[BonsaiNut]

I thought I'd post a link to my new web site (I asked permission first). For those interested in those crazy little trees, check out BonsaiNut Community - for people who are Nuts about Bonsai.

Let me know what you think of the site design - it is brand new.

- Greg

[Ninong]

Greg,

How many do you have and do you have any really old ones? Are you able to keep any of the Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) down there or is it too hot? I would imagine that you have to be choosy in selecting trees that will do well in that climate, unless you're in the hills? There is a really nice bonsai shop in Japantown in San Francisco. I used to visit it from time to time. I've kept two or three over the years but nothing serious.

When I lived in San Francisco, I had no problems at all with Acer palmatum but when I move to Tracy, in the San Joaquin Valley, the summers were too hot and it was difficult to get them to thrive. The one that I had in Tracy was not really a bonsai, just a container tree that I was pruning and shaping with wire. The container was huge and the tree was about 5-ft tall. Not exactly a bonsai! I had it for a little over five years. I gave it away when I sold my house.

Why don't you post some of the pictures in this thread?

[Reefland]

Is a Japanese Maple considered a bonsai? If so, we have one.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Reefland

Is a Japanese Maple considered a bonsai? If so, we have one.

No, a Japanese maple is not a bonsai but it can be made into a bonsai. A bonsai is a tree whose branches are pruned and shaped and whose roots are pruned to keep it a perpetual dwarf size. Some bonsai trees that are less than 2' tall are more than 150 years old.

Japanese maples ( Acer palmatum) come in dozens (perhaps more than a hundred?) of different varieties with different leaf shapes and colors. The one that I kept in a large container at the entrance to my house in California had light green leaves in summer that turned yellow in the fall and then the branches were bright red all winter long. I have one in front of my dining area window right now at the apt where I am living but I didn't plant it, it was part of the landscaping. Someone brutalized it by whacking off all of the branches no more than three feet above where they branch out from the main trunk. The idiots must have thought it was a crepe myrtle or something. So now it looks like a whisk broom. It's about 10' tall. Most of them don't do well down here because of the long hot, humid summers.

[BonsaiNut]

You can definitely keep Japanese Maples down here but you have to be cautious. They are not particularly robust and they will dry out if you have hot Santa Ana winds. I have had a decent amount of success by moving them into mostly shady areas (morning sun only) from June - October, and thne moving them back into the sun. Otherwise they are still healthy, but their leaves dry up in the summer and you miss the Fall colors.

[BonsaiNut]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Why don't you post some of the pictures in this thread?

Ok But at the same time I'd love it if you came to the site and posted a few times I have 18 members haha.

[Ninong]

I registered on your board yesterday in order to view the photo gallery.

[Reefland]

I am not exactly sure what type of Japanese Maple we have, I think it is commonly called a needleleaf, or threadleaf or something like that? It has deep red leaves, but the branches are, well, brown. It is only about 3' tall right now.

[Ninong]

Check out these Acer palmatum as bonsai.

I ran a google image search and came up with literally thousands of pictures of Acer palmatum. Many of those links take you to commercial nurseries that list dozens and dozens of different varieties with photographs. I suspect there are easily well over 100 named varieties of this single species.

[Ninong]

I'm pretty sure this is the variety that I had in a container on the front patio at my house in California.



That would be it's fall coloration. It's spring coloration is a very light green, turning slightly darker green as the summer progresses. Then in the fall it turns brilliant golden yellow. After the leaves fall off, you have the brilliant red branches.

[Reefland]

Here we go:
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/jha...699367_682.jpg

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Reefland

Here we go:
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/jha...699367_682.jpg

We didn't go very far, did we?

[Reefland]

Oops. Ours in nowhere near this full at this point. I wonder if ours will get much taller than 5' or so?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Reefland

Oops. Ours in nowhere near this full at this point. I wonder if ours will get much taller than 5' or so?

Sure, unless it's a dwarf variety. And even the dwarf varities will get to at least 10 or 12 feet unless you constantly prune them. They get quite large, just check out the pictures.

[Ninong]

I just realized my HP PSC 1610 All-in-One is a printer, scanner and copier. I think that means that I could scan photographs into my computer, right? I'm allergic to computers and printers but if I ever figure out how to work the scan feature, I could load some of my old photographic prints and post them online. Right?

Anyway, I know I have photographs of my Japanese maple at different times of the year. I really, really loved that tree. I gave it to the couple across the street when I sold my house.

[mistermikev]

wow, ninong, a wealth of knowledge about horticulture and biology but a fear of transistors? (so much simpler)
Yes, the three in one means you can do it all!
May need a driver for each function, and probably need some scan util like scan wizard. Hope this helps.

[Ninong]

I wouldn't call it a fear of computers. Deep down it's more like a hatred of computers. I hate them and they hate me. And having to spend three and a half hours on the phone with a Dell service technician in a foreign country to restore my Windows XP operating system after it crashed a couple of months ago didn't do anything to improve my attitude.

[mistermikev]

Well, now I understand... you own a Dell. The best thing you could do right now is smash it, burn it, bury it, dig it up, burn it some more, and bury it again.(lol) Award winning service my patuti. Has your graphics card been damaged yet... leading to you purchasing a new motherboard for $300?
I bet you got a good price though(hehe).

[Ninong]

I bought my first Dell in 1995. It came with Windows 95. It never crashed. I used it all the way up to November 2002, when I bought my current Dell Dimension 8200, Pentium 4 CPU 2.4 GHz, 256 MB of RAM. At least it has a nice 20" LCD monitor. It's only 4 years old but it's completely out of date for the new Windows Vista OS. I think MS says the minimum is 1 GB of memory for VISTA but Dell recommends 2 GB.

I'll probably wait at least another couple of years before switching to something more up-to-date.

[Reefland]

Looks like we got busted using their image.