Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know front House Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Josh Clark, There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. I've decided to
Speaker 1: talk about speed right now. Oh yeah, how's it going. Well?
Speaker 1: You know there are some weirdos that listen to us
Speaker 1: on double Speed. Well they just are like, hurry up
Speaker 1: and get to the point. You're idiot, yea, because you know,
Speaker 1: busy lives. They can't listen to forty minutes of contact straight.
Speaker 1: It always it's funny to mean somebody tweets to us
Speaker 1: or takes the time to write an email say like,
Speaker 1: I love your your podcast, but I'm really displeased with
Speaker 1: the tangents you go on. You seem to talk about
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that's unrelated. Can you stop doing that?
Speaker 1: And um, I always think I don't think Seffy, you
Speaker 1: should know this for you buddy. If you're if you're
Speaker 1: being driven crazy by that, then well yeah, like we
Speaker 1: would welcome you to stay. But the tangents are they're
Speaker 1: part of the fabric of the show at this point.
Speaker 1: There's the glue. Like it or not, I think the
Speaker 1: whole thing would be decidedly less enjoyable if we were
Speaker 1: just like vomiting facts, just business like, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or maybe after eight fifty shows, we should just completely
Speaker 1: change how we do it. Yeah, there you go. That's
Speaker 1: a great idea. Hey, before we get started, though, we
Speaker 1: do want to thank Sam from gypsums Ma Lord. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. Sam. We mentioned the unique Liqueur Chicago brand
Speaker 1: Liqueur on our PR show Live in Chicago because you
Speaker 1: tried it like before the show. Yeah. Well, I've tried
Speaker 1: it a few times and it's, uh, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's as John Hodgman said, it tastes like a pencil
Speaker 1: shavings and heartbreak as his descriptor. But Sam heard us
Speaker 1: talking about Crown Down Royal. It was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: they talked about my Lord and I didn't send him
Speaker 1: in anything. Yeah, attention all of their distillers in America
Speaker 1: you can get in on this too. Yeah. If the
Speaker 1: makers of Plymouth Gin or Leopold's Gin or Knob Creek
Speaker 1: or Pappy Van Winkle St. George's, they're a great distillery
Speaker 1: out of San Francisco. Yeah, Pappy van Winkle. Wow, we
Speaker 1: that's the stuff that gets like hijacked and sold for
Speaker 1: like dollars on the internet. So I'm just throwing it
Speaker 1: out there. I'm picking it back up, bringing it back here,
Speaker 1: throwing it again. We're happy to drink your booze and
Speaker 1: talk about it at nauseam. Uh you know what else.
Speaker 1: We're happy to talk about big boy bon yes, which
Speaker 1: you I don't know if I was saying it wrong,
Speaker 1: but right before we press record, you said it's not bonsai,
Speaker 1: it's bonsai, and I was like, what's the It's not bonzai? Right?
Speaker 1: That means heads up right right right? Bonsai? Right? Uh?
Speaker 1: Is it basically means plant in tiny container? Yeah? Those
Speaker 1: are the cute toy trees. Mr plastic It depends target
Speaker 1: has some. They definitely have plastic ones. Yeah. If you
Speaker 1: search BONDSA, it's one of the things that comes up immediately.
Speaker 1: It's fake trees. I think it's called like nearly real
Speaker 1: for nearly natural something like that, and uh, it does
Speaker 1: not look nearly natural. It's like near beer. Do you
Speaker 1: ever heard people called non alcoholic beer near beer. I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of funny. I used to um, I
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't tell his story. So with bonds, I, UM, chuck,
Speaker 1: we're talking like you said the little toy trees, And yeah,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of fake bonds I out there, but they're
Speaker 1: just kind of it's the same thing as fake flowers.
Speaker 1: You know. Well it sort of flies in the face
Speaker 1: of what's special about bonsai, which is that it's a
Speaker 1: living work of art. Right it does, And a lot
Speaker 1: of people are like, well, that's just a weird, freakish
Speaker 1: tree that you've been abusing for the last several decades.
Speaker 1: Some people actually do criticize bonsai because it is Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's like docking and dog's tail or. Um, it's
Speaker 1: nothing like, but it depending on how you feel about plants,
Speaker 1: it's it's the same thing. You're taking, it's something that's
Speaker 1: natural and literally bending it to your will. So there's
Speaker 1: an anti pruning movement going on around the world. Maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know if I would go that far to
Speaker 1: say it, but um, if you are invested in bonds Eye,
Speaker 1: if you do appreciate bonds Eye, part of the whole
Speaker 1: point of bonds Eye. As you are taking, you're creating
Speaker 1: a tableau that is a a living depiction of nature
Speaker 1: rather than a painting. You're creating a living version of
Speaker 1: basically a painting well sculpture, living sculpture. Yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: even better, Like you can make it out of sculpe clay.
Speaker 1: You could, but then you've you've totally missed the point
Speaker 1: of bonding. Well they'd be fun too, but but it's
Speaker 1: something different, right, So, um, we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: how to how to bonds? Ie, I have to say, um,
Speaker 1: is that a verb as well? It is? Now we're
Speaker 1: gonna Jerry's is cracking up this episode? She's she's reading, Uh, oh,
Speaker 1: what is the guy from Crack's name? Alfredy Newman's like
Speaker 1: kind of oh yeah, he had like this yeah counterpart.
Speaker 1: Yeah is that still around because they're sort of a
Speaker 1: different thing than they. Yeah. Yeah, there's this great story
Speaker 1: behind Cracked, Like Cracked was around for you know, decades,
Speaker 1: and it just got less of languish. And I guess
Speaker 1: some fan came along and was like, hey, I noticed,
Speaker 1: like you're basically just waiting around for Crack to die.
Speaker 1: Can I have a stab at it? Crack at it?
Speaker 1: I specifically didn't say that, but yes, and um they're like, whatever, kid,
Speaker 1: go ahead, and the guy basically resurrected Crack Cracked in
Speaker 1: his basement brought it back from the dead and now
Speaker 1: it's like huge, sold for boatload of money. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: good for them. I hope it went to that dude
Speaker 1: who resurrected it. I do too, that's great. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't remember how we got onto cracked. Jerry was laughing. Oh,
Speaker 1: she was reading cracked. That's right. Um. So back to
Speaker 1: bonds I, Like I said, we're gonna talk about how
Speaker 1: to bonds I, which, like they said as a verb. Now, um,
Speaker 1: but let's talk about the history of it first. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like uh, Like many things in the world, and especially
Speaker 1: many things that you might associate with Japan, it started
Speaker 1: earlier in China before it made its way to Japan,
Speaker 1: and in China it was called well in Japan, did
Speaker 1: you already say what the what it literally means? I
Speaker 1: think you did. Yeah, it means plant in a tray, Yeah,
Speaker 1: plant in a tray. In China it was punsi, which
Speaker 1: means tray plant. Not too far off. And if you
Speaker 1: go all the way back to the Tang dynasty, Um,
Speaker 1: they there is evidence, you know, and tomb paintings that
Speaker 1: they had these little little prune trees and shallow pots. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like part of the painting in the tomb.
