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Once upon a life time...ok, so maybe about 4 years ago, but it feels like a life time ago. I started obsessing about Bonsais. It started when someone bought me a *ficus natalensis*, or Natal Fig. I began reading about bonsais and was shocked at how much they cost at a nursery. 

It taught me so much about plants and trees though. In my final year of high school, my highest marks were for biology. The educational advisor told me that my future was in plants and animals. To be honest, I wish I had listened. I have such a passion for biology, particularly when it comes to springing new life. There is something about starting new life that gets me excited. 

Which is where the path of bonsais took me. As I walked amongst groves of trees, I would look at them at wonder what tree it is. I studied leaves, seeds, structures, etc. Anything to help me identify them. I would take seeds and cuttings, learn how to propagate them into beautiful bonsais. I would say I had a 85% success rate and the number of bonsailings (or potensais - potential bonsais- as my previous manager used to call them) was staggering.

And as usual, when I become obsessed with something, I took it too far. I looked up what the current fauna scientific families and species were and created excel charts to trace the bonsais I had and how they were related. I bought physical notebooks and made notes and sketches of every stage of my bonsais' lives from seed to maturity. It felt like biology in school all over again.

And then the summer hit us hard last year. And this year South Africa was swept into a drought and water crisis. We had to cut back on water and the first thing to go was watering our gardens and plants. I tried to water them as minimally as possibly while trying to keep them alive. It didn't work. Many of the babies died. And even though they received water, the heat was just too much.

It's hard for me to admit this, but I gave up. I left the trees in my garden and bonsais to fend for themselves. The limited water we are allowed to use everyday is kept to provide for my wife and children. But last weekend, I moved my bonsai stands from outside to my inside front porch, which has sufficient shade and mostly received sunlight from late afternoon to sunset. 

My succulent bonsais, mainly my Crassulas, survived the drought and are looking as stunning as ever. And now the itch begins again. Seeds from apricots I ate in Jan that I hibernated in the fridge have multiple roots out and were planted two weeks ago. The leaves look amazing. I have peach and plum seeds in the fridge for the winter period, and now I am starting to look at Acacia seeds and cuttings as I walk passed them on the road again, or the London Plane tree that I love so much.

So yes.. my love for growth and bonsais is coming back. Expect me to be sharing this renewed journey in future posts to come. I think I will even start a series on the families of fauna here, since I still have all that research I did.

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Image Source: [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/en/environmental-protection-326923/)

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Kind regards

Shaun M Jooste

Joint-Owner: AIR Entertainment (https://airentertainment.biz)
Director: Celenic Earth Publications (https://celenicearthpublications.wordpress.com)
Author, Screenwriter, Gamewriter, Journalist (https://celenicearth.wordpress.com)