Aralia Elegantissima Forest Planting (False Aralia)

Sorry for the long gap between posts but I have been extremely busy and a lot of that time has been spent working on bonsai or bonsai related. The good news is that I have taken hundreds of photos and still have many more to take so the post will start flowing on a regular basis. Or at least as fast as I can upload, type and publish 🙂 .

Aralia Elegantissima (also False aralia) is a tropical house plant. Even though the plants can never really be a single bonsai, I think they look the part when done in a forest landscape. They typically get long straight multi trunks, they have a thin bark structure and have long serrated leaves. I find the plants to be cool looking. The series of photos shows the last several years worth of dealing with these plants. This will be year number 3 and I recently recreated the forest scene.

Here are the aralia just after purchasing them for my local nursery. I repotted them in these standard planters for the first growing season.

Close-up

The following late winter I attempted my first ever forest landscape on a slab. Not all that bad for a beginner.

Then as you can see I decided to change-up the layout and replace/relocate the moss in early summer.

Close-up

I then decided again this spring that I would redo the design again but this time add some extras and do it a little differently. The following pics are of the work I just did on the forest landscape and how it is currently.

Removed the 3 plants and cleaned he slab and pruned up the roots. I had to use a good sharp knife because all the roots grew into one big root mass.

Close-up

I made a bonsai muck out of peat, fine clay particles (from sifting of standard bonsai soil)and a very small amount of saw dust. Mixed all with water until it was a dough consistency. I replanted at slightly different angles and added 2 new low ferns.

Close-up

This is a moss collection I obtained from the rock wall out in my driveway. There are 3 different types of moss.

The next 14 pics just show me in action (thanks to my oldest daughter) meticulously placing different chunks of moss throughout the landscape…

Must have lost my mind for a second! ;0 And yes…….. my shirt says “Fart Ninja (silent but deadly)” LOL. I love this shirt!

That was a lot of work placing all that moss!

The next series is the final product. All the moss placed, the plants thinned out and shortened and the little mudmen are relaxing in their new home.

Close-up of exposed roots

Hopefully you have enjoyed this post! I will get hard to work and get more post flowing as I said at the beginning of this post.

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Thanks Again!