Speaker 1: It's not like featured, it's just part of it, kind
Speaker 1: of depicting regular life. They're like, okay, well, at least
Speaker 1: by seven oh six, um, see that there were people
Speaker 1: doing bonzai in China through ponzai, right, Uh, it may
Speaker 1: go back even further than that. There's a legend that
Speaker 1: an emperor round about two oh six BC wanted his
Speaker 1: entire empire China recreated a miniature in his backyard, and um,
Speaker 1: they think they suspect that it's possible that that may
Speaker 1: have given rise to pontai. That makes sense. They're like,
Speaker 1: we gotta make tiny trees now because the emperor wants. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But then either through trade or through gifts, exchanges of
Speaker 1: state departments and stuff like that. Um, Japan does what
Speaker 1: it always did, and it got its handed on something
Speaker 1: and then took it to the nth degree and perfected
Speaker 1: and made it. That's what Japan does. That's what they do. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's an ancient Japanese scroll that I found not literally
Speaker 1: in my backyard, and you're adding, uh, that I found
Speaker 1: on the internet. Uh, And it says this is around
Speaker 1: the Kamakura period, which was to thirt thirty three. Um,
Speaker 1: and it says to appreciate and find pleasure and curiously
Speaker 1: curved potted trees is to love deformity, which I thought
Speaker 1: was interesting. And the article I read said it, you know,
Speaker 1: we don't know whether it is positive or negative. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it means positive. Maybe the writer was passive aggressive.
Speaker 1: I thought it was a pretty interesting quote though. Oh
Speaker 1: yeah for sure, because I mean, again, you're training trees
Speaker 1: to to be little freaks of nature basically. Yeah. And um,
Speaker 1: like a lot of other works of art at the time, Um,
Speaker 1: it starts out with like monks and Buddhists, and then
Speaker 1: eventually it becomes like part of the rich elite and
Speaker 1: then eventually works its way to the to the common folk.
Speaker 1: So by the I think the thirteenth fifteen, sixteenth century,
Speaker 1: it was, it was, it was, it would become like
Speaker 1: a pretty well established hobby in Japan. Um, I don't.
Speaker 1: I got the impression that wasn't necessarily thought of as
Speaker 1: an art form until the West saw it for the
Speaker 1: first time. So in the seventeenth century, Japan was getting
Speaker 1: really tired of Westerners trying to convert them to Christianity
Speaker 1: and um, basically exploiting them in unfair trade practices. They said,
Speaker 1: you know what Westerners get out, We are isolating ourselves,
Speaker 1: were closing ourselves off the trade with the West except
Speaker 1: for a few Dutch and Spaniards. Uh, and then the Chinese,
Speaker 1: everybody else go away. And they stayed like that for
Speaker 1: a couple hundred years. And um, I believe it was
Speaker 1: Millard Fillmore who sent Matthew Perry Chandler bing over there
Speaker 1: with the squadron of navy freighters and huge cannons and guns, saying,
Speaker 1: you're gonna trade with us? He said, could you guys
Speaker 1: be any cooler? You have all kinds of cool stuff,
Speaker 1: that's my Chandler. So Japan opened up basically at the
Speaker 1: barrel of America's guns. Yeah, we should do a show
Speaker 1: on that. We talked about it enough. It's really interesting
Speaker 1: the isolation this period, Like what was what went on there?
Speaker 1: And then? Uh, A lot of bonds, a lot of
Speaker 1: goldfish tending. Nice remember Mr Burns famous quote those sandal
Speaker 1: wearing goldfish tenders. I don't remember that. That's good though.
Speaker 1: But as far as coming to the West, there were
Speaker 1: a couple of big fairs where it kind of exploded.
Speaker 1: The Paris World Exhibition of eighteen seventy eight in the
Speaker 1: London exhibition of nineteen o nine, where uh, you know,
Speaker 1: of course people in the West just probably flipped for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's so cool. Yeah, it is like, oh man,
Speaker 1: researching this, I just every time I would come across
Speaker 1: a new term for like a style or something, I
Speaker 1: go look it up and I end up spending half
Speaker 1: an hour just looking at bonds Eye pictures. You know.
Speaker 1: It's really engrossing. Yeah. I was gonna be like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm doing this, but I'm gonna wait for what old age,
Speaker 1: so like three or four years from now. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I'm going to get into it. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: it's just for me. I've got too much going on
Speaker 1: right now to do. But it's gonna be a great
Speaker 1: retirement past time for me. I could just I could
Speaker 1: see myself really like spending days and days. I can
Speaker 1: see it's caring for these little guys because I like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, and I like, uh like tiny things and miniatures. Oh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna love Bond's Eye. Yeah, like the little tiny
Speaker 1: Tabasco bottles that you get in room service and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. Plus you're crazy for it. Your doll houses
Speaker 1: that you've built on my doll houses. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think you read Dobson play. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, well, I guess we should talk about some
Speaker 1: of those styles and huh, well you want to take
Speaker 1: a break first, Yeah, let's do that. Okay, okay, Josh,
Speaker 1: you mentioned styles, and I did the same thing you did, Buddy.
Speaker 1: I went and looked at pictures and I put little
Speaker 1: marks next to my favorite ones, like earmarked what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try and emulate in the future. I'm very curious
Speaker 1: if if we're going to do right, you start so
Speaker 1: upright choken and it's the most formal traditional style where
Speaker 1: it is basically it emulates a strong, healthy, upright growing tree. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that we take this like ancient, amazing art
Speaker 1: form and the most formal style we go right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I agree. Didn't delight me. And again, what you're
Speaker 1: doing is emulating nature, but you're doing it in miniature.
Speaker 1: And part of bonds Ie UM is using like tricks
Speaker 1: of the eye, force perspective, that kind of stuff. And Um,
Speaker 1: the upright the choken style UM does that by tapering
Speaker 1: the trunk, so it's much wider at the bottom than
Speaker 1: it is that that's the top to kind of give
Speaker 1: you the idea that you're looking up towards a very
Speaker 1: tall tree. Yeah, and we'll sprinkle in bits of the
Speaker 1: uh sort of philosophical art behind it. But the idea
Speaker 1: is that you you sort of imagine a scene in
Speaker 1: your head and then you try and make it look
Speaker 1: like that. Maybe it's something from your past, maybe it's
Speaker 1: a great tree you saw one time on a vacation,
Speaker 1: but just something that makes you feel good. Um, you're
Speaker 1: usually not like, you know, let me just make some crazy,
Speaker 1: weird looking thing because you know I'm drunk. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make the I'm gonna make that tree that was next
Speaker 1: to the place where my friend got hit and killed
Speaker 1: on his bike. Now it's all about harmony. Yes, that
Speaker 1: would be the opposite of Bond's eye. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: Uh So, moving into another style, which I did not
Speaker 1: put a check Martin next to. But it's okay, mayogi,
Speaker 1: I like this one. It's okay. It's a little like
Speaker 1: the choken. Um it's the informal upright, Okay, so a
Speaker 1: little more style maybe. Yeah. So the chocon is very formal,
Speaker 1: very straight. Um, the mayogi is it's overall the shape
Speaker 1: is upright, but it can like bend and twist to
Speaker 1: get to that point. You see what I'm saying. It's neat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's neat. I wouldn't mind doing a moyogi
Speaker 1: at some point in the future, but it definitely won't
Speaker 1: be the first one I try. All Right, it's it's
Speaker 1: down the list of it. Uh the slanting shakan or
Speaker 1: or fukanagashi fukagashi. Yeah, nice, it's that good. Um, these
Speaker 1: are pretty cool. I have to say. That has the
Speaker 1: leaning trunk at a forty five degree angle and the
Speaker 1: branches follow the angle of the trunk. Yeah, they're they're
Speaker 1: parallel to it, right, Yes, basically parallel essentially right, so
Speaker 1: they're neat looking. And that trunk is slanted. Uh. In
Speaker 1: in reference to the the pot, the lip the lip
Speaker 1: of the pot, right, um, and we should say don't
Speaker 1: we haven't said it. So we're talking mostly about the
Speaker 1: trees and that's what gets the most attention. But um,
Speaker 1: classically and at its heart, bonsai is a it's a balance,
Speaker 1: it's a harmony between the plant and the pot. Like
Speaker 1: when you're talking about it bonsai. The pot is included
Speaker 1: in that it's very it's part of the sculpture itself. Almost, yeah, agreed. Uh.
