my dad has about 25 bonsai's in his back garder but one of the most beautyfull trees must be this bougainville. sorry for the bad pics... cellphone pics. he has been in the bonsai hobby for about 35years now and 90% of the trees in his garden he started them from scratch.
Thats pretty awesome man. That first tree is a beaut!! 35 years, nice. its nice to see there is proper interest in this hobby here in SA. . .
i will take some pics of all his trees one day and post it... he really has an awsome collection and is very pasionate about it!
That is awesome trees. The funny thing is before I will have a nice matured tree I will be "tussen 80 en biltong"
yeah i must say, my dad has a garden to die for!!! when i was still living with them i use to spend hours with my dad in the garden!
@Pierre07 do a google search for the oldest bonsai on record. You will be surprised what you find. @worsie007 im sure you could get alot of inspiration from a good garden.
Fact or fiction ? Help me trackdown the truth to this facinating tale. I'm a bonsai collector and interested in any information regarding this closely guarded secret ! ''There is a myth I read once of a goat farmer in Iraq, who, while herding one day near what once was Babylon, fell into a long lost tomb when the ceiling gave way when he was walking on the sand covering it at the base of a rock outcropping. In the center of this tomb was a pedestal made of solid gold and on top of it was a remarkable, though slightly unkempt, pine bonsai planted in a highly decorated and jewel encrusted pot filled with soil that consisted of thousands of small diamonds, dusted with what appeared to be bat dung. Rays of sunlight illuminated it from many angles, reflecting off of polished mica and originating from a small hole in the rock outcropping, also lined with plates of polished mica. A stalagmite directly above the bonsai dripped mineral rich water slowly but steadily onto the tree, washing any bat dung on the foliage into the diamonds below. Upon study, scientists dated the pottery that held the pine at app 1000 years BC, making it over 3000 years old! Some say that such a tree could never survive that long, others claim that the constant water and nutrient sources, coupled with controlled sunlight could have worked. Some say the tree would have died due to being root bound and become horribly overgrown, others claim the root restriction and the diamonds prevented this from happening. I don't know myself, but I have heard rumors about a recent bonsai negotiation in Japan which was highly secretive, but which supposedly involved something along the lines of 100 million dollars. Seems it fell though when a government declared the bonsai as a national treasure and was going to seal it into a tomb?''
That is the exact page i wanted you to find worsie07. haha, i also read that same article. also wondered if it was true
my mind was also puzzled by the 3000 years hey. theres also another article i read. i must just find the link to it, its a bonsai that survived the Hiroshima bombing. it was part of a collection at a old bonsai museum that was in the blast radius. the whole place was destroyed except for this single tree. Its awesome
http://www.nbcwashington.com/the-scene/events/Bonsai-Tree-Survived-Hiroshima-Now-in-DC-100109504.html Amazing tree aswell
haha just read the story again. k it wasnt the only surviving tree. But the story is still a good one
That is some amazing stories. what i said abut the white oak tree was just the expected live of that specie. i am sure some trees survives longer and some other tree species even live longer. what is also amazing is that a white oak can reach 90 feet in height and can have a canopy of 90 feet wide. That is the height of a 10 storey building. Nether the less imagine if trees had eyes and could talk what all they could have shared after a life of a couple of hundred years. And no the trees is Lord of the rings are not real.
here are a few more pics i took this morning at my dads house. keep in mind that the trees have just been trimmed for summer growth so they still need to grow out! hope you guys like it...
