Kids and Bonsai

John Dixon

Does anyone else have a kid that thinks you have to have them in EVERY picture? Here I was taking a quick picture of a satsuki azalea I placing in the church sanctuary over Memorial Day weekend, and sure enough, my son (Casey) pops his head up!

You gotta love 'em.

John

Attached Images

casey.JPG (25.4 KB, 100 views)

__________________
John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

Advertisement

Attila

I think it's time to put him to work. It's never too early to start.

Teach him how to inspect the soil of each of your trees daily, and tag the trees that need to be watered on that day. Every day he does that correctly, you will pay him a salary (a few bucks) which he can save in his piggybank. There is nothing like this kind of positive reinforcement to stimulate a kid. And he can learn very early the value of a good work.

Good looking kid, by the way!..

(mine is only two years old and I managed to teach him not to defoliate my trees)

John Dixon

Attila,

He's way past that. He ALREADY waters them!!! His little azalea just got dead-headed a couple of weeks ago, and we MAY do some wiring. He has already been trimming it for two years (he's five). I have to watch him closely. The other day - I swear to this - I was cutting back a san jose juniper, and within ten minutes of starting, I couldn't find any "cuttings". I looked over in my shade area and there he had the cuttings putting them in bonsai soil in some training pots (like twelve cuttings to a ten inch pot) just like I do (except for the heel cut). Kids amaze me!!!

I don't know about that "paying" stuff. He hit one of my big bonsai (a privet) with a baseball the other day. It hit his aluminum bat (twIIIIng) and then the privet's trunk (knock) [onomatopoeias] and I didn't lose my mind.

I figured that was pretty good.

Thanks for the kind remarks. Yeah, he's a good-looking kid. He takes after mommy (Thank God).

John

__________________
John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

pootsie

Cute kid and nice tree.

pootsie

__________________
p.s. My cat is a bonsaiTALK Master.
Columbus Bonsai Society

John Dixon

Thanks pootsie, I kinda like 'em too. The azalea is my wife's favorite of the whole collection.

John

__________________
John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

rockm

John,

Nice azalea. Where'd it come from?

Count yourself lucky that your son has taken an interest in bonsai. Mine thinks I'm basically crazy and downright weird for working with "teeny little trees." He'd rather ride his skateboard.

John Dixon

Rockm, I honestly have no idea where I got it. I do know I purchased it as raw material about ten years ago for something like $50. It appeals to me because it is most correctly categorized as a broom style. Not very common with satsuki bonsai, in my opinion. It is about to be cut back hard and re-potted.

[/QUOTE]

I do. Both he and my daughter enjoy bonsai. My daughter actually took her azalea to show and tell at school a year or two back and explained that it was potted in Kanuma soil to the teacher. The teacher told me she was flabbergasted how much a six-seven year old knew about bonsai.
I'm sure I have the "daddy's weird" phase to look forward to. Of course, they'd probably be right in my case.

John

__________________
John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

dbz12fan

Hey John,
I love the pot the azalea is in. Jim Gremel had a similar style and color pot in the "by the hands of" section of the display at the World Bonsai Convention. I couldn't resist the price, so I ended up purchasing it. Any chance this is a Jim Gremel pot?

__________________
"Success demands understanding"-Andy Rutledge

Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

Attila

Wow, you are a lucky man! Or may be a smart one.

I hope mine can follow the same path.

Attila