Speaker 1: And also with that slanting style. Um supposedly, even though
Speaker 1: I saw many examples to the contrary. The first branch
Speaker 1: is supposed to go opposite of the angle of the
Speaker 1: trunk for to provide balance, right, I think that's in
Speaker 1: the shotgun style. It goes opposite. Yeah, got yeah, alright, alright, chuck,
Speaker 1: next cascade for really eat and you just lit up
Speaker 1: like a Christmas tree. It's yours. So the semi cascade,
Speaker 1: the Hanken guy is mine. That's the one I'm going
Speaker 1: to try first. All right, Well, go ahead and describe it.
Speaker 1: This so basically, and you need a deeper pot. So
Speaker 1: most pots for um uh bonsai are shallow. Um this
Speaker 1: you need like a pretty deep pot forward, because the
Speaker 1: plant is basically mostly overhanging. It's outside and hanging down
Speaker 1: from the pot. That's a full on cascade. And these
Speaker 1: are meant to really emulate like a tree that's just
Speaker 1: barely hanging on and like a rocky outcrop on a mountain. Interesting,
Speaker 1: and so the cascade is full on like the basically
Speaker 1: the whole plant has been below the lip of the pot.
Speaker 1: The semi cascade is where right where the there's a
Speaker 1: substantial amount of the plant is still in the pot,
Speaker 1: but it's growing over and down the side something or
Speaker 1: really off to the side and swept his semi cascade,
Speaker 1: I think is another term for it. Yeah, now I'm
Speaker 1: trying to apply psychology to why that's your favorite. It's
Speaker 1: just the look of it. Just aesthetically speaking, I think
Speaker 1: it's it's great. Next up we have the literati or
Speaker 1: the bungen or bungeni bing bunging guy. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's way better. Probably one of those. So you think
Speaker 1: I would ask my wife, sure we should just have
Speaker 1: you me in here with like a ruler smacking knuckles. Nope. Um,
Speaker 1: this is the one that's really uh focuses on perspective.
Speaker 1: So the idea here here is that you're you're looking
Speaker 1: uh from below to a tree that is above, like
Speaker 1: if you're at the base of a mountain looking up.
Speaker 1: Then you tailor the tree to make it look as
Speaker 1: if And we should also mention that you should look
Speaker 1: at eye level is traditionally where you're when you talk perspective.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're standing four ft above it, right,
Speaker 1: that's different you should look at bonsai eye level. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why they're so frequently displayed at eye level. That's right.
Speaker 1: And there's also it's probably worth mentioning here that there's
Speaker 1: a definite front and a definite back to a bonsaie.
Speaker 1: We'll get into that. Uh, this one is one of
Speaker 1: my favorites. Broom. Yes, we are at the broom. So
Speaker 1: this is this the one that you marked the hokey
Speaker 1: duchy yes. Um. And you might look it up people
Speaker 1: and say interesting, not the most flashy tree, but there's
Speaker 1: something about it. Man. It has this like really full
Speaker 1: kind of half dome with a just a single trunk
Speaker 1: jutting up. Yeah, it's just beautiful to me. It's like
Speaker 1: it takes the shape of like an idealized like maple
Speaker 1: or oak tree. Yeah, you know, it reminded me of
Speaker 1: a like a grand oak. Yeah. Well, yeah, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: call you flashy. You've never been known to where like
Speaker 1: I d bracelets or pinky rings or I don't know
Speaker 1: what either one of those things are. Do you know
Speaker 1: what a pinky ring is? Nope, yes you do. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're talking about. A pinky ring, A
Speaker 1: man's pinky ring, I know what a man is. Okay,
Speaker 1: well I'll tell you later. Uh So, next up is
Speaker 1: my absolute favorite by far, the landscape. It's when you
Speaker 1: create your little miniature scene. It's like a shadow box,
Speaker 1: which I used to love doing those when I was
Speaker 1: a kid. My my oldest sister was into this, um
Speaker 1: years and years ago. Yeah. She would make more like
Speaker 1: English gardens kind of in miniature that with like you
Speaker 1: know what, like those gazing balls. She would make like,
Speaker 1: well tiny one of those is the focal point of
Speaker 1: the place. And yeah, so this is when you have
Speaker 1: your little nature scene. You've got moss, you've got little rocks,
Speaker 1: you may even have a water feature. And it's just
Speaker 1: I just I don't know, man. Ever since I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I love little things like that. So is
Speaker 1: that the first one you're gonna try? Well, I think
Speaker 1: I'll probably have to work up to that. Um, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna just do water features right out of the gate, No,
Speaker 1: but I might have built my own fountain once. It's
Speaker 1: not that hard. You need to pump um. And this
Speaker 1: actually China is still into um yeah, into bonsai, but
Speaker 1: this is the stuff that they practice called pinging. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very landscape oriented. Yeah, I might even put a little
Speaker 1: like a camping sing little fire ring. Oh, that'd be
Speaker 1: great with some little little guys with their acoustic guitars. Right,
Speaker 1: and then Jason Vorhees is standing off to the side
Speaker 1: just watching them. Maybe, um, root over or root on rock.
Speaker 1: This is the one I thought was gonna be your favorite. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so what's the deal here? Um? You you could definitely
Speaker 1: combine this one with something like cascade or wind sweat.
Speaker 1: It's where you train the roots of the um the
Speaker 1: tree to grow around or on top of a rock.
Speaker 1: It's pretty neat, so it looks like it is really
Speaker 1: clinging to a mountain side. Yeah. And what they're trying
Speaker 1: to do in a lot of these cases is give
Speaker 1: the appear arrants of like an old tree, Uh, something
Speaker 1: has been around for many years, um, when in fact
Speaker 1: it maybe a tree that's like a year old, but
Speaker 1: it looks like some ancient oak or something. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: we'll talk about some of the techniques for doing that later,
Speaker 1: but that is largely the It seems like the initial
Speaker 1: point if you're you're trying to make it look like
Speaker 1: an old tree, or you're creating a tree that you
Speaker 1: intend to live for a few hundred years and get old,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, and the oldest one they have in
Speaker 1: d C like fo years old. That's even close. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that one's cool. You want to talk about that.
Speaker 1: So there's a white pine at the National Banzai and
Speaker 1: Penji Museum in d C, and it's almost four dred
Speaker 1: years old. But also notably it survived a pretty big event,
Speaker 1: the bombing of Urashima, and then it was given as
Speaker 1: a gift from Japan to UM the US. Why. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I guess they were like, you're don't ever
Speaker 1: do that again, this thing to remind you, I think twice.
