Piecing Together the Penjing Project

At its May meeting ACBS members began planting some of the dwarf

Dwarf evergreens and other plant material

evergreens into the rock hollows and land features of the pejing.

It was obvious even in just setting down the plants in their nursery containers that their colors would work to add a sense of unity from one section to another.  So a little coordination was necessary. Form a little distance, the colors of the plants stand out quite well against the earthy shades of the rock features and the dark blue of the tray.  In short it worked visually.  In just completing two or three section the foliage color accented and highlighted these features.

Two adjoining sections of the ACBS penjing

Given that many of the ACBS members participating in the project have little or no experience working with tray plantings, one question presented itself:  what kind of soil to use? It seemed that such small plants would have difficulty surviving in typical, fast-draining bonsai soil.  The land features are quite shallow, and the space in the rock hollows is limited. Most choose to use the same heavily organic mix from the nursery containers, and then add some type of top dressing like haydite which has good earthy tones. We'll need to keep and eye on the watering situation,

 So now the only trick will be keeping things alive.