My love of bonsai trees spans back to my early childhood but became a hobby in the spring of 1992. That year I was graduating from graduate school with a Masters degree in Physical Therapy and I bought my first tree.

In 1994 my wife, Jodi, and I moved into an apartment on Downing street in south Denver near the country club and Cherry Creek Mall. That apartment was on the bottom floor and had huge windows at ground level because the floor was 2-3 feet below ground. The window wells were 2 feet deep so there was massive space for for my bonsai trees. I built a bonsai green house in 2 of the window wells with metal racks, florescent lights and covered them in clear plastic shower curtains. Covering in plastic was to increase humidity as all of the trees where sub-tropical and thrived in humid, warm environments. In those 2 green houses I had 12 – 15 tree’s of varies species and ages.

In 1998 my son Joshua was born and life took me in a different direction. I kept 2 trees from those early green house days, they are Ficus 1 and Ficus 2. Neither tree got much attention for about 15 years and several times they almost died.

This photo in Sept 2013 of Ficus 1 is the beginning of my second bonsai phase.

In 2013 I began taking clippings from my 2 bonsai Ficus trees to start new tree’s.

The process of cutting a branch off and rooting it in water for 3-6 months is slow and tedious. When the first roots start to appear in 2-3 months I add a few granules of miracle grow to the water. The roots grow quickly after this point and can be planted usually within 30-60 days.

I also took a clipping from a large, 10 foot, indoor ficus tree we had on the main level of our house. That clipping was 9-12 inches tall when I planted it in 2013, today it is 3 feet tall. It is not a traditional bonsai tree, but I treat it like the rest. [grandmp3 id=244 autoplay=false]