Speaker 1: So there are many many older ones in that that
Speaker 1: was what you're saying. Yeah, there's one in uh Museum
Speaker 1: in Spain. It's a ficus that's like a thousand years old.
Speaker 1: There's another one that's like a thousand. There's a couple
Speaker 1: that are eight hundred years old. And the ideas that
Speaker 1: many times these are passed within your family, correct, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: very frequently they'll be handed down as heirlooms. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: some of the disparity between ages where they're like that
Speaker 1: one doesn't really count. It may have been like a
Speaker 1: thousand year old ficus that somebody found out in the
Speaker 1: wild and collected and has been bonds eying for twenty years.
Speaker 1: So this one, I have the impression um has been
Speaker 1: bonds eyed and in the same family for like six
Speaker 1: or seven generations, so it's been like tended to. So
Speaker 1: it may have been kind of old when it was
Speaker 1: when it was collected um, but it's been bonds eyed
Speaker 1: for hundreds of years all right. To finish up, the
Speaker 1: last category, which I think is pretty cool, multiform or
Speaker 1: eca to or SoCon or kabudachi, and that is when
Speaker 1: you have the illusion that you have more than one
Speaker 1: tree but it's really just one tree. Yeah, that's it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. So it looks like, you know, it's generally
Speaker 1: jutting out from the bottom obviously of the roots structure
Speaker 1: up and it looks like a couple of trees. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's a single tree. Some people cheat and put
Speaker 1: some several trees in there. But well you can do that, right,
Speaker 1: a little you're a little forest, I guess so. But
Speaker 1: isn't that then really the landscape the psychi maybe? I think,
Speaker 1: you know, what, are the Bonsai police gonna come knocking
Speaker 1: on your door? Yeah, you don't want to mess with
Speaker 1: those guys. You know you don't, they'll ignore you. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about what kind of plants
Speaker 1: you can use, because I did not know this. I
Speaker 1: thought there was a special kind of tree that everybody
Speaker 1: used to make a bonsai. Yeah, but in fact it's
Speaker 1: it could be a tree that out in the wild
Speaker 1: is thirty tall. I had no idea. I thought there
Speaker 1: were little miniature trees. It just grew up to be
Speaker 1: like a foot tall. Yeah, no, a lot. Apparently that's
Speaker 1: like a common misconception. I saw that during research a
Speaker 1: couple of times. Um. The whole key is you are
Speaker 1: dwarfing a tree, and you're doing that by um, keeping
Speaker 1: it in a small container and keeping its roots trimmed
Speaker 1: back so that it comes to basically go against its
Speaker 1: natural processes and just stays small in miniature. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: basically any plant can be bonds eyed it is and Um,
Speaker 1: what I didn't realize is that most bonds eye is
Speaker 1: meant to be outdoors. Thought it was strictly indoor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there are indoor varieties Like you can take indoor
Speaker 1: plants or plants that do well indoors and make them
Speaker 1: bonds eye, and it's becoming more of a thing. But
Speaker 1: for the most part, if you're doing, especially something with
Speaker 1: like a pine or a deciduous tree or a juniper,
Speaker 1: those are outdoor plants, and your your bonds eye is
Speaker 1: meant to stay outdoors, except you know, if you bring
Speaker 1: it in and use it as a centerpiece or something
Speaker 1: once in a while. Yeah, and for those trees, um,
Speaker 1: it makes a point in here that they have a
Speaker 1: natural yearly cycle that will be disrupted if you keep
Speaker 1: it indoors, so um, you may have to overwinter it
Speaker 1: to a certain degree, but you're also gonna want to
Speaker 1: take these out in the winter some r um. But
Speaker 1: it also says that it's not like a grown tree
Speaker 1: that's covered mulch and like super deep rooted, So you
Speaker 1: can't just leave it out all winter, no, and if
Speaker 1: you do, you would want to leave it in like
Speaker 1: a cold frame or a greenhouse or something like that
Speaker 1: where it's gonna survive, or you could also protect it
Speaker 1: with a bunch of mulch too you leave it outside.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's it does follow a lot of its
Speaker 1: natural processes, right, So if you're doing like a fruiting
Speaker 1: tree or a flowering tree, like as as long as
Speaker 1: it's healthy and happy, Uh, it's going to bear fruit,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be flowers. Um. Pretty cool. Yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 1: But you are simulating nature and that it's the roots
Speaker 1: are being kept shallow and trimmed. So you have to
Speaker 1: take that into consideration by protecting it from cold and
Speaker 1: from making sure it has a lot of water too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll we'll get into the specifics of care here in
Speaker 1: a minute. Um, But as you said, you can pretty
Speaker 1: much use any tree. Ideally, what you want to use
Speaker 1: is something some sort of tree or shrub that have
Speaker 1: small leaves or needles and that can get super dense.
Speaker 1: So you just have sort of more um, more material
Speaker 1: to work with for your art form. How's that? I
Speaker 1: think it's wonderful. And it all starts with roots, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: So when you're looking for a specimen, you can just
Speaker 1: go to like your local nursery. Some people grow stuff
Speaker 1: from seed. You can also take cuttings um and grow
Speaker 1: them in like rooting hormone or something like that. If
Speaker 1: you start from seed, that's like, that's neat, that's dedication.
Speaker 1: And I will also say that if you start with
Speaker 1: a kit that has a bonsai already sort of shaped
Speaker 1: for you. That's and I'm not gonna knock it too
Speaker 1: much because you might not have time and you might
Speaker 1: still want to take care with it. That's a good point,
Speaker 1: but I would recommend like to get your full experience
Speaker 1: and maybe start with a cutting that you kind of
Speaker 1: grow as your own little baby, right, or you can
Speaker 1: go to like a nursery or something like that and
Speaker 1: just say I would like to buy this plant and
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn it into a bond's eye. That
Speaker 1: definitely counts as well. So UM, A really good one
Speaker 1: to start with that I found is um a juniper.
Speaker 1: Most junipers they grow as groundcovers, so they stay fairly
Speaker 1: low to the ground normally, so they do well being miniaturized.
Speaker 1: They're also pretty hardy plants from what I understand, and
Speaker 1: um they grow really well in any temperate climate, relatively
Speaker 1: temperate climate. So you go to a nursery and you
Speaker 1: you want to kind of go already with the style
Speaker 1: in mind that you're going to go with, whether it's
Speaker 1: broom or whether it's wind swept or semi cascade or whatever,
Speaker 1: because then you'll you'll be able to kind of narrow
Speaker 1: down the plant that you want to buy because it's
Speaker 1: already gonna you're almost seeing it in there, like you
Speaker 1: know how sculptors say that they like look at a
Speaker 1: piece of marble and they're just chipping away what was
Speaker 1: already in there all along. It's very similar with bonsai
Speaker 1: as well. You go in, you find the plant that
Speaker 1: kind of suits your needs a little bit, and then yeah,
Speaker 1: you dig down and you want to find the first
Speaker 1: roots that come off of this, off of the trunk,
Speaker 1: and that's where that's what's called the crown, right, That's right,
Speaker 1: And as long as those are pretty healthy looking and intact,
Speaker 1: it's probably a pretty good bet that you can turn
Speaker 1: that thing into a bonsai. That's right. And you should
Speaker 1: remember too that, um, the more you want to alter
Speaker 1: the tree, the probably younger and smaller it should be
Speaker 1: to begin with, um, because you can only do so much.
