Craig Cowing

My name is Craig, and I guess I'm a bonsai-aholic too, but what a way to go!

I live in Orange County, NY, about 50 miles NW of New York City. I'm on the edge of zones 5b/6a as far as I can tell.

I'm 45 and am an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. I'm serving a church here in New York. We just moved here from Maine 6 weeks ago after 12 years there.

I have been doing bonsai for 3 years now. I too started with the mallsai that died because I kept them indoors. I've done a lot of reading, bought a lot of books, killed a few trees out of ignorance, subscribed to Bonsai Today, and have found a lot of stuff on the Internet including the IBC, through which I was led to my first club, the Kennebec Valley Bonsai Club in Maine. I've also met some others through the list. I'm not in a club now, but I am hoping I might be able to get something started in the area. I'm thinking of doing a couple of talks around the area to gauge interest.

For trees, I've got a bit of everything:
Northern white cedar (3)
Kingsville boxwood
Wintergreen boxwood
Larch (3 in nursery containers)
Yew (1 in a cascade style, the other I collected from a friend's yard)
Ilex crenata 'Helleri'---Japanese holly
Hemlock (2 in pots, 2 in wooden boxes)
Parson's juniper (1 in pot, 1 in nursery container)
Blue carpet juniper
Shimpaku juniper
Procumbens juniper (3 or 4 in pots, a few in nursery containers)
Sargent's juniper (1 in a pot, 6 or so in nursery containers)
Chinese elm
1 Eastern white pine
Fukien tea
Jade plant
Ficus Too-Little (4)
Portulacaria afra (2)
Japanese maple 'Kiyohime'
South African Puzzle Bush
Acacia

In wooden boxes:
3 wild crabapples, collected in Maine, one which is about 125 years old
4 red/swamp maples (acer rubrum) collected in Maine, one of which is 122 years old
1 yellow birch
2 gray birches
1 white ash
a fat old honeysuckle collected in my backyard in Maine
1 American Elm

A bunch of other stuff, mostly evergreens, in nursery containers or in the ground.

I have a red cedar (juniperus virginiana) in the yard here which I have cut back, and plan to collect next spring. I also have a red maple in the yard which was roughly cut down this year, and I'm planning to cultivate it in place for the next couple of years to develop a new trunk from a well-placed new shoot.

My wife tells me I have too much, but I have a comeback--she has 4 llamas. The llamas actually work out well with the bonsai because I make a manure tea with the manure, and use it regularly when I fertilize.

Bonsai has been a great thing for me. I find it has a strong spiritual component.

Craig Cowing