Seconds out...

Round two.

My apologies to the mighty half dozen who look in from time to time, but for some inexplicable reason I got an urge to undurden.

Round 1.
Once upon a time I had Bonsai.

I started with a Laburnum in a pot, as a kid. We had never heard of Bonsai in the '50s. Eventually, after a few years, Mam made me plant it out with the anthropomorphic statement that I was ''being cruel'' and it was sure to die. It grew into a HUGE tree, 5-6' in the 1st year, ending it's days with a 8-9'' trunk.

My next attempt was more successful, I disguised the pot into the end of a rockery/wall I built as a teenager. In it lurked an ash which I kept small by dint of ''outing'' the pot to ensure the roots didn't stray beyond the pot's confines.

I got married, the pot stayed until Dad died in '84, what a birthday present for Mam that was at 02:00 Jan 5th.

The pot then joined me in Penrith and added to my dozen or so, the absolute favourites numbered 3
A ''windswept'' larch, a rather fine Acer platanoides with a 1'' diam trunk which
looked Lightning struck and, of course ''The Pot'' from home, all 30+yrs old.

From Feb '05 until June '06 I was both a Fireman and a retail jeweller. As a consequence of which, with the best will in the world I could not ''Shower, Shave, shampoo, etShitera'' AND water all the trees.
I can assure you it was not a case of ''I could have wept.''

SO!

Round 2.
Now I'm officially a ''wrinkly'' I'm at it again, but taking the odd short-cut, like buying occaisionally.
On the left Ulmus parvifolia - Chinese Elm ... Bonsai nursery 15quid, including small, free, booklet on Bonsai culture
On the right, SERISSA FOETIDA/ TREE OF A THOUSAND STARS ... ALDI Six quid.

Looked it up and found out...

Being a subtropical species Serissa have to be protected from temperatures below 7°C which means indoor cultivation is required in most areas of Europe and America for a good proportion of the year. However, here lies the heart of the problem with this species; it is difficult to keep up the humidity levels required by Serissa in an indoor environment and this often causes the tree to suffer.

Bugg Writt!

From ''Miniature Trees in the Japanese Style'' Gillian E. Severn. Published mcmlxvii, better known as 1967

''The Japanese
grow tiny trees
about so high!
I wonder why.''

(And it's not even a Haiku)

From me, much more recently, and unpublished.

Bonsai Samurai,
grow a tiny tree.
Not much more than
two foot three.

Which at least it has 17 syllables, even if it follows no other rules.
;¬))

I'd STILL like somebody to teach the Blip software to recognise <''> and not turn it into <?> when copy/pasting, thus forcing me to type<'><'> rather than ''