Certainly an interesting idea. Can't wait to see how they look as they grow.

k

welcome back

Thanks Dave, missed your humor!

What treatment do plants you want to bonsai get and when you grow them from seed do you grow them any different or is it just a case to see which turn out to be suitable candidates to bonsai? Oh yeah, what makes a suitable candidate?

I have always been interested in bonsai, and there is a chap not too far from me that has a bonsai nursery and holds classes, John Hanby is his name and has all kinds on nice trees, maybe not adenium but still some nice, and expensive stuff.

Phil, in traditional bonsai you will search for the source material, the specimen suitable for training. This could be a small field-collected plant, a cutting or a large seedling. The idea is to use material which has the potential of growing into something resembling an adult but miniature woody plant (with the characteristics of age) shaped under natural conditions. The natural growth of the specific species, the "natural conditions" and their impact on the particular plant are artificially created by shaping it into a specific "bonsai style"/form (for instance, slanted style) using training techniques.

Normally you would grow the source material into your desired size before transplanting it into a bonsai pot. No offence but you don't stick a very small seedling or a seed in a bonsai pot right away. Why? For starters, the material needs to be of a certain size before you can actually tell whether the material meets the aesthetic standards of a bonsai or not. Secondly, growing your material in a shallow bonsai from the start will certainly stunt growth. Especially when it comes to adeniums. And you don't want to restrict growth before the material actually shows some potential - if ever. ;-) Been there, done that...

EDIT: So my advice to you is: Grow your adeniums to your more or less desired (pot) size, prune and wire (or use strings) them into a specific style. Then transplant them into a shallow bonsai pot and continue the training for aesthetics and to slow down growth.

Cheers Martin, will bear that info in mind when I do a few bonsai style adenium myself in the future :-)

Phil, to be honest, I don't like calling trained (pruned and wired) succulents "bonsai". Especially trained adeniums. They are not bonsai in the traditional way and IMHO some of the bonsai styles/forms won't do an adenium any good (simply because adeniums don't resemble actual trees shaped by the elements (nature) into forms like the traditional bonsai style. For instance, shaping an adenium into the cascade/bent-over style simply don't look right. It looks rather odd, and noone would probably think that it could resemble a fallen/bent-over tree ;-) ).

A word about the trained Thai specimen adeniums. They are beautiful plants but they often don't resemble a miniature form of wild adeniums. This is contrary to the idea of making bonsai. Instead the growers try to shape them into "tree-like" multi-branched plants with lush canopies and striking flowers.

I guess I just need to master the art of growing short, squat trees like the above and many others I see on the forum, if I can get them like that then I will be mega happy. At present I dont seem to be getting the desired effect. I need to give them more time I know but others on here get nice short and fat plants at a young age, mine don't seem to be apart from a couple of potential candidates so I am not sure if it is something I am doing wrong or simply not doing?

Phil, what do you get, then? If not compact and fat plants. You know, Rome wasn't built in a day. ;-) Kadie's mighty fine adeniums were not grown in a few months. That's for sure. ;-)

Kadie, by all means share your trials and hopeful Bonsai trees here. Makes it all more interesting.

Glad we can all have our own opinion and thoughts.

Bonsai come in all Genus these days as seen through out the world of Bonsai.

Bonsai, meaning a tree planted in shallow container.

Restricted root growth is where many Adeniums are found in nature and the odd or wind swept appearance is quite common naturally.

Whether my seedling tray works out or not is not a concern of mine and any result is mine.

The appearance that many Bonsai enthusiasts are seeking is found from naturally grown trees shrubs, etc. and can be found living along our coastline and landscape here. These are all seed grown trees in nature and their environment is why they grow the way they do. This is mimicked in the growing of the Bonai's by human intervention.

Let our experiments continue and see what we can produce. We do not have anything to lose.

Thanks for the input.

Rick

Martin, thanks
for piping in! It appears you have pretty much covered the basics of the
traditional aspects of the art of Bonsai.

Thanks, Rick.
I like your theme, "Playing around
with Bonsai." I agree, Bonsai come in all genera these days…I have
been reading up on this subject.

Phil, I started growing
desert roses from seed since August of last year, and only then learned the
botanical name, Adenium. I have learned
so much about them and still learning, and especially through my own horticultural
experiences. Phil, I will answer your queries from my own experiences:

Q: What treatment do plants you want to bonsai get and when you grow them from seed do you grow them any different or is it just a case to see which turn out to be suitable candidates to bonsai? A: There is no difference in treatment, It is just a case to see which turn out to be suitable candidates.

Q: Oh yeah, what makes a suitable candidate? A: Just my own perception when I look at the specimen...what attributes it already has that could be further improved to bring it from nice to beautiful, and whether it could be maintained in a miniature tree form in a shallow bonsai container.

Here are more candidates:

These trees were planted in their new gritty mix media about a month ago; in another month their roots will be established and then I can proceed with the training.

Kadie

Thanks very much Kadie you have some wonderful looking trees and will glady drool over more lol :-)

You're very welcome, Phil! Glad to share.

Kadie

Kadie, how long do you plan to hang your tree? To train the roots?

Marie

Hi Marie!

I was not training the roots of the hanging tree. I had trimmed the roots of the tree and it is hanging to allow the root base to heal before transplanting into the gritty mix. How long do I hang my trees? Maybe about a week...longer, if I think the cuts have not healed over sufficiently. I do not want to lose the plant to root rot.

Kadie

Rick what a fun experiment. Is that a miniature in the center? It will be interesting to see how they grow. Will you be supplementing with lights to keep them growing compact?

Tracy

I am hoping to and friends from Australia had mentioned that it does not typically work best, but I have many, many, too many seedlings. So if it should not prove successful, I can always repot.

Yes, the little one, is one of my Mini-Size trees.

Rick