Willow Leaf Ficus

Willow Leaf Ficus

Ficus salicifolia, Ficus neriifolia, Ficus subulata
and even Ficus mexicana ........................ now: Ficus salicaria

Willow Leaf Fig thrives on heat, humidity, and sunlight. And is ideal for the banyan style, depicting a beautiful forest. The banyan style is one in which the tree has aerial roots that become trunks in addition to the "main trunk". During the winter, even with added humidity, don't panic if the leaves slowly fall off. It is resting. Treat it like a dormant deciduous tree, reduce water and give no food. In the spring it will grow new leaves. The tree responds well to wiring but if the tree is growing vigorously can scar rather quickly. The tree can also be grown using the clip and grow technique. It thrives in shallow pots and hardly needs any roots for growth. The Willow Leaf Ficus sometimes makes a small fig. Regular defoliation can help develop ramification, cut the leaves just above the petiole.

I started training this tree as a bonsai in 1993

February 2025 Make and Take a Bonsai Class

 SATURDAY 01 February 2025 

AT 10 AM – 3 PM

Make and Take a Bonsai Class

 at Bonsai Beginnings

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Tropical Bonsai (ficus, Portulacaria, schefflera) Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani. @ Noon We Will Break, Bring a picnic lunch if you like. Cost: $75 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools. Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class; various aged trees and appropriately sized pots are available.

To Register or

Make an Appointment

August 2024 Make and Take a Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings

 SATURDAY, 24 August 2024 

AT 10 AM – 3 PM

Make and Take a Bonsai Class

 at Bonsai Beginnings

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Tropical Bonsai (ficus, Portulacaria, schefflera) Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani. @ Noon We Will Break, Bring a picnic lunch if you like. Cost: $75 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools. Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class; various aged trees and appropriately sized pots are available.

To Register or

Make an Appointment

Brazilian Raintree

Chloroleucon tortum

Hibiscus tiliaceus

Sea Hibiscus

Crimson Bullhorn Acacia 

Acacia cornigera 

The Next Course SATURDAY, 24 August 2024 AT 10 AM – 4 PM

 SATURDAY, 24 August 2024 

AT 10 AM – 3 PM

Make and Take a Bonsai Class

 at Bonsai Beginnings

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Tropical Bonsai (ficus, Portulacaria, schefflera) Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani. @ Noon We Will Break, Bring a picnic lunch if you like. Cost: $75 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools. Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class; various aged trees and appropriately sized pots are available.

To Register or

Make an Appointment

Brazilian Raintree

Chloroleucon tortum

Hibiscus tiliaceus

Sea Hibiscus

Crimson Bullhorn Acacia 

Acacia cornigera 

 SATURDAY, March 23, 2024 AT 10 AM – 4 PM

Make and Take a Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani. @ Noon We Will Break, Bring a picnic lunch if you like. Cost: $75 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools. Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class; various aged trees and appropriately sized pots are available.

To Register or

Make an Appointment

Make and Take your own little tree September 16, 2023

$53.50

Saturday

September 16, 2023

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Tropical Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani.

Make and Take a Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings (Tropical Trees)

Register

Cost: $53.50 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools.

Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class

Various aged trees appropriately sized pots are available. 

Bring a picnic lunch. 

Make and Take a Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings (Tropical Trees) 23 July 2022

 23 July 2022

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Tropical Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani.

10 AM- 4 PM

Cost: $53.50 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools.

Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class

Various aged trees and appropriately sized pots are available. Bring a picnic lunch, @ Noon Break for Lunch

For Tickets

Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings 

Make a Tropical Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings

 11 June 2022

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Tropical Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani.

10 AM- 4 PM

Cost: $53.50 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools.

Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class

Various aged trees and appropriately sized pots are available. Bring a picnic lunch, @ Noon Break for Lunch

For Tickets

Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings 

Make a Bonsai Class

Make and Take a Bonsai Class at Bonsai Beginnings

Saturday 23 April 2022 

10:00 AM
12 noon Break for Lunch

Make and take home your own little tree as you learn the history and techniques of growing beautiful Bonsai with expert Luigi Trapani. 

Cost: $50.00 per person- includes soil, wire, and use of bonsai tools.

Then purchase the bonsai tree and bonsai pot of your choice at the class various aged trees and appropriately sized pots are available

Make A Bonsai Class

square site checkout to register

 

The FeatherPine- Taxodium distichum

Bald Cypress Seedlings
Taxodium distichum

It has been six months since the sprouting 

Bald Cypress seed were planted in the wet-muck seedbed.

 

Bald Cypress Seedlings in water 

Taxodium distichum

Bald Cypress
Feather Pine
Care

Taxodium distichum  seedlings

Bald Cypress is a "deciduous conifer"- it has cones and sheds its feather-like foliage in the Autumn. These seed were collected in November 2011, stored through the winter in a bucket of water then planted in a wet-muck seedbed in February 2012. 

planted in a wet-muck seedbed in February 2012
The seedlings in 2021

The seedlings dug in 2021

 Germination takes place on a wet-muck seedbed
Bald Cypress seed sprout

Seeds are produced annually and good seed production occurs about every 3 years. Seeds are dispersed more frequently by flood waters. Under swamp conditions, the best seed germination generally takes place on a sphagnum moss or a wet-muck seedbed. On better drained soils, Bald Cypress seed usually fail to germinate due to lack of surface water. Soil saturated for 1 to 3 months after seed-fall is required for germination. Seedlings require light for good growth, thus control of competing vegetation is necessary.

