Dear IBCers:
Yesterday, I received a call from one of my students; she asked if she
could bring a tree over for me to see.
An hour later, the doorbell rang and I opened the door; there stood my
student holding a nice Shohin Juniper Procumbens. She explained her
husband had given her this Bonsai as an early Christmas gift. A perfect
Mallsai!
She had thoroughly watered it, but the water just rolled off the rocks
on the soil.
I invited her in and said, "I guess you need help?" We laughed, and I
immediately went to the computer and printed out a care sheet for her
tree. I invited Dot into the tree house, and I checked to make sure the
tree was alive. I instituted the thumbnail test; sure enough, there was
a beautiful cambium green layer under the bark.
Much to Dot's horror, I reached for a hammer and a chisel, and in a few
minutes I chipped away the glued-on-rocks! I explained the reason the
rocks were glued on was to keep the soil in place during shipment. I
then added Bonsai soil and a bamboo skewer.
There were no drain holes in the pot. We then went to the garage and I
had Dot hold the pot about eye level and with a few quick jabs with a
utility knife poked holes in the bottom of the plastic pot. I picked out
an appropriate sized box, placed a slit on one end of the box, placed
the tree in the box, and mulched the tree up to the first branch.
Of course, I explained that this tree does not belong on the TV, but
outdoors. For the time being I explained this tree has to spend the next
few months in the Garage with a little wedge under the corner opposite
where I had slit the card board box. This will allow the water to run
out of the box and not pool under the mulch. She was also told when she
gets home to water the tree well and to check the bamboo skewer weekly:
only to water when the skewer came out almost dry.
I told her to bring the tree back in the spring, and we will style it
and repot it.
So this is the story of one Mallsai that has been given a new lease on
life (hopefully). :-[ I may even have ceated a new member for the
Bonsai community! ;-)
Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7
http://bmee.net/rosner
http://www.jamesbaird.com/cgi-bin/Ja...d=00000068 48
http://www.jamesbaird.com/cgi-bin/Ja...d=00000068 48
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