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Mame
Copy Paste from main contest thread:
Alright, I just walked around looking for weeds to use in my yard and garden. I got about 4 Mimosa seedlings growing and about 8 Siberian Elm seedlings. I'm entering the deciduous category with my weed trees.
I have quite a few weed seedlings growing in my yard. I always have at least 30-40 pop up throughout the year, and I usually pluck them. However, since I decided to practice Bonsai instead of just looking at others people's beautiful trees, I've been watering and sometimes fertilizing the seedlings that have been popping up. There are always two species of tree that germinates in my yard: Siberian Elm (Ulmus Pumila) and Mimosa (Albizia Julibrissin). The Mimosa seeds that pop up come from a large Mimosa tree that used to be in my front yard, but was chopped down and killed shortly before I bought my house and moved in. Every year when I start watering my front yard, or after Monsoon season, a bunch of old seeds start growing. Considering the tree was cut down 6 years ago, that's quite impressive (at least to me) that old seeds are still germinating lol. The Siberian Elm seedlings come from...well...everywhere, they're classified as invasive here and there are full grown trees and mangled root clusters all around my neighborhood, and anyone that's experienced Ulmus Pumila seed shedding knows that they can travel miles, especially in windy areas.
The rules of the contest state that pictures of the trees must be posted before any styling. I'm counting my pictures of them from last night that I posted in the main thread. However, if requested, I'll post them here.
I did some initial loose wire styling to get early movement. Ulmus Pumila and Albizia Julibrissin are very fast growing trees, so I want to stay on top of wire training while making sure I don't leave wires on too long as they'll dig in and leave marks. This is going to be especially difficult for me to stay on top of because A) I'm lazy, and B) I plan on ground growing these in 6'x3' raised beds for 4-5 years. I'll be transplanting the front yard seedlings, and digging up the ones already growing in the garden bed so I can replant them on top of tiles/boards.
Onto the weeds!
#2 Carl - I got a good feeling about Carl. His leaves are already naturally smaller than his brothers, despite being in a semi shaded area for most of the day. He's the Brad Pit of the weeds so far. Two pictures of him because he deserves it, pre and post wiring.
#3 Creeper - Found this dude hiding inside our Rosemary bush while I was styling the other seedlings today. I think he might actually be a two year old seedling. I'm not 100% until I investigate him more later.
That's it for the front yard contestants right now. There are a couple more I need to document and style before I post them. Which I'll do in a day or so.
That's it for Ulmus Pumila right now. As you can see in the background of some photos, I have more I need to categorize and wire.
#6 - Richelle - She might be pretty hard to transplant as she's growing at the base of a rose bush. So she might be a goner next spring. But she's the largest Mimosa so far.
#7 Natalia - Smallest Mimosa so far, but my favorite.
There are a bunch more Mimosa seedlings, but I'm not worried about documenting them until I transplant. As you can tell from this photo, they're tucked into the rose bushes and I'm not going to worry about them until transplant time.
That's all for now. I'll update as I document and style more weeds.
Alright, I just walked around looking for weeds to use in my yard and garden. I got about 4 Mimosa seedlings growing and about 8 Siberian Elm seedlings. I'm entering the deciduous category with my weed trees.
I have quite a few weed seedlings growing in my yard. I always have at least 30-40 pop up throughout the year, and I usually pluck them. However, since I decided to practice Bonsai instead of just looking at others people's beautiful trees, I've been watering and sometimes fertilizing the seedlings that have been popping up. There are always two species of tree that germinates in my yard: Siberian Elm (Ulmus Pumila) and Mimosa (Albizia Julibrissin). The Mimosa seeds that pop up come from a large Mimosa tree that used to be in my front yard, but was chopped down and killed shortly before I bought my house and moved in. Every year when I start watering my front yard, or after Monsoon season, a bunch of old seeds start growing. Considering the tree was cut down 6 years ago, that's quite impressive (at least to me) that old seeds are still germinating lol. The Siberian Elm seedlings come from...well...everywhere, they're classified as invasive here and there are full grown trees and mangled root clusters all around my neighborhood, and anyone that's experienced Ulmus Pumila seed shedding knows that they can travel miles, especially in windy areas.
The rules of the contest state that pictures of the trees must be posted before any styling. I'm counting my pictures of them from last night that I posted in the main thread. However, if requested, I'll post them here.
I did some initial loose wire styling to get early movement. Ulmus Pumila and Albizia Julibrissin are very fast growing trees, so I want to stay on top of wire training while making sure I don't leave wires on too long as they'll dig in and leave marks. This is going to be especially difficult for me to stay on top of because A) I'm lazy, and B) I plan on ground growing these in 6'x3' raised beds for 4-5 years. I'll be transplanting the front yard seedlings, and digging up the ones already growing in the garden bed so I can replant them on top of tiles/boards.
Onto the weeds!
Ulmus Pumila
Front Yard Contestants
#1 Bender - Might be a victim to being stepped on before I have a chance to transplant, right next to the walkway. I decided to go with some extreme movement on him. Since I have so many elms, I'll probably be trying a lot of different styles.#2 Carl - I got a good feeling about Carl. His leaves are already naturally smaller than his brothers, despite being in a semi shaded area for most of the day. He's the Brad Pit of the weeds so far. Two pictures of him because he deserves it, pre and post wiring.
#3 Creeper - Found this dude hiding inside our Rosemary bush while I was styling the other seedlings today. I think he might actually be a two year old seedling. I'm not 100% until I investigate him more later.
That's it for the front yard contestants right now. There are a couple more I need to document and style before I post them. Which I'll do in a day or so.
Backyard Contestants
#4 Bubba - He's big and ugly. Has leaf spots on him, as do all the other seedlings in the garden bed. I'll be working on killing and preventing whatever is causing the leaf spots.That's it for Ulmus Pumila right now. As you can see in the background of some photos, I have more I need to categorize and wire.
Albizia Julibrissin - Mimosa
#5 Rita - Kinda hard to tell what's going on in this photo, but she's the second largest Mimosa seedling that's growing. I put a little bit of movement in her.#6 - Richelle - She might be pretty hard to transplant as she's growing at the base of a rose bush. So she might be a goner next spring. But she's the largest Mimosa so far.
#7 Natalia - Smallest Mimosa so far, but my favorite.
There are a bunch more Mimosa seedlings, but I'm not worried about documenting them until I transplant. As you can tell from this photo, they're tucked into the rose bushes and I'm not going to worry about them until transplant time.
That's all for now. I'll update as I document and style more weeds.
