Celtis occidentalis North American Common Hackberry Part III

 Well May came along and it was time for me to take my Hackberry seeds out of the fridge. I put them on my desk and forgot about them for a few days, so when I opened up the ziplock that I had the seeds in I got a nice little surprise.

As you can see, several are already sprouted! So I removed them from the paper towel and planted them in some peate disks and put them in a heated seed tray on a shelf over my desk.

Now comes the exciting part at watching them change almost daily as they grow into some bonsai trees. I will try to keep updating their progress here as I can. 

Rose Rock Bonsai Garden

 Well well well, I haven't done much related to bonsai lately. The much loved and world renowned Rose Rock Bonsai Garden has officially been besmirched! Here are some pictures of it: (Appreciate the pics now because they will be on the cover of Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Teen Beat, New York Times and of course for Dr. Hook: Rolling Stone) 

We had five pecan trees in our yard when we bought the house in 2003. Since then it has been a battle against these trees. The pecans that fell from them would cause hail type damage to our cars, roof and heads. Every time that we had a storm or the wind blew they dropped branches. Now finally every one of those trees are gone! We have to get rid of the wood and brush. My neighbor is going on vacation next week so all we have to do is toss it over the fence then it becomes his problem. Just kidding our city has a wood recycling center where they get wood and brush and send it through the wood chipper and give it to residents as free mulch! I love this town!

The tree trimmers pretty much cleaned up the bonsai garden to be just like they found it and now I just need to do some spring cleaning. 80 degrees today and its still winter so spring will be here pretty soon. 

Thats all for now

Aaron

Crepe Myrtle Seeds

 This morning I ordered 25 seed for my favorite tree, the Crepe Myrtle. I ordered from New Hill Farms

I ordered seeds for Purple Catawba Crepe Myrtle,

I love the Crepe Myrtle because of the delicate looking flowers that last most of the summer and the bark exfoliates adding another level of interesting characteristics. The crepe myrtle is usually a multi-trunked shrub / tree that can grow 15-20 feet tall. I don't think that I will grow a crepe myrtle bonsai that tall. Its hardiness zones are 6-10.  I'm in zone 7 so I'm in a good place. Here in Oklahoma the crepe myrtle is nearly indestructible. I have three of them growing in my yard and we have dug them up, poisoned them, cut the even with the ground and they still grow back. My crepe myrtles are all pink, my mother in law has over 20 crepe myrtles in her yard that I planted back in 1998, and they are all white. I will be getting cuttings from those later in the year but 

I also want purple ones because pink and purple are my wives favorite colors. I would love to make a dual colored crepe myrtle bonsai for my wife. I'm thinking of planting a pink one and a purple one in the same pot. Plant them far enough apart to keep them seperate trees but close enough that their branches intertwined so that you can see the pink flowers right next to the purple flowers. I could do this in one of those large cement mixing pots and grow a large forest planting with the trees about three feet tall. That would be cool. 

If you wish to follow along as these seeds becomes a prize winning bonsai tree, just click on the FOLLOW button on the right side of the screen. You can leave whatever comments in the comment section below. My email is Aaron@K5ATG.com

Love All, Question Everything

Aaron

Dwarf Schefflera Update 21 Feb 2025

 I finally received my Dwarf Schefflera cutting in the mail today. It was well packaged and the cut end of the cutting was wrapped in paper towels and plastic wrap. This kept it nice and moist so it wouldn't dry out. Great idea, simple cheap and effective, wish others would do this. 

The Etsy vender that I used was Aether Plant Shop I will be using this seller in the future when they offer plants that I'm looking for. 

I dipped the cutting in some rooting hormone:

After the application of the rooting hormone I put it in my "cutting pot" which is a small ceramic bowl filled with old bonsai soil and kept in an eastern facing window and under a full spectrum grow light.  I will check it on a month or so to see if there are any roots growing. 

If you wish to follow along as this cutting becomes a prize winning bonsai tree, just click on the FOLLOW button on the right side of the screen. You can leave whatever comments in the comment section below. My email is Aaron@K5ATG.com

Love All, Question Everything

Aaron

Dwarf Schefflera

    Last summer I lost nearly all of my trees. Here is a quick list:

• Crepe Myrtle (4) (Crepe Myrtle is my favorite tree)
• Bald Cypress
• Flowering Dogwood
• Ginseng Ficus
• Dwarf Schefflera (3)
• Eastern Redbud
• Rose
• Japanese Black Pine
• Japanese Red Maple
• Native Red Maple
• Pecan
• Loblolly Pine
• Trumpet Vine
• Chinese Privet
• Seiju Dwarf Chinese Elm (I love this tree but I can't find it!)