Speaker 1: You know. You can't take a tree that's like stick
Speaker 1: straight and be like, all right now, I want it
Speaker 1: to cascade all the way back down. I yeah, you
Speaker 1: might be too, but it would take decades to get
Speaker 1: it to grow like that. I would say you'd have
Speaker 1: to be a bonsai master, Yeah, you would. In order
Speaker 1: to do that again like Mr. Miyagi, But these exposed roots,
Speaker 1: um it's gonna give the appearance if you want to
Speaker 1: have that age look like it's an ancient tree. Maybe
Speaker 1: ancient trees usually have these great, big roots that you
Speaker 1: see sort of on top of the ground. So that's
Speaker 1: a neat thing you can do with your bondsai um plus.
Speaker 1: Also it's great when you dig down to the those
Speaker 1: top roots that form the crown where the trunk ends
Speaker 1: and the roots, the real roots begin. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: plenty of fewer roots above that, and you're actually gonna
Speaker 1: want to trim those away, but it gives the what
Speaker 1: was once a pretty short plant suddenly has a trunk now,
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, okay, wow, I see where this
Speaker 1: is coming from, starting to take shape just right out
Speaker 1: of the gate. Yeah. And what you're doing what I mean,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about pruning in a bit, but how you're
Speaker 1: shaping this is with wire either with like aluminum or
Speaker 1: copper wiring that you can leave on to bend the
Speaker 1: tree to your will up to like a year. But
Speaker 1: you want to be careful and not make it too
Speaker 1: tight because it can actually cut into the tree, which
Speaker 1: you don't want at all and um, so you keep
Speaker 1: it on your wiring. And the idea is that again
Speaker 1: with harmony, you don't want branches a mess of branches
Speaker 1: obscuring one another. You want each branch to have have
Speaker 1: sort of its own personality exactly. Yeah. So you want
Speaker 1: to talk about how to how to start a bonds eyelet? Okay,
Speaker 1: so you go in, you find your you find your
Speaker 1: plan and by the way, um, well we're going to
Speaker 1: kind of give you a step by step. But I
Speaker 1: found a really good website called Bondsay for Beginners dot
Speaker 1: com um and they have a really really good, really
Speaker 1: well written even though there's lots of misspelled words, but
Speaker 1: just it's really understandable. For the number four, it's like
Speaker 1: f O R E no bonds I four beginners. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't remember if it is the number four. I
Speaker 1: don't think it is. Okay, just look it up and
Speaker 1: if it's somebody from New Zealand writing, you found the
Speaker 1: right one. Um. But they they they basically have a
Speaker 1: great step by step of how to do it all. Right,
Speaker 1: So you want to buy a tree. A good time
Speaker 1: of the year to do this is to go in
Speaker 1: the spring when the the growing cycle begins, uh, and
Speaker 1: go to your nursery and uh, like you said, you
Speaker 1: you're looking for whatever tree that fits your mind's eye
Speaker 1: of what you eventually want. And it saysn't here to
Speaker 1: start with your scene and work towards that. I think
Speaker 1: I would be more inclined to sort of freeform a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know, over the years, which I'm sure
Speaker 1: is fine, right, gonna be the bad boy of the
Speaker 1: bonds I world. Aren't you never know what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do next? Exhibitions wearing like a motorcycle jacket possibly. Uh
Speaker 1: So the price is gonna vary depending on what kind
Speaker 1: of tree you're getting. Um, and of course I looked
Speaker 1: up to kits there. You know, they can be fifty
Speaker 1: to a couple hundred bucks depending on the kind of tree.
Speaker 1: And like how finished looking at is right? Or I
Speaker 1: mean like it can you can go spend ten to
Speaker 1: twenty on like a say, like a juniper and then
Speaker 1: and there are plenty of bonsai tools that you can buy.
Speaker 1: The Internet will be happy to take your money for that.
Speaker 1: But you can also make do with other stuff like
Speaker 1: florists wire. You can get the copper wire you need
Speaker 1: from probably a hardware store piers. There's yeah, pliers, Uh, scissors,
Speaker 1: scissors smaller the better, um scissors exactly um. And then
Speaker 1: you're also gonna want like a root rake um, which
Speaker 1: you can just bend a fork and bam, you got
Speaker 1: a root rake boom. So you've got your plant or
Speaker 1: where you're saying, it's a juniper, you're gonna dig down,
Speaker 1: you're going to um, You're gonna basically take it out,
Speaker 1: put it on the table in front of you. You
Speaker 1: want a spray, bottle of water, and take a right
Speaker 1: get started traditionally exactly you go and then you you
Speaker 1: get started. Um. So you take the dirt off of
Speaker 1: the top layer all the way down to the crown.
Speaker 1: And again there's a bunch of feet of roots which
Speaker 1: you want to trim from the trunk itself. And then
Speaker 1: you you take a look at the roots like you
Speaker 1: you scraped the dirt away, and you really look at
Speaker 1: the roots structure, and you say, I gotta get rid
Speaker 1: of a lot of this. Yeah. And you should already
Speaker 1: have your your pot at this point, by the way,
Speaker 1: because this is the first step is the uh potting right.
Speaker 1: And I've seen people, usually especially beginners, make the mistake
Speaker 1: when they're first creating a bond's eye that, Um, they
Speaker 1: go real small with the pot. You're gonna go through
Speaker 1: a couple of pots in the first few years. Um,
Speaker 1: so they say, don't be afraid to use a big pot.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, you should probably use a
Speaker 1: bigger pot than you think you should for its first pots. Eventually,
Speaker 1: three or four years down the road, you're going to
Speaker 1: finally come to that that one pot that this thing
Speaker 1: stays in for the rest of its life, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna repot it every couple of years, but you're gonna
Speaker 1: repot it in the same pot. Yeah, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: a flea market and it's gonna just there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a golden light shine around this one pot. And you're
Speaker 1: gonna say that things twenty dollars and James Brown is
Speaker 1: gonna be like, dude, you see the love, and then
Speaker 1: you'll talk him down to fourteen dollars and then up
Speaker 1: to seventeen, and then you'll meet at the middle of
Speaker 1: fifteen and then you've got your pot. That'll be a
Speaker 1: great day. Uh. All right, So you're at the roots,
Speaker 1: I think. Yeah, So when you trim the roots away,
Speaker 1: I was really surprised by this. You want to trim
Speaker 1: about two thirds of the roots present on your plant
Speaker 1: when you buy it. Yeah, it even says in here
Speaker 1: that seems extreme, but don't fret. No, Um, And the
Speaker 1: roots you really want to go after the bigger ones,
Speaker 1: the more established ones. You want to leave some at
Speaker 1: the top at that crown. But um, especially if you're
Speaker 1: dealing with a tree and it has a tap root,
Speaker 1: that root that goes like straight down, that's actually not
Speaker 1: as much for watering as it is for stability, and
Speaker 1: you don't need it in your tiny, little shallow pot.
