with flattened succulent leaves with a scalelike appearance. The Jade Plant shows best when trained in the slanting, informal upright, or broom styles.

This is just the tip of the iceburg in terms of the variety of plants and trees that are suitable for indoor bonsai. As your skills as a bonsai grower improve you will be able to add many new speciaes and varieties to your bonsai collection.

More Bonsai Articles

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