A year ago this weekend my daughter was given an 8 year old bonsai as
her 18th birthday present by a girlfriend. Not that I have any idea how
the girl decided on a bonsai to celebrate such a long friendship which
lasted almost 10 years (our girlfriend died of cancer on Christmas Day
2002). I'm very keen to give this tree my best care - alas green
fingered I am not.

Her parents admit to not being gardeners so asking them questions won't
produce many answers.

I can't tell you what sort of tree it is (its almost dark as I write:
I'll look tomorrow). I know its now 9 years old.

It has small leaves, some of them are a bit yellow right now.

I put it - in its original pot - into a 'plastic' looking terracotta
rectangular planter as soon as the weather warmed up a bit last spring.
It stands (under) a plastic shelter in the winter, and when its a bit
milder as from now it'll move a few feet out from the plastic roof
covering part of a pergola to the open part of the pergola. It has
parsley for company in the planter. It has some shelter from a wall at
its back but will have sun most of the day from now on in a west facing
garden.

I understand (sort of) about training the plant: I would leave that to
the daughter anyway, and I understand about the tools needed.

Last year it was fed on liquid feed as used elsewhere on veg and
flowers. Does it need a special feed of its own?

How does one know when to re-pot it - or does one do this each year?

Is there anyone from the UK on this list? (I tried the link mentioned
to a UK site further up the message list: it failed to activate today -
duh).

Should there be anyone from the UK he I live to the west of London -
but too far really to go to meetings by public transport. So any advice
on local branches, specialist nurseries, etc. would be appreciated.

If not, I'll work on what the rest of you give me and see where I can
go.

TIA,
Mrs. Chris McMillan
--
Chris McMillan
reply to:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike.mcmillan/

In article , (Chris
McMillan) wrote:

A year ago this weekend my daughter was given an 8 year old bonsai as
her 18th birthday present by a girlfriend. Not that I have any idea
how the girl decided on a bonsai to celebrate such a long friendship
which lasted almost 10 years (our girlfriend died of cancer on
Christmas Day 2002). I'm very keen to give this tree my best care -
alas green fingered I am not.

Her parents admit to not being gardeners so asking them questions won't
produce many answers.

I can't tell you what sort of tree it is (its almost dark as I write:
I'll look tomorrow). I know its now 9 years old.

It has small leaves, some of them are a bit yellow right now.

Don't panic about the leaves. It may just not have put out shoots yet.

I put it - in its original pot - into a 'plastic' looking terracotta
rectangular planter as soon as the weather warmed up a bit last spring.
It stands (under) a plastic shelter in the winter, and when its a bit
milder as from now it'll move a few feet out from the plastic roof
covering part of a pergola to the open part of the pergola. It has
parsley for company in the planter. It has some shelter from a wall at
its back but will have sun most of the day from now on in a west facing
garden.

I understand (sort of) about training the plant: I would leave that to
the daughter anyway, and I understand about the tools needed.

Last year it was fed on liquid feed as used elsewhere on veg and
flowers. Does it need a special feed of its own?

How does one know when to re-pot it - or does one do this each year?

Keen to sound very British, are we?!

Is there anyone from the UK on this list? (I tried the link mentioned
to a UK site further up the message list: it failed to activate today -
duh).

Should there be anyone from the UK he I live to the west of London -
but too far really to go to meetings by public transport. So any
advice on local branches, specialist nurseries, etc. would be
appreciated.

Anyone is allowed on the newsgroup, although it helps if you know English!

If not, I'll work on what the rest of you give me and see where I can
go.

TIA,
Mrs. Chris McMillan
--
Chris McMillan
reply to:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike.mcmillan/

I live quite near Croydon, a bit south of London, and I would recommend
Herons Bonsai, in East Grinstead, Surrey, for advice and some stunning
trees! Sorry I can't give you an exact address, but a Google search on
"Herons Bonsai" should give you the info.

As for advice, I'm afraid I'm fairly new (2 years?) to bonsai. All I can
say is that if you manage to get a picture of the bonsai and put it on the
internet, then post the URL here, you'll get loads of help. Each variety
of tree is different and there are few (if any) care instructions that
apply to every tree. If people can see a picture and work out what
variety the tree is, they'll be able to tell you quite a bit about it.

Liam