Speaker 1: So you want to get rid of roots like that. Yep,
Speaker 1: you've got your pot. Um, you want to put a
Speaker 1: little thin layer of gravel for draining. Um. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's another big thing. Your pot has to have drainage holes,
Speaker 1: good ones. Yeah. Well you're the lawn watering expert. You
Speaker 1: don't want a quarter quarter into water over it just
Speaker 1: standing all right. So you've got your pot, you've got
Speaker 1: your gravel down there. Um, you've trimmed your roots, and
Speaker 1: you need your soil mixture. Yeah, this is a it's
Speaker 1: a big one. And there are different um schools of
Speaker 1: thought on what kind of soil it says in here,
Speaker 1: um equal parts uh, sand, peat and loam. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: I guess that's like a general generic go to bonds eyes.
Speaker 1: But you want soil specific to your tree. Like if
Speaker 1: you have a juniper, that's gonna probably be different soil
Speaker 1: than what like olive tree needs. And so you just
Speaker 1: need to find out about the plant that your bonds
Speaker 1: eyeing and find out what kind of soil it likes,
Speaker 1: how much water it needs, what kind of nutrients it takes, um,
Speaker 1: and what kind of sunlight it needs. Especially that's right,
Speaker 1: it's a big one. So you stick that sucker in there.
Speaker 1: You've got your trimmed roots, and you want to spread
Speaker 1: them out really evenly. Um, you know, towards the edges
Speaker 1: of the pot. Yeah, of the container, um, through like
Speaker 1: just all throughout the container. You want the roots going down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I don't think we mentioned you should run a
Speaker 1: wire up through the drainage hole to support the tree. Initially, Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a big one, um, And this this wire,
Speaker 1: this is it's going to support the tree. But also
Speaker 1: if you're gonna bend the tree, so you're doing a
Speaker 1: cascade or a semi cascade or anything like that exactly
Speaker 1: you're gonna use that wire, um to, You're gonna go
Speaker 1: train it around the trunk and then bend the wire
Speaker 1: and it's gonna bend the poor plant with it, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna leave it on there for like a month
Speaker 1: or so at least, But you want to keep a
Speaker 1: really close eye on it because the tree will start
Speaker 1: to grow around it and it will be forever scarred.
Speaker 1: And as far as bonds eye is concerned, you're just
Speaker 1: ruined your plants. So you want to keep a close
Speaker 1: eye on it. Um. You want to make it tight it.
Speaker 1: You want to make it tight enough so that when
Speaker 1: you bend it, it's going to bend the tree with it,
Speaker 1: but not so tight that it bites into or damages
Speaker 1: the tree. That's right, And um, yeah, you want to
Speaker 1: keep a really close eye on it to make sure
Speaker 1: the tree doesn't grow. And then when it's done after
Speaker 1: a month, maybe longer, this article says up to a year.
Speaker 1: But all right, I didn't see that anywhere else. Um,
Speaker 1: you want to clip clip it away like you're not
Speaker 1: gonna unwind it or else, You're probably just gonna break
Speaker 1: your bonds up right, and hopefully your tree you won't
Speaker 1: go and pop back into place, and if it does,
Speaker 1: you just have to redo it again. Patients, my friend, patience,
Speaker 1: that's right, they say in the article Patients is the
Speaker 1: best tool that you can have in your arsenal Right. Um,
Speaker 1: so you get the wire sticking up through the drain there,
Speaker 1: that's right, And um, you're for as far as the
Speaker 1: soil you want it to be. You want to tap
Speaker 1: it and kind of you know, shake the pot around
Speaker 1: to remove the air pockets, firm it around the base
Speaker 1: of the tree. But you don't want it so packed
Speaker 1: in that you know, the water's got to go through
Speaker 1: and drain all the way through and out right, Well,
Speaker 1: you want well draining. Well, one thing I saw was
Speaker 1: three parts potting soil to one part like miniature gravel basically,
Speaker 1: so the soil is gonna drain. Well, apparently you do
Speaker 1: want it kind of packed because that that tree does
Speaker 1: not have stability with its roots, so it's going to
Speaker 1: rely on the dirt more than it normally would. Yeah,
Speaker 1: especially around the trunk um and then but yeah, you
Speaker 1: want to shake it to get the air pockets out
Speaker 1: for sure, that's right. Um. A lot of people also
Speaker 1: put additional gravel on top to keep the dirt in
Speaker 1: place when it's water like that. Yeah, and it looks
Speaker 1: nice to agreed. Uh, So you don't want to do
Speaker 1: that and then go throw it out in the full
Speaker 1: sun all day long in July. What you want to
Speaker 1: do is start it in a shady spot for about
Speaker 1: a week and let it get used to be in
Speaker 1: shorter rooted and then a weird new container, and let
Speaker 1: it accept the fact that it's. Um, I know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be small. This is gonna hurt. I'm gonna be small.
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna be a big, big daddy. And once
Speaker 1: it gets over that and accepts its fate, um, and
Speaker 1: it says, you know what, I actually like this because
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a beautiful work of art and get
Speaker 1: lots of care and attention. Now you can move me
Speaker 1: into the sun a little bit at a time, a
Speaker 1: couple of hours at a time, yeah, sir or ma'am,
Speaker 1: thank you master, and um since yes, since ay and
Speaker 1: then uh yeah, a couple of hours in the morning,
Speaker 1: and then before you know it, you can have that
Speaker 1: that bad boy out there. Like weathering all kinds of weather,
Speaker 1: weathering the wet, normal weather, like it normally would Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: and your plants gonna tell you whether it's happy or
Speaker 1: not happy. I think with buns I in particular, you're
Speaker 1: gonna notice like every little change in your plant because
Speaker 1: you're really concentrating on it and focusing on it, and
Speaker 1: all the rest of your plans are gonna hate you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: gonna be like remember me, your spider plants gonna be
Speaker 1: like growing around your throat, just closing off your airway.
Speaker 1: So watch out for your spider plant. Agreed. Um, And
Speaker 1: I should say one more thing took when you first
Speaker 1: pot your plant, Um, you the first watering, you should
Speaker 1: basically take it in like a tray or a pan
Speaker 1: or a bucket of water and submerge it to the
Speaker 1: soil level and just let it sit there. Are you sure? Yeah?
Speaker 1: All right, this is what I've seen. Don't like plunk
Speaker 1: it in there, slowly submerge it in there, and that
Speaker 1: water is going to make sure that every route gets
Speaker 1: its water, and um, it's going to fill in any
Speaker 1: air pockets that are in there. So it's really going
Speaker 1: to basically solidify your soil and pack it in and
Speaker 1: just get it ready very nice, pretty neat, right, super
Speaker 1: neat should we take a break. All right, we're gonna
Speaker 1: come back and talk a little bit more about BONDSAI
Speaker 1: care and shaping, which is where the money is. So
Speaker 1: check you got your bonds Eye. You are. You've moved
Speaker 1: it back on into the sunlight. It's basically accepted its
Speaker 1: fate as a smaller version of itself. You've named it
Speaker 1: right right now? Yeah? Uh, Alan, mind's Roy. So Allan
Speaker 1: and Roy, the Bonds Eye twins are hanging out outside
Speaker 1: um when you first pot it. You can also prepare
Speaker 1: the limbs to um where you're basically trimming the limbs
Speaker 1: back one going. So remember there's one in the front.
