Blooms from my Garden

BLOOMS FROM MY GARDEN

Pot of Morning Glory with its gorgeous blooms

Yellow hibiscus with white centre

Don't know the name of this flowering plant but like its blooms

Same comment as above.

Ginger Lily

Yellow hibiscus with red centre

Close up of the morning glory that is now growing wild 

Another photo of the Ginger Lily

A pinkish hibiscus

A bunch of morning glory that has crept around a pillar and up a screen.

A bright red hibiscus that I got in December 2016

These lilies happened to bloom all at the same time 

a few months back when we had a lot of sun.

Another yellow hibiscus with a red centre

An orange hibiscus with a red centre and ruffled petals

A multi-petaled orange hibiscus

Deleafing my FicusTree

Deleafing my Ficus tree

There is this big Ficus tree which I inherited from my father-in-law, who is responsible for my developing an interest in bonsai cultivation. This tree was barely 1.5 feet across when he passed on almost 20 years ago. The tree is now a huge thing more than 4 feet across. I have left it growing without any wiring as the that was done earlier by my father-in-law. Over the years I have simply pruned it and trimmed it to have a fairly symmetrical shape. Every couple of years I try to deleaf it as the leaves get attacked by some kind of leaf miners or have some kind of brownish spots under them. After deleafing the tree, new leaves start to grow within a couple of weeks and the whole tree looks lovely with a fresh coat of leaves.

Figure 1: Ficus tree in the garden.

Figure 2: Close up of the Ficus tree in the garden.

Figure 3: after a few hours, all I could manage 

was remove this amount of leaves by hand.

Figure 4: After a couple more hours, this was the progress.

Figure 5: After some 4-5 hours, slightly more than half of the tree was deleafed. 

That's the dog in the foreground to the right hand side of the photo.

Figure 6: A closer view of the partially deleafed Ficus tree with the dog underneath.

Figure 7: A slightly different angle of the tree.

Figure 8: The Ficus tree completely devoid of all its leaves. 

The whole job took almost a full day from 

somewhere in the mid-morning to late evening. 

It was lucky I had the shade of the mango tree 

for the most part to stop me from melting in the sun.

Figure 9: The Ficus tree compared to the mango tree 

on the right of the photo and the other bonsai in the background

(note those under the mango tree.)

Figure 10: Close up of the Ficus tree in its naked glory. 

You could not lift the pot with the tree by yourself. 

The only way I can repot this tree (which I have done a few times) 

is to remove all the soil from the pot (and that will take 2-3 hours if you are lucky)

 and then lift the tree out with all your might 

(and hope you don't get a hernia or faint from sheer exhaustion).

Happy deleafing.

Images of recently deleafed bonsai trees

These are bonsai in my garden that have been recently deleafed. 

The purpose of deleafing the bonsai is to create a false autumn. 

Being in the tropics (some 5 degrees above the Equator) 

we in Malaysia do not have the four seasons. 

In order to get the bonsai to flower 

(especially the jasmin species which most of the following bonsai belong to), 

we deleaf the tree. 

Within a few days, new leaves sprout 

and within a month we get flowers. 

These trees also produce seed, 

from which more plants can be propagated.

The images here are simply for you to enjoy 

the shape and intricacy of the bonsai 

that I have been cultivating for several decades now. 

1. Note the root system and the twisted branches. 

New leaves have started to spout out from the tree. 

2. A bonsai with a less elaborate root system 

but with the branches more spread out 

compared to the bonsai above.

3. Another old bonsai with one bunch of branches 

being bigger and more than the other.

4. This bonsai has a nice bend just before it branches out. 

The canopy is quite balanced. The photo was taken

a few days after the tree was completely deleafed.

5. Two bonsai, side by side; the one on the left was shown in figure 3 above. 

The bonsai on the right has a rather stout stump 

with the crown having its branches very near to each other.

6. A closer view of the bonsai shown on the right of figure 5 above.

7. Two bonsai with the branches reaching out a little further than the others shown above. the one on the right has been wired to give it a more dramatic turn of the branches.

8. A closer view of the bonsai shown on the left of figure 7, 

showing the new leaves that have sprouted out 

after the bonsai was deleafed a few days earlier.

9. Another bonsai arising dramatically from the pot 

to create a balanced canopy on the top. 

The bonsai on the right is not open to too much pruning or shaping 

 (of the boxus species) and so has been left to grow according to its own inclinations. 

The only thing done to it has been pruning of the top branches 

from time to time. It is more than 20 years old.

10. Another bonsai in all its deleafed glory with wires on some branches to shape it.

Wiring and Shaping Bonsai

The following are photos of young bonsai plants which I recently wired to shape them

.

 1. This is a few months old jasmin plant which was 

left to grow freely but now being wired for shaping.

2. Close up of the young bonsai plant showing the wire wrapped 

anti-clockwise around the plant. (If you are in the southern hemisphere, 

you are recommended to wrap the wire clockwise around the plant.)

(The reason for this recommendation is because creeping plants 

in the northern hemisphere will creep anti-clockwise and 

those in the southern hemisphere anti-clockwise. 

So the idea is to follow nature as much as possible.)

3. Shaping the bonsai according to what I would like it to be in the future. 

The idea is to make the tree be as natural as possible 

(though the shaping may look drastic) 

and to follow the inclination of the plant, 

especially when dealing with more mature ones. 

The plant above is a few months old and so is still flexible. 

4. A slightly different angle of the plant after being shaped.

5. These are two other young bonsai plants, the leaves 

of which have been plucked off so that the wiring can be done more effectively.

6. The shaped bonsai seen from the top of the plant.

7. The same plant seen from a lower angle.

8. This plant had two trunks (so to speak) and so I wired both of them as shown above.

9. The plant after being wired, seen from the top.

10. The same plant seen from a different angle.

11. The three bonsai plants after being wired (seen from the top).