Lil' Sprouts

Since I have a few bonsais sitting in the back yard, I am happy to report that they are actually getting leaves on them this year. HOORAY! Wifey accused me of growing sticks last year, so hopefully the leaves will stay on better this year.

I realized that I was just watering them last year. They never got any plant food, and if they did, it was only once in a blue moon (if that often). I gave them a dose a week or so ago, and so far they look pretty happy. Take a look yourself.

A smaller version of a nicely shaped tree we have in our yard

If you are a bit confused that my trees don't look like the ones I have posted before, that is because some have changed. My dad had some trees that I have been wanting to get my hands on, so I sacrificed trees that I wasn't as excited about for flowering trees. My goal is to have some trees that will flower in the spring, so I am going to try keeping them happy this year so that next year they might come out and bloom.

Cherry and little crab apple

I think part of my obsession with this is the fact that when I was growing up I had two windows in my room. In the spring, I would see white cherry blossoms out one, and pink crab apple blossoms out the other. Now I have a small crab apple and a small cherry. I just got the cherry last night, so I hope that it will do okay. It is actually a succor from the same tree that was outside my window, and was probably receiving some food from the mother tree. There were some offshoot roots that were well established, so I'm hoping that it will keep on establishing its own root system and do well.

The tiny crab apple

The maple is the champ this year. I was pleased to see all the leaves that were sprouting out of it. It is amazing what a little bit of food will do for a lil' sprout. Hopefully the other trees will catch up shortly, especially the crab apple.

Maple

Another possible maple harvested from the flower garden

Testing My Black Thumb

I have a sister who has a green thumb. In fact, she is studying to be a botanist in college right now. She used to come over to my mom's house and dig up the dirt to put flowers in it just so that she could get her hands in the stuff.

If you read the title, you would probably have guessed by now that I don't follow after her.

I started a few bonsai trees a couple of years ago. I finally uprooted my oldest one last year because I just killed it. When I tried to repot it I think I clipped off a bit too much of the roots. Oops.

Today I ended up potting a small tree (I think it was a maple, but can't remember. I'll let you know when the leaves come on) in one of my pots. I don't know if it is going to live, but I am guessing that I can probably keep it alive through at least one year. The best tree lasted a whole three years. Wifey called it "the stick" because it was about 18" tall and just split out in two different places within 4" from the top. This new one has a split much farther down, so I am hoping that it will look more like a tree than a stick.

Should said tree live, I might try manicuring it a bit next year to see if I can't get it to look even more tree-like. But for now, I am just going to test out my black thumb and hope that it might be a hunter green thumb. Maybe a hunter green is going a bit far—I'll settle for green that you have to look twice at to tell that it isn't black.

On a completely unrelated note, check out these advertisements. It makes me glad that I didn't take the selling job. I would feel like I was crammed into these boxes like these poor folks.