Those photos - that’s one alien looking landscape. Thank you for the shout out Nigel. Enjoy the pot 🙏

"rules" are the bane of our existence . . . rock on rule breaker!!! 😎

Honestly, I think the new space opened up between the two trees really adds a nice dimension to the desert rose forest, the big rock in the back has a wonderful shape and the removal of the tree that obscured it has really made the whole bonsai very interesting to look at, it'll look great when the leaves come in, I think.

I find myself chatting to you when you discuss moving rocks, adding plants. Love the photos of that island and simplicity is where it’s at.

This is just wonderful. ❤

The idea of that aloe is really cool! I’ll have to look that up because I do like aloe but the large plants are very hard for me to keep my cat from eating. The smaller one is easier to enclose!

Yes, that colour change did wonders! I like the crassula best in there. Is it a Bonsai Crassula? There are a few like that, devil's horn and miniature pine tree etc... But, you haven't prunned the aloe yet, maybe after pruning it will look better. The definition of what a Bonsai is has morphed and grown to accommodate many indoor plants as best suits apartment dwellings. Not everyone is able to have a yard or even balcony now. They should not be denied Bonsai art for because of this. Bonsai has adapted. Personal taste will still favour certain types or forms. That is just human nature. Nicely done Nigel! I love my desert roses! one I got from you and one I got in 2001. The one I got from you grew so fast that it split on the trunk. My other is flowering again. To think, I treated my first as a regular houseplant, not knowing for so many years. Maria's Garden has many helpful Adenium care tips. Even how to save them from rot. She was specializing in Adeniums and watching her videos is how I came to find you! KZfaq suggestions.

Nice...well done...

I like it already 😊

I think Lithops would be an interesting addition, very very subtle, visible only to the trained eye! And perhaps some small rounded ‘blobs’ of a green sedum? God bless your endeavours 🙏✝️. ✌️🇷🇺☮️🇺🇦✌️

That pot is beautiful! Nigel nice one Jason! The ocean on the sides is powerful and matches the shape well.

I just moved my Desert roses back outside yesterday. So glad winter is over👍

One cool pot from Jason.

👍👌👌

Thank you 😊

to growing perennials in trays is a great “canvas” for artistic expression ❤

Amazing video nigel, your original video on the Andenium landscape was the first video of yours I ever saw, and I have been hooked since then. Great work from Australia!

Your dessert roses looking good. To bad the other one died on you. Sand looks good on the little forest. Cannot wait to see part 2.

"Some people wouldn't call this a bonsai. I definitely would." Exactly. Bonsai is a state of mind and an art form for me, not a categorisation of plant. And that new aloe you got reminds me of an Aristaloe aristata I once had. The Aristaloe looks a lot spinier though! - Ashley Bonner

I believe i saw a spider on the side of the desert rose pot when you first brought it out. I saw it running around and thought it was on my screen. Lol Also, that windswept desert rose is amazing!!!

Interesting discussion regarding succulents as bonsai. I tend to be in your camp. Had a thought... nontraditional thought, probably. Have a look at this video at 21:15 or so.... an island in a tray, in another larger tray, with a rock/landscape in the foreground. Interesting.....

Socotra island's tree (bigger one's ) trunk tapering is too good

I'd call them bonsai Nigel, I grow frankincense and myrrh trees and use some bonsai techniques in growing those and I do consider some of mine bonsai. And look at you! Sporting dreds!😁👍

Your welcome, Nigel. Dragon stone easy to crack if too big for you.

Hi Nigel, have you ever tried to bonsai an olive tree? On the internet there beautiful pictures on mature olive bonsais. I can’t find any in your play list. Cheers Daniel

My gut tells me that those rocks in the desert rose arrangement stand out because the plants have no leaves. 🤔🤔 In several of the island photos, there are additional trees in the background. Some of your smaller Serissa trees might work nicely.

There is literally a small spider crawling around on the side of the pot (any shots after 9:45). Thought it was funny when you said "Maybe it's spider mites," when you are wrecking up the spider's home right in front of it! Great video, love seeing unusual bonsai.

The aloe is a tree in nature. If you look at them in pictures you will see aloe trees with some cool trunks and branches over them. Some 20 foot/6 meters tall. I think it is a good looking tree you are developing.

I killed my desert 6 years old rose bonsai. I watered it too much in the autumn and it didn't like it. Now I have only a husk of my beautiful multitrunk bonsai. Maybe our finnish dark winters are also too much for it

Do a black kale bonsai im sure your wife has some! Its woody and the do have tiny leaves when regulary cut? Also its pretty much a tree and kinda cool, edable and something new!

Great video! Im pretty sure the specimen youre calling Aloe barbadensis is actually an Aloe arborescens (the structure of the teeth and leaves, as well as the lack of spotting), which looks amazing btw, I love how its advancing. And aloe can definetly be bonsais, in my opinion its all about the intent and artistic framing of the plant more than our abstract categorization of it being a tree or not. I recently found a great Aloe chinensis specimen that im going to try and make a bonsai out of, it already has a cascading long stem, im developing roots on it now in a pot to trim down and have some nice aerial roots, seeing the possible bonsai in any plant is much more beautiful and fun than a structured typology.

Foist

Some aloes do grow into trees with a single stalk that branches well above the ground. your aloe barbadensis is definitely dwarfed. An aloe barbadensis of that age, planted in a garden in a zone where it is hardy would be 2 to 3 feet tall and more than 3 feet across if you count the offsets. the leaves would be about twenty inches long and from 3 to 4 inches wide at the base. Were you aware that the African violets entered into shows are usually dwarfed by the same techniques used by bonsai growers? If the plants were allowed to keep growing and potted up as they grow, they would get to be almost two feet across, which would be unwieldy and take up too much space. They would only be able to place four plants on an 8 foot table. So the growers restrict the plants to a four inch pot. When the pot becomes rootbound, they take it out of the pot, trim back the roots, remove the older leaves on the bottom of the stem, and plant it back into the same size pot, setting it lower into the pot to cover the bare stem where the leaves were removed. Once under the soil line the bare stem quickly sends out adventitious roots. Would you call an African violet treated this way a bonsai?

That's a pretty bad spider mite infestation. Bonsais look great though!

I dont think that is aloe brevifolia. Brevie has short stubby leaves. This looks like a hybrid of aloe humilis and some climbing type aloe like brevefolia, juvenna, etch. I've been wondering if you ever got ahold of a dwarf aloe like humilis! Looks great too. you should try to get some aloe bakeries, it's like miniature stemmed shrub aloe

Yeah, plants from Socotra are wicked hard to obtain and extremely expensive, I know first hand. I grow many frankincense and myrrh from Socotra and have grown both the dragon tree and Dendrosicyos socotranus (cucumber tree). The only trees from Socotra that might work are two of the native frankincense which I have both are Boswellia socotrana and Boswellia nana the only natural dwarf of the species.

DRs are difficult to grow in a shallow pot due to the water retention

I am wondering Nigel, would the/a tall stone potted up look good with your birds nest spruce? Was thinking that when I watched the video and now thinking it again seeing the stone that was gifted to you. As always, really enjoying the channel.

Perhaps a tree is more a form than a function.

I may be wrong but I’m fairly certain bonsai means “tree in pot” in Japanese

That small plant in blue pot is not aloe. This is named crassula tetragona)

Nigel with that webs on roses you dont know if that is spider or spider mites and D. roses will get spides mites for shure when you give them water so you have to look for it.

The title "Repotting my Aloe bonsai" fooled me into believing you were going to repot your Aloe bonsai. Shame on me.