It's going to take me a long time to replace these. Now some of these were nice but most are from seeds because that is about what I can afford. 

Today I was lucky enough to order a variegated Dwarf Schefflera from a vender on Etsy. I'm not expecting much but I will fill you in when I get it. If it is worth the money I spent then I will provide a link to the vinder. 

Ballad of Twiggy Tom

Twiggy Tom contacted me and made me forward a message in response to the nude picture of him that has been posted to the internet. These are Twiggy Tom's words and not mine. Once his sap is flowing, he can be pretty riled up.

Ballad of Twiggy Tom

You people are so rude
You saw me without any leaves
I was completely in the nude
You stole my modesty
Ran off into the dark
Like a bunch of thieves
I was naked, only in my bark

Someday I will be big and strong
Don’t believe? I’ll prove you wrong
My journey will be long
Soon I will embark
I will be here to show you all
I will be the best you can recall

Twiggy Tom is my name
I’m serious, this isn’t a game
I’m going to be bigger than the biggest
Richer than the richest
I will again cover myself
And will look down upon you
As if you were a little elf

Once again I will be beautiful
You can’t argue, its indisputable
You will give anything just to hug me
But I will look at you and know, you can’t fix ugly

You caught me at my worse
I was so mad, just had to curse
Oh your eyes did they peep
Made me feel really freaking cheap
I was as naked as Adam and Eve
Cover myself with leaves of a fig
Can’t believe, you even saw my little twig!

-Twiggy Tom

Fun in the Sun 01 Feb 2025

     Well here in beautiful Midwest City, OK we are kicking our coldest month of February with some beautiful days lined up for us.

 

    

    For the next couple of days the highs are going to be from 67F (19C) to 78 (26C). So I decided to take some of my tropical babies outside to soak up some sun. Sunlight from that big ball of fire in the sky is always gonna be better for my bonsai than any grow light I can afford. So as I'm typing all of these letters for your enjoyment, my trees are out front working on their sun tans. Even internationally loved Twiggy Tom! 

    So if you get a bit of sunshine love in your cold dark winter, take them trees outside! Now if you go peeping the forecast in the beautiful picture above, you will notice that the night time temps are just a little chilly for my tropicals. So I set an alarm to go off right around sunset so I can remember to bring them in. 

    If you want to follow along as turn sticks and twigs into mediocre bonsai trees, just click the subscribe button. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section below and you may contact me directly at Aaron@K5ATG.com

Catch you next time!

Aaron Scott

Celtis occidentalis North American Common Hackberry Part II

     I ordered my North American Common Hackberry on 24 January 2025 and they arrived exactly one week later on 31 January 2024 (today).

    I cut open the envelope and finally got the seeds in my hand just like a mad man! Just looking at those little seeds and thinking of the possibilities yet to come made me feel all warm and tingly inside, just like that time I peed on an electric fence. 

    After getting my private physical reactions I took the seeds out of the package and for once followed the directions. I'm supposed to soak them for a solid 24 hours. So I tossed those bad boys in a jar of water and set my timer. 

    The reasoning behind soaking the seeds is because they are filthy because they are from New York 😲 Just kidding New York, nothing but love for ya. The truth is that if a seed floats it isn't viable. So if your seed floats, there is a big chance that it will never germinate. Seeds that sink are thought to have a healthy embryo inside. A healthy embryo is heavier than the air pockets that are likely inside the floaters. See I'm smacking some knowledge in you noggin! Respect!  So come back tomorrow and I will be putting them in the fridge and let them chill for a solid 90 days. 

   If you want to follow along the progress of my 2025 Hackberry Contest entry, just click the subscribe button. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section below and you may contact me directly at Aaron@K5ATG.com

Until Next Time

Aaron Scott    

Jade Cutting

     When I had asked on the Bonsai Nut Forum for some Tiger Bark Ficus cuttings, one of the users that responded was Carol83 of Illinois. She sent me a whole grab bag assortment of trees. There were several rooted Tiger Bark Ficus cuttings, a too small Ficus (sadly I believe this died) and a couple of jade cuttings. 

