My visit to my uncles house in Puerto Rico

The trees I tried to bring home in the past with no luck was tamarind, button wood, flamboyant (blue variety) and a flowering berry ficus. The one that lived the longest was the blue flamboyant. I have since seen one in PR and tried looking for one this time around and the tree I knew about was killed by Maria. It truly is a rare tree and in my opinion if you haven’t seen one your missing out.

google it. They are so rare that I have never even seen a blue flamboyant bonsai nor has my uncle.
Michael
 
Trueblackpercula said:
The trees I tried to bring home in the past with no luck was tamarind, button wood, flamboyant (blue variety) and a flowering berry ficus. The one that lived the longest was the blue flamboyant. I have since seen one in PR and tried looking for one this time around and the tree I knew about was killed by Maria. It truly is a rare tree and in my opinion if you haven’t seen one your missing out.

google it. They are so rare that I have never even seen a blue flamboyant bonsai nor has my uncle.
Michael
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Jacaranda. Very hard to keep in the great frozen north. Very large leaves very hard to reduce. Not bonsai anywhere outside of the tropics/semi-tropics.
 
Flamboyant azul... I am having a few seeds sent from my mom. Jacaranda, as Forsoothe! pointed out, not a royal ponciana as the flamboyant tree is. Very difficult to keep up north. I have a few boricua friends here that keep them on pots (not bonsai) and cover them with blankets in the mild winter, or bring them inside the garage when a cold front comes in. I have only seen a few bonsai trees, but they were attempts to small size bonsai and they didn't look good at all. They could be very nice in the same size as a BC tree. Their leaves are very hard to scale down. I am working on a similar tree (as far as leaves) a Chinese pistache, and so far I have been able to reduce the leaves a little bit, the sacrifice have full size leaves though.
 
Maiden69 said:
Flamboyant azul... I am having a few seeds sent from my mom. Jacaranda, as Forsoothe! pointed out, not a royal ponciana as the flamboyant tree is. Very difficult to keep up north. I have a few boricua friends here that keep them on pots (not bonsai) and cover them with blankets in the mild winter, or bring them inside the garage when a cold front comes in. I have only seen a few bonsai trees, but they were attempts to small size bonsai and they didn't look good at all. They could be very nice in the same size as a BC tree. Their leaves are very hard to scale down. I am working on a similar tree (as far as leaves) a Chinese pistache, and so far I have been able to reduce the leaves a little bit, the sacrifice have full size leaves though.
Click to expand...
Would love to see some pics if you can.
 
Just realized that the leaves are different! I thought they were compound the same way, but the pistache are compound with single leaves instead of pinnately compound like the ponciana. The only one I have now is from June when I moved it into a rootpouch. I'll try to get some more today when I get home.

Chinese pistache.JPG
 
Maiden69 said:
Just realized that the leaves are different! I thought they were compound the same way, but the pistache are compound with single leaves instead of pinnately compound like the ponciana. The only one I have now is from June when I moved it into a rootpouch. I'll try to get some more today when I get home.

View attachment 393914
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That is fantastic wow awesome start
 
Jacaranda mimosifolia; does really well here in the Island. Here is a picture of it (sadly, not mine since the tree that was at my mother's died some years ago). It is really beautiful and, yes, its leaves are compound ones but can't be reduced as in the "Flamboyán"!
 

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Juanma said:
Jacaranda mimosifolia; does really well here in the Island. Here is a picture of it (sadly, not mine since the tree that was at my mother's died some years ago). It is really beautiful and, yes, its leaves are compound ones but can't be reduced as in the "Flamboyán"!
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Awesome

the one I had the seed pod was a lot shorter that the red and yellow.
 
Trueblackpercula said:
Awesome

the one I had the seed pod was a lot shorter that the red and yellow.
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My very "limited" (limited to two Jacaranda trees; one pot bound and the other one "free range") experience with them was although in there natural state the leaves were smaller, when pot bound the Red/Orange "Flamboyán" will show a a more reduced leaf size, even though the Jacaranda's started out being smaller. Still, it's a beautiful tree and I hope some day have another pair!!! BTW, love the Island's West Coast even if I'm from/ and live in the Northeastern end of it!!!!
 
