I think it was in the first Karate Kid movie where I saw my first bonsai tree. Since then I have been fascinated by them. There used to be a great store in Murray called Ben's House of Bonsai. There were trees in there hundreds of years old and you could get all kinds of supplies. He had trees for sale from just a few dollars to thousands of dollars and he even had an outdoor bonsai garden you could walk through. Unfortunately, Ben retired and now his greenhouses have been turned into a housing development. After he retired I couldn't find another source for good bonsai stuff in Salt Lake County and had to turn to the internet. The best place I have found so far for bonsai supplies is the Dallas Bonsai Garden. Their stuff is mostly imported from Japan and is of high quality.

Since I first started with the bonsais, I have managed to kill several off but I still have two that seem to have become accustomed to my poor care. The first one I got about eight years ago and it was seven years old when I got it. It is a juniper and was shaped by Ben; although I haven't been able to keep the shape as pleasing as it was when I first got it. Anyway, below are some pictures of the Juniper.

For a long time I had a patch of green ground cover in the Juniper but it was very sensitive to missed waterings. After replacing it 5 or 6 times I gave up on it and moved on to just rocks. The rocks seem to be quite resilient to missed waterings.

My other surviving bonsai is one I shaped myself from a seedling. It is a Texas Ebony and is quite thorny. I chose it for its tiny leaves (which close up at night) and because it is quite resistent to poor care. I have had it for six years or so and it was probably one or two years old when i got it. Supposedly they grow seed pods with small black seeds but mine has never produced any. As you can see below it doesn't have the best shape, but I never claimed to be good at bonsai, I just like them.

The roots on this tree turned out to be really cool. The gnarled overlapping form really gives it an old feel. Now if I could just get it to grow in the direction I want it to grow. One big problem is that I have them in a window so they just tend to grow towards the window and I forget to rotate them regularly. In a greenhouse with more uniform light, I think they wouldn't get so one sided.

I only have to water these about once a week so they are pretty easy to take care of. For any of you who have avoided trying a bonsai because they are thought to be really high maintenance, these two are living proof that if you get the right tree, they can be fairly easy to maintain.

I would like to try some more but the kids are a constant danger to them. Once the kids get a bit older, I will try my hand at some new trees. Below find some useful links.