    Jade is a succulent and not something that I actively sought for a bonsai. That was my mistake and Carol83, without knowing it corrected me with these two.

     It the photo above, it is a bit hard to tell but there are two plants in the pot. One is standing upright proud and mighty and the other one is like me, laying down and lazy. I don't have any names picked out, perhaps you could help me in the comments section below. Since I received them and took this picture, both plants have shown strong signs of life. 

    If you do a search of Jade Bonsai, you will see a plethora of beautiful examples. Since these are so small and I'm completely new to Jade, I'm gonna let them grow out a bit before I attempt any styling. 

        If you want to follow along the progress of these two Jade plants, just click the subscribe button. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section below and you may contact me directly at Aaron@K5ATG.com

Until Next Time, Stay Keep Growing Planet Earth

Aaron Scott   

Twiggy Tom - Tiger Bark Ficus

     I recently received a gift of Tiger Bark Ficus cuttings from fellow Bonsai Nut member RJG2. It was a large bundle of cuttings that he had started and then never got the chance of sorting them out. 

   

     I decided to slip pot them into a larger pot and then I gave them a rough pruning to clean them up a bit. When I pulled them out of the pot that they came in, one of the cuttings was pretty lose so I went ahead and removed and put it in its own pot. 

Twiggy Tom 25 January 2025

    Since I have untold mental disorders, I decided to name it Twiggy Tom. It seems like a good name for it. I put it in the only real bonsai pot that I have. It isn't plastic, I don't think that it is ceramic, it could be just clay. I've had this pot since 1997. A soon as I transplanted it, it lost all of its leaves, so he is living up to his name. At the time of this post Tom is regrowing his leaves so he doesn't feel so naked. 

    I have Twiggy Tom in a prize spot at my amateur radio station. He is soaking up some rays beneigh a full spectrum grow light and listens in as I talk to other hams all around the world. 

    I don't have a style picked out yet, I hope that Tom will let me know. Bonsai Enthusiast / YouTube sensation Nigel Saunders of The Bonsai Zone has an epic Serissa that he has used clip and grow to create a African Acacia Tree complete with a zebra taking a break in its shade. Do you think that Twiggy Tom can be inspired to grow into something like that?

    If you want to follow along as Twiggy Tom goes from a leafless twig into a beautiful bonsai tree, just click the subscribe button. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section below and you may contact me directly at Aaron@K5ATG.com

Until Next Time, Stay Classy Planet Earth

Aaron Scott

Celtis occidentalis North American Common Hackberry Part I

     The Bonsai Nut Forums is a great place to learn all about every aspect of bonsai from seed to majestic tree. At the time of this post Bonsai Nut has more than 33,000 members that have posted more than 1,100,00 posts. Each year there is usually a contest that is started. Since we are talking about bonsai tree's here, these contests will generally last years. After all a bonsai tree will generally become better as it ages. Most of the contest are in the range of 5 years but the participants of the contest regardless of rather they win or not, will continue updating their contest entry long after the contest has ended. 

    The great contest of 2025 is The Celtis (Hackberry) Scored Progression Contest  This will be a perpetual so there isn't an end date. From my understanding people do not have to start with their entry tree in 2025. They are welcome to join at any time and are allowed to have as many entries as they want, provided that each entrant tree has it's own progression thread.   

    I know nothing about the Hackberry tree. I don't recall ever even being around one. That's ok because the 33,000 + Bonsai Nut members are usually eager to help you out.  I chose Celtis occidentalis North American Common Hackberry by considering advice from the Bonsai Nut forums, and as looking at the picture below, Oklahoma City is right at the southern boundary of its natural growth zone. 

I have heard good things about the quality of seed from Sheffield's Seed so I placed an order for some Hackberry seeds. 

 Now it's just the waiting game for the seeds to arrive. 