Wow!!! I think you're uncle could be famous in the bonsai world if he wanted to!

I love PR. I spent a year there over in Roosevelt Roads and Vieques. Spent some time working in El Yunque National Park. I never made it to the west side of the island.

If you like trees and you happen to visit Vieques, check out the old ceiba tree: https://vieques.com/vieques-attractions-ceiba-tree/

PR is one of my favorite places.
 
WOw, thank you and your Uncle for posting all those photos. He has many really massive Ficus. There were a few I did not recognize *(and for me, that is saying something). Spectacular trees.

You should be able to bring north some of the Ficus bonsai, they will adapt. They may drop all their leaves and look dead for a couple months, but they will sprout again. The ones you listed as failing for you are true tropicals. But you could handle some of the others, especially the Ficus.

But it is also fine, just enjoying the trees where they are.
 
Leo in N E Illinois said:
WOw, thank you and your Uncle for posting all those photos. He has many really massive Ficus. There were a few I did not recognize *(and for me, that is saying something). Spectacular trees.

You should be able to bring north some of the Ficus bonsai, they will adapt. They may drop all their leaves and look dead for a couple months, but they will sprout again. The ones you listed as failing for you are true tropicals. But you could handle some of the others, especially the Ficus.

But it is also fine, just enjoying the trees where they are.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much. On my next visit I will take pictures of the other half he has LOL I ran out of time there and kept saying I will take more pics tomorrow well that never happened. But he told me when I asked about feedings/fertilizer and he told me he feeds everything 20/20/20 and that surprisingly took me back. But I guess it works for him because his trees are massive in every way. I did explain what I had learned and I promised him I would send him what I use. It’s funny that him and my aunt told me it’s hard to get stuff delivered to PR as most won’t deliver there. So I will be mailing him some fertz for his trees with emphasis his flowering azalea.
Michael
 
Trueblackpercula said:
Thank you so much. On my next visit I will take pictures of the other half he has LOL I ran out of time there and kept saying I will take more pics tomorrow well that never happened. But he told me when I asked about feedings/fertilizer and he told me he feeds everything 20/20/20 and that surprisingly took me back. But I guess it works for him because his trees are massive in every way. I did explain what I had learned and I promised him I would send him what I use. It’s funny that him and my aunt told me it’s hard to get stuff delivered to PR as most won’t deliver there. So I will be mailing him some fertz for his trees with emphasis his flowering azalea.
Michael
Click to expand...

When fertilizer is not "balanced to the needs of the plants" as in when it is not around 12-1-4 or a similar ratio, water, especially rain water simply flushes away the imbalance. The lawn in your Uncle's garden likely has absorbed the unused parts of the fertilizer flushed out of the pots. Plants pretty much take what they need and let the rest go by. More or less, at least at dose rates typical for bonsai. If one really over does the fertilizer, you can poison your trees, but a moderate does rates normally the nitrogen determines the amount of the other nutrients effectively absorbed.

At really high does rates, you can over dose your trees, but if you get regular rain, or flush regularly with clear water (clear meaning no added ferts), the watering with plain water will flush away excess build ups of nutrients.

So don't push too hard for your Uncle to change how he does things. He clearly understands how to use the fertilizers he has.
 
If you think that the USPS isn't going to notice potentially explosive materials in their system, I got big news for you.
 
Forsoothe! said:
If you think that the USPS isn't going to notice potentially explosive materials in their system, I got big news for you.
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They won't... the little fertilizer I have ordered online I received through USPS. The problem with PR is that a lot of sellers stopped shipping there because of package theft, dishonest buyers, etc., during the Maria emergency... Even Amazon is restricting shipment there for a lot of items.
 
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