The latest addition to our new home:
If we’re patient enough and provide proper care, It could grow to fill our entire atrium, which would be really cool. They had a more mature tree at the nursery that was something like 10-12 feet, and who know how old, but it was $549 plus whatever it would cost to ship it to Richmond. Our little guy is only about 4 feet tall so he fit nicely into Raquel’s car and only set us back 30 bucks. Much more reasonable.
Not sure why I never did this before, but I was inspired so I ordered our first Bonsai tree, a little Juniper, on Amazon of all places, through a company called 9Greenbox.
I didn’t exactly know what to expect. I read the reviews and they were mostly good, but a few people complained about the size of their tree and one that the tree died within a week of its arrival. It was only about 10 bucks, so I thought I take the plunge.
I choose the Juniper because I wanted a tree that not only would grow indoors, but would be fairly easy to maintain and cheap, so that if it didn’t make it, I wouldn’t feel so bad. All we need to do know is water it every day, give it some sunlight, keep an eye on the shoot growth. We’ll fertilize it in the spring and just see how it goes.
It’s supposed to be 4 years old, and that’s hard to believe, but what do I know? It’s cool no matter how old it is. With any luck it will continue to grow and mature under our care. Who knows, maybe someday it’ll be doing so well, we’ll be able to move it a larger pot. Whoo-hoo!
It seems amazing that I could order a tree online and have it shipped via USPS. It arrived yesterday in a smallish box that was will fitlled with styrofoam packing material. The pot was saran-wrapped to keep the soil in place. I took it out of the box carefully, removed the wrap and gave it a little water.
It’s now sitting in the one room in the house that gets sun, the second bedroom, which seems destined to be a combination library/greenhouse.
I don’t know where this bonsai thing is going, but I think they’re fantastic. I’d like to get a few more and even experiment with growing some from seeds. I don’t know if I have the patience to really take care of them, but with Raquel’s help, we could end up with a nice little collection. It would be really cool to have a Jacaranda or other deciduous tree, maybe a Japanese Maple, as well as a fruiting tree. We’ll see.