名媛直播

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Yo I just started my first bonsai yesterday. ?Let me know if y’all see any problems with the way I started or my process or anything bc I definitely do not know what I am doing yet. ?I picked up a “Rubber Tree” from a local nursery and I’m not sure what the plant species is exactly beyond it’s some kind of ficus. ?

I cracked open the pot and gently tried to remove the dirt with chopsticks. ?This was the part I was the least ?sure about and I might have damaged the roots too much but I tried to be careful. ?The one pot seemed to be 3 separate plants so I split those apart and trimmed a bit of the length off the roots with the plan to make two bonsai arrangements.

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The first one I put some old aquarium rocks I had in the bottom of a pot after rising them off. ?Theyre a mix of smooth river rock looking gravel and a porous volcano rock/ pumicey type rock gravel. ?Then I arranged some chunks of slate in the pot bc I wanted to get the tree to grow over them partially (don’t know if this will work but we’ll see). ?Then I added a bit of soil that is just like miracle grow cactus/ tropical mix. ?Put one of the three arrangements kind of over / between the slate and added some more soil. ?I left the plant up a bit to try to get some exposed root action. ?Added sagamum (?) moss around to bridge the soil to where stem starts to help keep the humidity up and encourage air roots to grow. Also to help hold the plant in place bc this sucker wanted to fall over. ?Then I trimmed the leaves of the plant to shape it some. ?I maybe should have trimmed off more based on other ficuses I have seen people pot, but I was worried about killing the plant and figured I could just take off more later. ?I know I should have started this earlier in the season. ?

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I followed the same process for the second arrangement basically but I put the other two plants kind of around this chunk of petrified wood I had and trimmed them. ?

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Front view
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How it will be growing
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I dipped a couple of the clippings in rooting hormone and planted them so if the other arrangements I have totally die I can try again. Or I can just use them later or something.

I have no outdoor space but two south facing windows that get good light and I put one of the arrangements right in the center of each window, my most prized growing spot.

Thanks for any tips, thoughts, ideas, suggestions or anything y’all want to share!?

Also shoutout to the Midwest 名媛直播 Society bc seeing your recent show at the Botanical Gardens sparked my interest in this hobby.