How to Style Younger Bonsai Material

So let me Begin by showing you what we Are going to do By way of sowing seeds It’s now September which is near autumn So the first question you might well ask Is when is the best time to sow seeds There are two times which are very good Autumn is good time for tree seeds and Also the spring but I would say autumn Is better Many of the seeds as I explained earlier Are not ripe yet for instance the maple Seeds are not ready to correct the beech Tree seeds were not ready to pack but The ones which are ready Are the crab Apples and some of the other fruits that I have been using myself and I will show You how to sew these As an example of what can be grown from Seed this is an ordinary three-year-old Scotch spine three years from seed look The stem is thicker than a pencil that’s Only three years it was already about 60 Centimeter two feet tall I cut the top Off to produce more branching so that is Caused by This is a diode Cedar look at that more Than 60 centimeter long and this is only Three years old from sea This is also a three-year-old Japanese Maple we sell thousands of these and These are grown from seed and look at it Again thicker than a pencil These Wisteria seedlings are still in

The seed tree I saw them two years ago So these are two-year-old plants I Didn’t have the time to separate them to Pot up into individual pots so Mysterious are one of the easiest things To sow from seed so let’s begin by Showing you what we do Talking on Wisteria These are the current seed pods which I Plucked from the tree They’re not ripe yet but these were last Year’s seeds and you can see how the Seed Parts curl up and you get the seeds In the pot which you can collect and sow So you can sow these probably in November when the seeds are ripe or even In the spring that would work so what Can we show now What we can show now are Crabapple Many years ago long before I started the Nursery in my amateur days back in 1980 I used to take my children to all these Public parks like Kew Gardens and all The fruit used to fall on the floor this Particular type of crab apple is so tiny Look at it it’s almost the size of a pea And I told my children if you pick this Fruit For every fruit you pick I’ll give you One pence and they almost bankrupted me Because they picked about 500 of these Little seeds but I didn’t lose out on it

Because in each of these fruit let’s cut It up if you come close you can see You will find that in each of these Fruit There are several seeds look at that I bet you in each fruit there are about Five to ten seeds so if you sow these Little seeds you will get a plant and I’ve used to find that if you saw the Seeds now in the Autumn they will Germinate by October it’s September now So by October they were to germinate and You will get plants by Christmas time About one or two inch tall so they are That easy to sow from seed over here I Have just walking around for five Minutes I’ve come across three varieties Of crab apples this is another very rare One with small fruit I think this is Siberian crab and this is another large Crab apple and let’s cut this open so What you do is you cut the fruit open Like peeling an apple And you will find that inside there are Some lovely seeds So from this one if you can Come Close You see the seeds Are there Try not to Damage the seed by putting the knife Through it We sell these crab apples as fruit You don’t always Even have to cut the fruit open if you

Just bury the fruit and let the pulp rot The seeds will automatically Germinate by leaving it in the soil so With those seeds Now I’m showing you different types of Medium to root the seedlings You can either use ordinary sharp sand Put them in there Shop sign is very good and then cover it With a little bit of the sand or you can Use ordinary garden compost and this is Our Bonsai compost so I don’t recommend Using Bonsai compost mainly because it’s Very expensive why do you want to waste All the akadama and Volcanic glitter it Will germinate I’m not saying it won’t Germinate but it’s a waste of money to Use good Bonsai compost ordinary garden Compost is fine ordinary Shop Sand or Build a sand even what about sphagnum Moss sphagnum moss is expensive but That’s also a very good medium it’s nice And light and Airy so all you do is you Put the seeds in the I put the crab Apples in but like these it’s like Sowing Runner bean seeds almost you just Put the seeds in and wait And after you’ve done that With crab apples I find that if you put It on your kitchen windowsill somewhere Damp or in the bathroom where it’s done They will germinate within four weeks And within two months the plants will be About an inch high with the other plants

Like Japanese Maple and wisteria’s you Have to leave it in the open for the Frost to work on it so when the frost Works on it it is the natural process of Stratification I’ve explained what stratification is Stratification is merely Nature’s Way of Waking the seeds up from its dormancy When the seeds have formed in the Autumn The seeds go to sleep And they go to sleep for a very good Reason they want to preserve the energy For the germination to start in the Spring but if you want to wake up the Seeds artificially rather than wait for The spring you can freeze it to give it A false winter and the shock of the Freezing will wake the seeds up and it Will germinate and if you leave these uh Trays of or pots of little sand and Compost with the seeds in the freezing And towing during the winter will wake The seeds up and in March they will Germinate this applies for these Hardy Tree seeds like Japanese Maple and Wisteria crap Apple I’m showing you Separately because this are found that They germinate literally within a month From sowing in the September October so That’s different I mean if you take it To the ridiculous length of using an Ornery Apple these are some of the Apples from our apple orchard a lot of People ask why can’t you saw apple seeds

From the Apple that you can eat there’s No reason why you can’t you certainly Can they all have seeds and of course White people don’t sow apples from Cedars because it takes very long for The plant to become a viable tree to Bear fruit but it will bear fruit but The fruit may not be exactly the same as The parent tree So That’s why fruit trees are normally Grafted so that you get them true to Type but it doesn’t mean that you can’t Sow them from seeds so if you put these Little apple seeds into the soil they Will germinate as well the other fun Things that you may want to try and Experiment with are little orange Pips Orange Clips are very good this is a Stone from an almond if you eat almonds And peaches you can saw this Stone of The almond and peaches and they will Also germinate These funny seeds here This is a Fruit seed called the loquat it’s a Japanese and Chinese fruit orange color Soft fleshy fruit and egg invariably Grow no problem germinating don’t fancy And that of course is the famous avocado And the stone is so easy to germinate Just put it into the compost or even in Water I don’t germinate so that’s very Easy

I was showing you these Beach nuts but I Think these Beach nuts are not ready yet So let’s open some of them if they’re Green then I don’t think it’s ready I Brought them in just to show you what These Beach nuts look like They’re really hard The squirrels are very fond of using the Beach nuts or they eat the beach nuts And they’re usually still on the nuts Leaving us with hardly any for sewing Here you are look at the knot you come Close These are the beach seeds from Japanese Beach trees and uh We have in each Trip in each fruit about three seeds Like salt these are the big Japanese White beetseed I think they’re almost Ripe so I think we could even collect Them rather than wait for them to open And fall on the ground so we can collect It they look right they look quite fun What about the Japanese White Pine now The white pine or any pine cones you’ve Got to be very careful because once they Expand the seeds will automatically drop Out of the Corn so I have seen one or Two seeds in here so this one has Just show you what they look like See most of the seeds are already Falling out oh yes So there’s still some seeds in here and They’re very easy to so all the Pines

Are ever so easy to germinate from seed Here just from that corner I’ve got four Very nice plump seeds And there are more So these are what the point seeds look Like and if you just again What you said not rocket science just Put them in sand or compost Bury it about quarter inch into the soil Put a pin of glass or a sheet of plastic Or plastic bag keep it outside for the Weather to stratify the seeds that means Start and freeze it and in March in Early spring they should germinate so These are the Hardy tree seeds that can Be grown from seed so the only exception As I said are the crab apples which you Can sow now and you will get strong Plants from them So I hope you will get some inspiration From showing Plants from seed when you think that These are only two or three years old This is a two year old Wisteria or a Mommy sizable plant so you don’t have to Wait that long so going from seed to Make Bonsai is quite an easy thing but For goodness sake don’t spend a lot of Money buying the Bonsai seed kits Because if you buy the Bonsai seed kits The seeds will not give you a beautiful Bonsai tree You will only get an ordinary plant Which to germinate from the seeds so