A small part of my Indoor Bonsai collection

[IndorBonsai]

This is just the Bonsai in my bedroom, I have more in the rest of my house. I am a Bonsai junkie LOL
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Starting from the left , #1 Tea Olive ( Delavay Osmanthus )I bought this last fall. It is still in training but doing good. Soon the new growth will be mature enough I can shorten the branches ( I think they are a bit tall )
#2 baby Fukien Tea this is a start I made from a cutting, it is planted in sphagnum moss and growing very fast. #3 Golden Gate Ficus I bought this a few years ago at Wall Mart. This tree was in bad shape when I got it, rocks glued over the top of a plastic container. First thing I did was re pot it. this picture was taken after a recent trim.
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From top left #1 black pot tropical plant not sure what it is #2 Dwarf Jade about 8 years old #3 Natal Plum about 8 years old #4 Fukien Tea about 6 years old.
Bottom row cant see that well but , #1 what I have heard some call a Dragon Ficus. This Ficus dosent have more than 2 inches of straight trunk or branch on it, it is so curvy and curled that I have to actually train some branches to straighten out a bit. #2 Dwarf Rhododendron (Impeditum) very cool little tree bright purple flowers in the spring and lots of them. #3 Five trunk braided Money Tree LOL I had to buy this because my girlfriend wanted it , it dosent look to bad tho

All my trees are under 48" 2 bulb shop lights , Two 40 watt cool white bulbs 4100k each( 4100k is about the same as morning sun) my lights run 12 hours 9am - 9pm, this has been working great for me, my room stays between 70-80 degrees fahrenheit all year long and between 50 - 70% humidity depending on the time of year.

P.S. my tea olive and dwarf rhodi live in the shop with my outdoor Bonsai for the winter dormant period.

[uzeyr]

cool setup

[vintagejuls]

cool setup

Absolutely!!!

Thanks for sharing.

[uzeyr]

if I had that kind of space I could have gone mad with growing them bonsai

[Big Vine]

Nice collection, IndorBonsai.

#2 Dwarf Jade about 8 years old

Do you happen to have any closer/larger pics of this one? If so, I'd love to get a closer look. I recently bought a small one which I believe to be the same kind---full foliage on it, yet still quite compact...an ideal bonsai candidate, me thinks...
BV

[IndorBonsai]

I put a quarter in by the trunk to help show the size of the tree.

Dwarf Jade about 8 years old.

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It was more rounded and full but one of the lower branches broke last year when we moved

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But it is growing like crazy right now. And it seems very happy in our new house.

[Big Vine]

Wow, very nice---thanks for those additional pics.
Did you do any wiring, or did you rely exclusively on pruning to shape this one?
BV

[IndorBonsai]

This is prune to shape.
I don't wire my Jade anymore because the branches might break. But the Jade does respond quickly to wiring. Often within 3 weeks you can remove the wire and the branches will hold their shape. It is kinda risky tho.
Also I let mine go almost completely dry between waterings, because it stores its own water in the trunk and leaves. Kinda like a cactus.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yeah, wiring Jades is a no-no, scars don't heal well on succulents...

Really a Jade is a more Chinese plant and therefore more in keeping with Pen-jing rather than bonsai. This makes sense as Jade plants are best done in a clip and grow fashion, as many pen-jing styles are. The Chinese side of the art rarely uses wire at all, moving branching structure by growing at angles or hanging weights (cascades are often grown on their sides for long periods, then turned and weighted.) My teacher told me time and again I was growing "too Japanese" it wasn't until years after he passed I really understood what he meant.

I am very interested in the Rhododendron impeditum, as I grew this one years ago (and donated it to a second grade class I taught a bonsai class to; still the most fun I ever had teaching). I kept mine outdoors year round, and this was back in the rental years; I had trouble with it in years that other plants weathered fine (in a box stuffed with leaves up against the house). Not optimal over-wintering situation, but the best I could do at the time. Could have been light issues as it was lower branch losses mostly, but I never thought of doing it indoors (just wouldn't think of Rhodies as indoor plants, but some of the Chinese models are pretty warm tolerant...how many years overwintered indoors is that, IB?

HG

[IndorBonsai]

This one is a new one I made this spring (beginning of April). It will be living in the shop under lights with my outdoor Bonsai during winter. I was going to see if it could live indoors all year but after I got it potted I like it to much to try Maby I should buy another one and see if it would live indoors all year.

(Rhododendron Impeditum)
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From all the reading I have done on these I found that most often they die from the roots getting to hot ( maby drying out)
The roots are very thin/fragile and grow close to the surface of the ground.
I thought keeping it indoors most of the time will be better. Because I can control the environment it lives in. I planted this in long fiber sphagnum moss. It has been over a month now and not one leaf has dropped,,yet
So this is a experiment and so far its going good.

[The Helpful Gardener]

There was a Florida guy that had a cable show for a while that didn't even use a pot; just packed the roots tight with raw sphagnum and watered it regularly (easily done in Florida's humidity but I was never bold enough to try it, but it mossed up really nicely especially if you innoculated it with moss spores). Sphagnum's interesting stuff; in it's dry harvested form it is sterile enough to be used as field dressings (and it was), yet once you wet it thoroughly and innoculate it with enough biology it makes an excellent organic soil.

I have used it to air layer and start aerial rooting on Schefflera, and it is famous for that...

HG

[IndorBonsai]

ooh good idea I bet sphagnum moss will help form ariel roots on Ficus too:)

Also Seems like everything I plant in pure long fiber Sphagnum moss(no soil) Is growing great, better than the same kind of plants I put in soil.

I have found it the best way to do starts from cuttings. I took a few cuttings from my Japanese maple, some I planted in Sphagnum moss and some I planted in a potting soil. The ones in the sphagnum moss are growing and the ones in the potting soil look dead.

I wouldent mind someone else trying it and see if I am just lucky or it really is better for growing plants in. I would like to know If someone else has the same luck as I have using it.

[Stormwatcher]

So do you just... treat the sphagnum moss as soil? Kind of stuff it in the pot around the roots?

I think the dwarf Rhododendron is beautiful - in PA, especially in the Poconos, the large plants are everywhere and I would have never thought to make one a bonsai.