Weekend Ritual/ Stuffs about Bucida Spinoza

I almost forgot about this bucida espinosa. I bought this a bout a year ago and I have been training the trunk for almost six months now. Bucidas are "natural bonsai" material because of its small leaves and layered branch structure.

Another thing is that it is available in garden shops. A small one costs around a hundred pesos and a larger one, about a meter high, costs around five hundred pesos up.

Bucidas' trunks and branches are not flexible like the ficuses, vitex and other materials. They are rigid and breaks easily when they become woody. So, its best to train when they are still young and green.

Bucidas are tough but, due to ignorance, I have killed one of this way back about two years ago when I trimmed its roots, brutally may I say, and transferred it in a shallow dish. I was impatient then, now I know better and so the mantra is now do things softly and gradually.

I checked the wires and it's already biting into the trunk. One thing about wires is that when they become embedded into the branch, the branch swells and in the process becomes deformed like Popeye's biceps. So, though most of the times I forget, I try to routinely check the wires especially during the rainy season because this is the season when plants have their growth spurt.

I wound more wires into the base of the trunk to promote deformation that will eventually result to the tapering of the trunk.

Though many find the S-shape trunk cliche, it is still a beautiful trunk form (or structure, whatever). 

A friend, who once in a while visits, keeps telling me that I am torturing these poor trees. But I tell him that the beauty of these trees come out when their wild nature is tamed and direction is provided for their growth.

Just like pet dogs, cats, and especially people...Anyway, Buddhist monks, who invented the art, knew this all along. Actually the trimming, wiring and training can be so engrossing that I sometimes think about stuffs.  I, sort of, become a little philosophical or the activity made me think about philosophical stuffs, anyway, whatever.

                                                

I am accumulating bonsai materials and passers-by are already asking if I'm selling but I'm not. But there may come a time that I have to let go of some of these trees. But not today because I love the activity and the connection with nature that they provide for me, whatever that means. Anyway, they are still developing and so is the art of waiting.