Front Entry Dawn Redwood

 Due to my being handicapped we had to install a ramp to the entry to my house. Ever since we bought the house 20 years ago there has been a flower garden that is bordered by the house, driveway, sidewalk and porch. Over the years it has been planted with canna, and other perennial plants.  At one point it had a small goldfish pond that me and my son installed. 

Here is the entire flowerbed

When I became unable to take care of the yard, my son took over and all of my flower beds (I will not let him mow down the Rose Rock Bonsai Garden!) became parts of the yard and were just mowed over. When the ramp was built the finished plan was that we would put some steps on the side of the porch and they will go down to a pad of cement pavers in the flower bed. The paver pad will take up just under half of the flower bed. This will be large enough for a person to step from the sidewalk onto the pavers and then up the steps. The rest of this bed will be covered by a weed barrier and then covered with gravel.  

I decided that I didn't want just a plain gravel bed and the rest of the family decided that I could not plant anything there. So we compromised to where I can have a bonsai tree in a pot.  

So I came up with the Front Entry Dawn Redwood, I really need to come up with better names for my trees. As the name suggests it is a Dawn Redwood. I bought this tree on Amazon at the Jonsteen Company Store I ordered this tree on 03 May 2024 and when I received it was about nine inches tall including the root ball. The pot that I put it in is a Creative Plastic Concepts Small Cement Mixing Tub. At $8.00 it is one of my more expensive bonsai pots. This tub was designed to mix cement in so it's made of some pretty thick plastic. It measures 15 X 27 and 6 inches deep. I'm sure that when this tub was designed, they didn't think that it would become a bonsai pot. If you do use this tub as a bonsai pot, please remember to drill drainage holes in the bottom or it will become more of a pond than a bonsai pot. I got the pot/tub so large because I want the tree to have plenty of room to grow and I wanted to make it large and heavy to help discourage theft. I just used some compost to plant it in. 

I planted it the day that I received it in the mail in great condition and well packaged. Then the very next morning I went out to check it and the trunk was snapped in half! I figured that an animal was sniffing around and broke it. The top half was still there. I contacted the Jonsteen Company and never got a reply. 

I was going to try to grow it as a large formal upright, around 3-4 feet tall. I don't know if that is still possible because of the unplanned trunk chop. I was concerned that it would die as it had just been through the Amazon delivery system, planted then lost over half of its size and foiledge. It has since grown a new leader so hopefully in a year or two when it reaches 4 feet tall the trunk will have made the chop line disappear and I can style it as a formal upright. 

This is the first of what I hope to be many on this tree. If you want to follow its progression and be informed for any updates, please subscribe to my blog. That would make my month. 

Question Everything, Love Everyone

Aaron

02 November 2024