Sunday, February 26, 2012

Huntington Library's Bonsai-a-Thon

We just went to the Huntington Library's Bonsai-a-Thon event with a couple of friends this Saturday.  There was a bazaar where you can buy trees of all kinds, tools, pots, and books at decent prices.  There were how to workshops which filled up too fast for me to get into.  I thought there was going to be a bigger exhibit but there was only a small room with about a dozen trees.  They have a much nicer collection in their Japanese Garden which is still in construction, scheduled for reopening in April this year.


I actually took more photos of the Suiseki stones than I did of Bonsai.  This little stone below was $600-$650 and is just a little bit bigger than my fist.  It was my favorite stone there.


These were nice too but probably out of my budget.


After the event, I felt a little inspired so I went to a nursery near there and bought four stones for $17 total.  I'm not sure what makes a stone $3 versus $600.  Maybe I will find out one day.  The first two stones are about half fist size, the bottom two are fist size.



I also went home and turned a gift Nana Juniper from last year that was in the form of a house plant into a semi-cascade style bonsai.  This is how it looked like when I received it last March.


This is it in a growing pot.  I'm going to let this grow for a while without wiring it just yet.


Sunday, February 5, 2012

Succulent frame for vertical gardening

I helped my wife create this beauty. Our idea was to make a piece of vertical gardening succulent frame that would excite the sense of touch. Therefore, we selected a few fuzzy looking succulents such as the Doris Taylor Echeverias. The main theme in this arrangement is symmetry and repetition. Simplicity in it's formal design, the final result came out quite nice.
Here's a nice close up of the Doris Taylor Echeveria.
Here's a shot of it next to the first one I made to see how it looks as a pair. The first frame has plenty of healthy looking new growth and is ready to hang on the wall. I will wait another month before hanging both of them up in our courtyard.

To read how we created these frames. See our previous posts by clicking below.
DIY Tutorial: Succulent Frame for Vertical Display!
Vertical Succulent Frame DIY Tutorial part 2

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