Speaker 1: There's a front and the back to it, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: which you should establish and stick to a right typically
Speaker 1: with bonds I. In traditional bonds I, the first the
Speaker 1: first um limb is about a third of the way
Speaker 1: up from the dirt, uh, and it's going to jut
Speaker 1: out to the right. Second one is going to jut
Speaker 1: out the opposite direction. But it's not going to be
Speaker 1: even with the other one. It's gonna be another about
Speaker 1: third of the way up. You don't you don't ever,
Speaker 1: You rarely want um limbs even with one another. It's
Speaker 1: called a bar that's unsightly exactly. UM. So the next
Speaker 1: one shuts out the opposite direction, and the third one
Speaker 1: is about another third way up, and that juts out
Speaker 1: towards the back, So it gives the impression of distance,
Speaker 1: of perspective and bowing and growing out the back, balance
Speaker 1: and harmony. UM. And you do this by you can
Speaker 1: take that same wire, different lighter wire, depending on the
Speaker 1: size of the limb, and bend them in the ways
Speaker 1: that you want. But more often than not, you're going
Speaker 1: to be creating these illusions or this this pattern by
Speaker 1: trimming your bond's eye. And like you said, this is
Speaker 1: where the money is. This is where when you think
Speaker 1: of bonds eye, this is what I think of a
Speaker 1: little Japanese people like trimming the limbs off of tiny plants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's UM again. You're you're striving to make it
Speaker 1: look like something larger that you would find in nature. Sure,
Speaker 1: you could get super weird and avant garde with your
Speaker 1: form and your shape, but in general, traditionally, UM, you
Speaker 1: wanted to take a form that you would find out
Speaker 1: in the wild somewhere on a smaller scale. But that
Speaker 1: that is the that's the UM effect. Of wind, of sun,
Speaker 1: of weird weather, of poor soil, of just the weirder
Speaker 1: looking the tree out in nature basically the harder the
Speaker 1: heart of the life that's had and you're trying to
Speaker 1: recreate that nurturing pretty kind of counterintuitive, but if you
Speaker 1: just stop and think about what you're looking at in
Speaker 1: nature that you're trying to emulate, you'll probably figure out
Speaker 1: different ways to do it. And if you haven't figured
Speaker 1: it out, somebody's probably been doing it for a thousand
Speaker 1: years already, and you can go get yourself a book
Speaker 1: or look on the internet to find a technique. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: like you said, with the wind, like the win the
Speaker 1: real tree and real life that's on the mountaintop, the
Speaker 1: wind is trying to kill it and it's leaning out
Speaker 1: over the edge of the cliff like, oh man, my
Speaker 1: days are numbered. Um, But you nurture that in your
Speaker 1: own bonds eye and you emulate that, and it's um,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I like the idea of it for
Speaker 1: some reason. It's like a tribute almost. Yeah, it's an
Speaker 1: homage to that tree that's hanging on by a route. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when it comes to light, Um, you want to rotate
Speaker 1: it around you don't want it getting the same it's
Speaker 1: the same side exposure to sunlight every single day. You
Speaker 1: want to you want to rotate it around. You want
Speaker 1: to keep an eye out for bugs and insects, Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. And again you're paying attention to your bonds
Speaker 1: any more than your other plants, so you're gonna notice,
Speaker 1: like if it suddenly has an insect infestation. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: little larva uh what they called spittlebugs black or red
Speaker 1: dots of mites. Uh says you can brush these away. Um.
Speaker 1: I imagine you could smash them with a framing hammer
Speaker 1: if you wanted. After you brush them off. Um, But
Speaker 1: a bit in the Japanese bondsi tradition, you're you're probably
Speaker 1: brushing them away a little paint brush, right like you
Speaker 1: go and go hit the spider plant. Hey, tiers are
Speaker 1: okay man, they eat the little bugs for you. The
Speaker 1: spider plant, I mean the spider plant. Yeah. Yeah, Well
Speaker 1: you gotta watch out for that thing. It's trying to
Speaker 1: kill you and your whole family exactly. So that's where
Speaker 1: you need to funnel your spittlebugs. Watering is another big
Speaker 1: one too. You depending on how hot it is outside,
Speaker 1: you may end up needing to water your bonds eye
Speaker 1: like two times a day, which means if you're into
Speaker 1: bonds eye, you probably don't leave your house very much.
Speaker 1: You most likely want to bonds or water your bonds
Speaker 1: eye every day, depending on again the plant, but most
Speaker 1: bonds I need watering every single day and twice on
Speaker 1: hot days. Yeah, And what you don't want is um
Speaker 1: you know, as you're paying attention to it, you don't
Speaker 1: want to a soggy, boggy base. That's a really bad sign.
Speaker 1: That means you probably didn't put down enough gravel on
Speaker 1: the bottom, or your soil mix doesn't have enough gravel
Speaker 1: or whatever mixed in to make it drain quickly. Because
Speaker 1: it's tough to over water a well draining potted plant
Speaker 1: of any type, including SI, you're probably gonna be doing
Speaker 1: more pruning early on in the life of the bondsai.
Speaker 1: And once it has that general shape that you like,
Speaker 1: that's when you're doing uh, you know, just the subtle
Speaker 1: changes that probably mean a lot to you. Um. But
Speaker 1: other friends that come over at you know, happy hour,
Speaker 1: they'll just say, hey, nice tree, there's yeah, you got
Speaker 1: a ice, And they don't realize that. They don't realize
Speaker 1: all the subtle little you know, you might clip away one,
Speaker 1: you know, a half of an inch of a branch.
Speaker 1: To you that that makes it just perfect that other
Speaker 1: people would probably not even notice. That's why it's your
Speaker 1: bonds eye. That's right, Josh, That's why I was thinking
Speaker 1: about it, like like giving the gift of a bond's
Speaker 1: eye to somebody. Yeah, that you've tended to for years
Speaker 1: and years and years. That's that's a significant gift. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like and here's my my daughter. Yeah, you know right,
Speaker 1: well not really, but you know what I mean, Marry
Speaker 1: this plant, don't you marry it? You're also gonna keep
Speaker 1: up with the fertilizer. Again, like this is so this
Speaker 1: is almost such a generic overview in some places that
Speaker 1: I feel bad even saying it. But just go find
Speaker 1: out what the plant that you're raising needs. Normally do that,
Speaker 1: but again you have to bear in mind that it's
Speaker 1: slightly different because you're you're keeping it in miniature. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have its normal roots system. It needs more water
Speaker 1: than usual, and um, it's probably because you're watering it
Speaker 1: so much. The nutrients in the soil are gonna leach
Speaker 1: out much more quickly, so you need to fertilize it
Speaker 1: more than you would just if you were growing it
Speaker 1: normally in a container. Right, So since you're fertilizing something
Speaker 1: more usually the rule of thumb, as you want to
Speaker 1: you want to fertilize something weekly weekly, so w E
Speaker 1: A K L Y weekly um, and and that way
Speaker 1: you're constantly replenishing the nutrients in the soil. But you're
Speaker 1: not gonna like burn or scorch theos with like a
Speaker 1: chemical burn over feeding it. Yeah, and again you pointed
Speaker 1: out earlier, but I think it bears in mind repeating.