Broken Bald Cypress cones expose the seed
 Feather-like foliage 

Taxodium distichum  seedlings

Old-growth bald cypress
 form a flattened crown.




Altamaha River

Bald Cypress tree is an excellent choice for someone who is just getting started with bonsai. Seeds and small trees are easily collected in this area, now is the time to find trees with cones and watch for them to turn brown so that the seed can be collected just before the cones open. The best digging time for cypress is from mid-­December to late February. Bald cypress bud back easily and will produce vigorous sprouts from the stumps. Taxodium distichum are frequently planted in groups in a single container, forming a Bonsai forest. Japanese term for growing a bonsai from seed is Misho.

Taxodium distichum cones

Ron Martin bonsai forest Workshop

Green Bald Cypress cones

Bald Cypress 
bonsai prefer to
 live outdoors.

Other deciduous conifers are: 

• Larch- Larix
• Golden Larch- Pseudolarix amabilis
• Chinese Swamp Cypress- Glyptostrobus pensilis
• Dawn Redwood- Metasequoia glyptostroboides.

Taxodium distichum along the Altamaha River

Bald cypress and pond cypress are in the Taxodiaceae family. Bald cypress can be easily confused with pond cypress (Taxodium distichum var. nutans). Pond cypress has smaller, scale-like leaves pressed on the twigs. A twig of pressed pond cypress leaves resembles a pine needle pointing up or out from the stem. Bald cypress leaves are linear and feather-like  and the twigs hang down looking more pendulous than pond cypress twigs and leaves. Also, pond cypress tends to occur in still-water wetlands rather than flowing-water wetlands. Bald Cypress are not true cypress. True cypress are in the Cupressus family and are not native to the southeastern United States.

Bald cypress are found in  wetland habitats

Bald cypress is a wetland species that grows along rivers, streams, and creeks as well as in swamps with slow moving water. It is a legendary tree of the Deep South known for its "knees," moss-draped crown, and buttressed trunk. Taxodium distichum can live up to 600 years old. Taxodium distichum is native to the coastal plains along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean and north up through the Mississippi River Valley. The heartwood of old growth bald cypress is very resistant to rot. This is not true with younger second growth trees.

Bonsai in Autumn
Bald cypress with knees 

Cypress knees are woody projections sent above the normal water level function is unknown Lowland or swamp-grown cypresses found in flooded or flood-prone areas tend to be buttressed and "kneed," as opposed to cypresses grown on higher ground which may grow with very little taper.

Bald cypress
with roots submerged in water
and branches draped in
Spanish moss
Tillandsia usneoides

Pond Cypress
Taxodium distichum var. nutans
in still-water wetlands
SE Georgia

Trachelospermum asiaticum: Teika Kazura

A dwarf variety of Trachelospermum asiaticum
has very small leaves with more compact growth
Started 1980

Variegated Asiatic Jasmine 

Teika Kazura
Faux Jasmine - Trachelospermum asiaticum

A dwarf star jasmine with small yellow and green variegated leaves evergreen small-growing vine with glossy leaves that are much smaller than those of the standard Trachelospermum asiaticum.

Quite similar to the false jasmine Trachelospermum jasminoides, T. asiaticum produces flowers with a slightly smaller yellow heart (or cream). It has faster growth in the early years and is a bit more rustic

New growth is pinkish-bronze.

Despite its common name, Asiatic Jasmine

is not related to the true jasmines

The plant has a tight, compact growth with ovate to elliptic leaves ranging from quite tiny to around 1/4 inch in length.

at 34 years from a cutting

If unpruned it will climb or crawl on the ground, but it can be pruned to make a miniature shrub. When treated this way it makes a nice bonsai. A popular bonsai subject in Japan but not seen very often in the US.

Usage: Container, Ground-cover, Hanging Basket, Rock Garden, Wall, Topiary, Bonsai , Espalier

Drought Tolerant

USDA Zone 7-10.

strongly scented cream-colored flowers

This vine, Teika kazura, was named after the poet Fujiwara no Teika. “Teika” is a Noh Play written by Konparu Zenchiku about the rumored love affair between the poets Fujiwara no Teika and Shikishi Naishinnō, daughter of Goshirakawa, Emperor of Japan. To symbolize Teika’s clinging obsession for Princess Shikishi—even after their death—the grave of the princess placed in the middle of the stage and blanketed by a Asiatic jasmine.

String of Beads: Complete Poems of Princess Shikishi

Teika: The Life and Works of a Medieval Japanese Poet

Kazura means creeping plant, climbing plant

Trachelospermum asiaticum trained to grow on a trellis