Last month, the Bonsai Society of San Francisco invited stand maker Austin Heitzman to talk about his craft. Club members learned about Austin’s design process, the materials that give form to his designs, and the treatments the materials go through on their way to becoming stands. I’ve been a fan of Austin’s since seeing his […]
Accents
Effect of soil mix on bulb production for Habaneria radiata
In previous posts about growing media for the terrestrial orchid, Habaneria radiata, I set up an experiment and shared some preliminary results based on observed foliar growth. It turns out that the most important measure of success was under the soil. Here are the orchids at the end of the growing season last December. Orchids in December […]
Earthwares – the bonsai pots of Vicki Chamberlain
I met Vicki Chamberlain at last year’s Artisans Cup in Portland. We talked about all things bonsai for some time and then, just before heading off, Vicki mentioned that she made bonsai containers. I was curious. Green oval Over the following year, I started seeing Vicki’s work – Earthwares – online and at a few Northern California bonsai […]
Growing medium for terrestrial orchids
This past spring I planted a number of Habaneria radiata – crane orchids – in different soil mixes to see how well each worked for propagation purposes (see Growing terrestrial orchids for details). The first flowers appeared this week so I thought it would be a good time to share the results. A few things surprised me. […]
Growing terrestrial orchids
Years ago, Boon Manakitivipart introduced me to orchid varieties used as accent plants. One in particular stuck with me. Boon gave me a few bulbs and I grew them successfully for many years. After a while, however, the numbers started dwindling as I often gave them to friends. A few years ago, the last few […]