Speaker 1: The key is repotting and trimming those roots every couple
Speaker 1: of years. And like you said, once you find the
Speaker 1: pot at the flea market that you fell in love
Speaker 1: with and can keep it in that pot forever, as
Speaker 1: long as it's you know, the one you want to
Speaker 1: stay with him, you can do what you want, but
Speaker 1: um or give it as a gift, or give it
Speaker 1: as a gift. But as you uh, as you keep
Speaker 1: trimming these roots back, it's gonna stay that size. If
Speaker 1: you forget about it. If you're a hoarder and you
Speaker 1: and you and you're drunk and you pass out for
Speaker 1: ten years, you're gonna wake up with a twelve ft
Speaker 1: oak tree in your living room. That's the story of
Speaker 1: Peppy van Winkle, Is that? Yeah? I guess that is true,
Speaker 1: isn't it, Because yeah, you're basically once it becomes established
Speaker 1: to the shape you want it, you're just basically pruning
Speaker 1: it back here they're keeping it trimmed. And then when
Speaker 1: you repotted every couple of years, like the whole point
Speaker 1: is to keep the root system in check. Huh. So
Speaker 1: if you didn't do that, yeah, it would just probably
Speaker 1: it would what it would do because yeah, no water,
Speaker 1: there would be so many roots in a pot that
Speaker 1: doesn't fit them. I'd probably look cool would be growing
Speaker 1: over it. And that's some that's basic stuff that we've
Speaker 1: been talking about. But there is a lot of advanced
Speaker 1: things you can do too, and one of those is
Speaker 1: like again, training it to grow over rocks. So like
Speaker 1: when you potted the bonds eye, you would want a
Speaker 1: bonsaie with really long roots, um so that you could
Speaker 1: when you when you're potting it, you would actually place
Speaker 1: it on a rock and then why are the roots
Speaker 1: in place to let them start to establish in the pots?
Speaker 1: Just things like that. There's something called um gin which
Speaker 1: is basically this is really neil. But you saw it.
Speaker 1: Did you see a lot of bonds I that had
Speaker 1: like dead wood exposed. Okay, so gin is where at
Speaker 1: the top of the trunk or at the ends of limbs,
Speaker 1: deadwood is exposed to just really play up how old
Speaker 1: this thing is supposed to be or actually is. Um
Speaker 1: there's something called shari, which is deadwood on the trunk
Speaker 1: a low. And then there's something called sabamiki, and that's
Speaker 1: like you actually get in there and peel away the
Speaker 1: the bark, drill into the trunk and carve holes into it,
Speaker 1: carved like a gap into it to create the illusion
Speaker 1: that it was scarred from like a lightning strike. And
Speaker 1: you you've got to be really careful doing that because
Speaker 1: you can very easily kill your bonsaie. But if you
Speaker 1: do it right, it'll grow back and scar around it
Speaker 1: and you'll have a pretty interesting looking tree. So that's
Speaker 1: not recommended for beginners, I would not think so. I
Speaker 1: think you'd kill a lot of plants doing that that way.
Speaker 1: So and and again, people have been trying this stuff
Speaker 1: for a couple of thousand years now, so there's a
Speaker 1: lot of different stuff you can do. In a lot
Speaker 1: of different resources out there. Yeah, go to your local
Speaker 1: japan town and say teach me. And you know what,
Speaker 1: if the movie uh A Kid Lost in Translation is true,
Speaker 1: then if you're a pretty American girl, you and wander
Speaker 1: into any Japanese ceremony and they will just accept you
Speaker 1: with open arms. Yeah that's why they're known for. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably so right to a certain degree. Sure you're not
Speaker 1: a jerk? Well, yeah, like what does she walk into?
Speaker 1: Was her origami or was that bonsa? I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't remember. Was it a wedding? No, Scarlett Joe
Speaker 1: Hanson walking out there, these Japanese women doing some either
Speaker 1: bonsai or origami or something. They were like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, come on in and let me show you
Speaker 1: our ancient ways. Yeah, I don't remember that part. Yeah
Speaker 1: that was neat. I like that movie a lot too,
Speaker 1: Wasn't isn't the legend around it that Bill Murray's actually
Speaker 1: playing himself like it's based on an experience, Sofia Coppola had, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet it's not too far off, and so like
Speaker 1: uh Giovanni Ribisi is um, Spike Jones sparely, Joe Hansen
Speaker 1: is um Sofia Coppola. Um, uh Anna Faris is Cameron Diaz.
Speaker 1: One dude is justin Timberlake, and so like this actually
Speaker 1: supposedly happened. But then it's everyone says, well, who's Bill
Speaker 1: Murray playing? Allegedly Bill Murray is playing himself. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll never know what he whispers at the end, either,
Speaker 1: which I love. That was a great movie. I forgot
Speaker 1: about that one. Make it Santry time. She's a part
Speaker 1: of my hundred percent club, Sofia. The directors who have
Speaker 1: made nothing but great movies. I think I've only seen
Speaker 1: that and the Vergson Suicide's great movie. What else does
Speaker 1: she made? She did Um the Blame Ring recently. Never
Speaker 1: thought really good. Don't be turned off by the title, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I have been um. And she did the one
Speaker 1: with Stephen Dorff. Oh, I can't remember where he's the actor,
Speaker 1: just sort of hold up in the Chateau Marmont before
Speaker 1: with his daughter now before Sunrise before Tomorrow. Nope. And
Speaker 1: she did the one the let the meat Cake, Uh,
Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette movie with Kirsten Dunns. It was fantastic. I
Speaker 1: never saw that one either. They're all great I think
Speaker 1: she's top notch. I'll check him out. Uh. If you
Speaker 1: want to know more about Bonsai or Sofia Coppola, you
Speaker 1: can type those words in the search part house to
Speaker 1: works dot com. And since I said that it's time
Speaker 1: for listening out, yes, I'm gonna call this uh tornado
Speaker 1: miss already. That thing just came out today. And you
Speaker 1: know what, I hope everyone's all right because there are
Speaker 1: tornadoes like kind of all over the place. The yeah,
Speaker 1: I heard Oklahoma's Canadas. Hey, guys love the show. You
Speaker 1: mentioned tornado miss episode that I bet you would get
Speaker 1: an email from a civil engineer, and here I am.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to share an interesting fact about designing
Speaker 1: wind resistant buildings. I remember the day of the two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight downtown Atlanta tornado you mentioned because it
Speaker 1: was actually the last day of classes at Georgia Tech
Speaker 1: before I went out, before I went home to Florida
Speaker 1: for spring break. Ironically, I just learned in one of
Speaker 1: my classes that one reason most skyscrapers are not the
Speaker 1: same basic shape from top to bottom is to alleviate
Speaker 1: pressure from wind. In the same class, for fessor had
Speaker 1: mentioned that one of the absolute worst structural designs where
Speaker 1: skyscraper is a perfect cylinder, which is what our Peachtree
Speaker 1: Plaza is that had the windows up for so long.
Speaker 1: It's a cylinder. The wind whips all around, it ends
Speaker 1: up hitting the entire face of the building as a
Speaker 1: giant wall of forts, rather than hitting the building at
Speaker 1: different places over time. Not ideal for a glass tube
Speaker 1: of the building. Anyway, I thought you guys would find
Speaker 1: that interesting. You are the best thing to come out
Speaker 1: of Athens in my Georgia tech opinion. Oh wow, I
Speaker 1: see where that was going. Keep up the good work.
Speaker 1: And that is from Scooter Sheldon. Thanks a lot, Scooter,
Speaker 1: Scooter Salvin. I don't know about the best thing to
Speaker 1: come out of Athens. Uh, just a couple of bands
Speaker 1: and beers and coffees and football players. Scooters take all right,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Scooter. If you want to give us high
Speaker 1: praise like Scooter did, we're always down with that. You
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