hotelvoodoo
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Hello all!
After reaching out to some of my local bonsai societies with no responses, I'm hoping that someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.
I inherited my first bonsai about 6 months ago, a 40 year old ponytail palm. My mother kept a large collection of bonsais which she whittled down over the last few years until she just had this one left. She decided that taking care of her plants was "just too much work" so she was going to throw it away, and I told her that I'd be happy to adopt it. After all, the tree is older than I am and my mother had owned it for most of my life. I couldn't think of anything more sad than just tossing it out with the trash. She had not watered it even semi-regularly and I am certain it hasn't been repotted in at least 5-7 years. It's roots are exposed in spots and I'm sure it needs to move into something bigger. I asked my mother to give me a repotting tutorial along with some instructions for basic care, and she said that "we'd talk about it another time." Well, we never did have that husbandry talk. She passed away suddenly just 2 months later.
So here I am, with this lovely old tree and no clue how to take care of it. I've looked up some information about ponytail palms, but they all seem to deal with much younger, smaller trees, and ones in much better shape than mine. So.... where do I start? It's living currently in a pot with an exterior 10"X14" measurement. I figured from the looks of things it could at least move into a 20" pot, but it seems very difficult to find pots of this size, and trying to figure out if that's too big or too small has been pretty confusing. I love plants, maintain some lovely gardens, nurture a good handful of houseplants, but I have 0 experience with bonsais.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be happy to do what it takes to get this little tree back in shape and healthy so I can foist it off on to my kids too in another 30 years.
After reaching out to some of my local bonsai societies with no responses, I'm hoping that someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.
I inherited my first bonsai about 6 months ago, a 40 year old ponytail palm. My mother kept a large collection of bonsais which she whittled down over the last few years until she just had this one left. She decided that taking care of her plants was "just too much work" so she was going to throw it away, and I told her that I'd be happy to adopt it. After all, the tree is older than I am and my mother had owned it for most of my life. I couldn't think of anything more sad than just tossing it out with the trash. She had not watered it even semi-regularly and I am certain it hasn't been repotted in at least 5-7 years. It's roots are exposed in spots and I'm sure it needs to move into something bigger. I asked my mother to give me a repotting tutorial along with some instructions for basic care, and she said that "we'd talk about it another time." Well, we never did have that husbandry talk. She passed away suddenly just 2 months later.
So here I am, with this lovely old tree and no clue how to take care of it. I've looked up some information about ponytail palms, but they all seem to deal with much younger, smaller trees, and ones in much better shape than mine. So.... where do I start? It's living currently in a pot with an exterior 10"X14" measurement. I figured from the looks of things it could at least move into a 20" pot, but it seems very difficult to find pots of this size, and trying to figure out if that's too big or too small has been pretty confusing. I love plants, maintain some lovely gardens, nurture a good handful of houseplants, but I have 0 experience with bonsais.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be happy to do what it takes to get this little tree back in shape and healthy so I can foist it off on to my kids too in another 30 years.