   If you want to follow along the progress of my 2025 Hackberry Contest entry, just click the subscribe button. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section below and you may contact me directly at Aaron@K5ATG.com

Until Next Time

Aaron Scott    

Japanese Black Pine Experiment 1.2

 Well not one of the JBP seeds sprouted. I think that I got a bad batch or something. I guess if you try to save some money by growing something by tree, you will end up spending any money that you tried to save by having to get more seeds. The seed starter tray seems to be doing ok though, I have some Tiger Bark Ficus cuttings in there right now and they look promising. 

I will need to order more seeds or figure out another way to get some Japanese Black Pine.

If you have any questions or comments please put them in the comment section below this post. I do encourage you to subscribe to this blog so that you will be notified for any new posts. If you have an idea or something that you would like to see me try then please let me know. My email is Aaron@k5atg.com

Follow me along as this blog grows. 

Aaron

Japanese Black Pine Experiment 1.1

Today 07 November 2024 I decided to do a little bit of an experiment. I ordered some Bonsai Tree Japanese Black Pine Seeds - 30+ Seeds the sellers Amazon store can be found here: CZ Grain (CZ Grain is not sponsoring this experiment, I bought these seeds using my own money, however if CZ Grain or any other bonsai supply would like to send me products for review and test, please contact me at Aaron@K5ATG.com). I ended up way more than 30 seeds. This is typical when buying seeds online because seeds are cheap and it is not worth the time for someone to count out 30 seeds. So they just put a pinch or two in the seed bag and call it good. This is early November so it isn't the best of times to be starting some Japanese Black Pine (JBP) from seeds. However there is a method to my madness. I have read from several online sources that to really don't need stratification (stratification is a fancy word for simulating cold winter like conditions to get the seeds to break dormancy and start the germination process) on JBP seeds. You should be able to pop them into some dirt and watch them grow. As I said I have way more JBP seeds than I need, and I just got this Seed Starter Tray so I was thinking, why not just go ahead and try it out and see if anything grows. 

I'm going to experiment with a total of four JBP seeds. So I took the seed starter tray and filled up four of the cells. 

In three of the cells I used just some standard potting soil. In one soil I put some Bonsai Soil by the Bonsai Supply I have not used this bonsai soil on a living plant yet so there is not a review of it by me. 

I use the little scoop that came with the seed starter tray to fill up all four cells. It worked great for this activity. 

I just planted one JBP seed in each of the seed cells I added water and stuck it on my shelf and put on the dome and turned on the plant light.  The experiment will be to keep the planting medium moist and check in every few days to see if anything is growing. I guess every couple of days I will add a update and picture to share any progress. 

I'm not expecting a JBP bonsai that will be considered to be one of the best in the world. This little experiment isn't going to cost anything. I just want to know if JBP seeds will germinate with no preparation to them at all.  The rest of the seeds will be put in the refrigerator for stratification as normal convention dictates. I will probably start some blog posts for those as well. 

My ultimate goal is to get me two or three Japanese Black Pines going to train as bonsai. Then I also hope to get a bunch of healthy seedlings to send to other people who would like to grow their own JBP bonsai.   

If you have any questions or comments please put them in the comment section below this post. I do encourage you to subscribe to this blog so that you will be notified for any new posts. If you have an idea or something that you would like to see me try then please let me know. My email is Aaron@k5atg.com

Follow me along as this blog grows. 

Aaron

Seed Starter Tray with Plant Light 2 Pack

 I ordered a Seed Starter Tray with Plant Light from Amazon. It is meant for growing seed and I might use it for that but I mainly got it to grow cuttings to expand my bonsai collection. 

It is small enough that it will fit on a shelf at my computer desk so that I can pay close attention to the cuttings. The plant lights are built in the thing that you twist to adjust the humidity level inside the dome. I think that the plant lights are a little bit dim, but the trays are pretty small so it should be ok. I don't like how the USB cables attach in a vertical position, I will probably get some 90 degree adapters to lay them flat. The plant lights do use USB C so finding adapters should be easy because it is like the world now operates on USB C. These are not built sturdy enough to be kept outside but I did not buy them for that. I wanted something small enough to fit at my computer desk and these are perfect for that. I think that they were a good buy for just $15

You will see these a lot in the future as I document growing trees from seed and cutting.   

Norfolk Island Pine

I inherited this Norfolk Island Pine from my mother in 2021 when she passed away. I have not really done anything with it other than keep it alive. This isn't a good species for bonsai. I just have it in typical potting soil. All together I think that it is about ten years old.