I broke a bonsai, or accidental pruning

Sad news and tragedy. At least for me. This week I received some ficus religiosa cutting from sn3aky352. A thank you very much for the great cuttings. I was very excited to open the package and getting the cuttings in a more comfortable home. I put them in orchid bark medium (That's what I do with all ficus cuttings). I started to water the new ficus cuttings. The other plants looked a bit thirsty, so i started to water them too. I was done watering and started to put the hose away. As I followed the the hose i found that it had crushed one of my bonsai. I was in disbelief. The hose had fell on a lantana. Not any Lantana, a lantana that I was preparing to give as a gift this August.

The Lantana had started to reduce the size of its leaves dramatically. It had a nice shape, and I was getting ready to trim the roots.    

Lantana are very brittle. I consider myself lucky that I didn't split the trunk in half, and that the tree will be able to make a recovery. The funny thing is that the silhouette still looks okay. It's Just that their is a chunk missing.

How can I avoid this problem in the future? I am going to have to restructure my garden. Cheers   

Are we refining bonsai trees, or are bonsai trees refining us?

When I was learning about art the professor said something that made me contemplate. I forget why he said it, I think somebody was trying to make some kind of excuse for weak work. My professor said something like It doesn't matter what you use an artist makes art with what he has. I am sure that it sounded so much more poetic when it was said. This little bit of philosophy I have carried with me since.

We collect materials from where we can get them. Anybody can make a bonsai from a tree that already looks like a bonsai. Where is the challenge in that? There's more satisfaction in creating a bonsai from material that you would not imagine would become bonsai.

This six inch lantana has been on a rollercoaster. I have nearly lost it twice to heat waves. I have hard pruned it three times. Now, a year later it is finally starting to show promise. I have more affinity for the trees like this one that have taught me the most about bonsai.

Easy trees teach little. Hard trees refine the the horticulturalist. Cheers.

Nursery Lantana Pre Bonsai

     When I was a kid I hated this plant. I hated its smell, its coarse leaves, and that sphere of green and blue berries it left. When I started bonsai i read that Lantana made great indoor bonsai. However, because of my prejudices i would not consider that species as possible bonsai material for my collection. Then one day i was looking at plants at one of my favorite nurseries when i found the discounted section. There I saw a lantana with amazing taper and these itty bitty leaves. It changed the way I saw Lantana forever.
     So, last weekend I saw this little tree:

Lantana Camara

     The price for this tree was almost $7 U.S. I do not have a lot of disposable income. The more inexpensive I can get a tree the better. I am the first to admit that the branching needs tremendous amounts of work, but the trunk at least to me is superb. The trunk has a nice thickness that tapers and curves. I am picturing broom style for this tree.

Long way

     This is a close up looking down at the tree at an angle. I love those knobby places on the trunk. Lantana are considered weeds in some places. They are fast growers if well watered and fertilized. If planted in the ground and established they can be drought tolerant. By the end of this growing season this tree should have good ramification. Ramification is when you have branches, then you have smaller branches growing on those, and even smaller branches growing on those. This helps reduce leaf size, and gives the tree a good silhouette.

Close Up

    After I see new growth I will prune the tree to the desired length ad watch it grow. Cheers.

Update May 15, 2016

Here is the tree three months later. I have cut it back once a month and fertilize it every two weeks. It has very little ramification and that is what I will be working on. However, as you can see it has a lot of foliage and the placement is much better.

Update October 1

Well, This little tree has come a long way. Not only has it changed its appearance, but it has survived calamity. In july as I was watering the garden the hose fell on it breaking off the apex. Then a recent heat wave almost defoliated the whole tree. 

Broken Apex

I was going to give it away as a gift. I couldn't because of these setbacks. Yet a month later the growth was so much that I had to cut it back. Even with constant pruning the branches had grown too big. I cut off about one fourth of the overall size. Now two months after I snapped the apex I have this:

Its coming back

I bought this little tree which measures now about ten inches for six U.S. and change. It needs a bit more to go. It will be potted in a ceramic pot next late february. Here is a picture for my friend Luke:

Before and After

I started working on this tree in february. It has come a long way in eight months.