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- HIGHEST QUALITY! HIGHEST SUCCESS!
- WHY HAWAIIAN LAVA PLANTINGS ARE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL GIFT BONSAI!
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Fuku-Bonsai's True Indoor Bonsai™ are the easiest and most successful gift bonsai for anyone, anywhere who can grow houseplants! Here's why!
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- This Japanese Black Pine is over 100 years old and amongst the most difficult to grow. These are not houseplants and are the worst gift bonsai for a person without experience.
FIRST, we recognize that "gift bonsai" are usually given to those without bonsai skills or knowledge and that most bonsai quickly die because it's the wrong plant to give to someone without bonsai skills! The worst gift bonsai are traditional Japanese outdoor temperate-climate bonsai that with a lot of expertise and discipline --- as well as special expertise to off-set their winter dormancy needs --- as well as the strong outdoor light if you try to grow them indoors (where most bonsai gift recipients want to grow them!. To make it almost impossible, each outdoor bonsai requires special and different care based upon its natural habitat and the outdoor environment where the gift recipient lives. TRADITIONAL JAPANESE-TYPE TEMPERATE-CLIMATE OUTDOOR BONSAI ARE NOT HOUSE PLANTS AND ARE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR GIFT RECEPIANTS TO BE SUCCESSFUL!
Each plant variety in each outdoor climate requires different care. Even tropical bonsai (including members of the ficus family) require much more light than available in ordinary homes. These should really be grown outdoors during warm weather and in high-light greenhouses.
Gift bonsai should be proven durable houseplants trained in the bonsai manner! Pines and junipers simply do not become houseplants just because they are grown as bonsai. The great majority of our visitors have grown and killed bonsai. They were trying to grow an outdoor bonsai as a houseplant! Most who try again are successful with our True Indoor Bonsai.
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- Dwarf Schefflera was introduced to Hawaii in the late 1960's. We have been growing it as bonsai longer than anyone else.
SECOND, we differentiated by trademarking "TRUE INDOOR BONSAI™" to separate us from those who fraudulently sell "INDOOR BONSAI" that are really outdoor plants that are not house plants. We specialize in Dwarf Schefflera (Schefflera arboricola) because it is the most durable of all houseplants with ideal bonsai traits and characteristics! Very few plants sold as "Indoor Bonsai" are shown in houseplant magazines with the exception of ficus (figs). Ficus requires very high light and becomes spindly when grown in ordinary low light interiors. Even when grown near windows or properly acclimated, they are touchy and will often drop many leaves when moved to a different location. In contrast Dwarf Schefflera is the ideal houseplant bonsai. But it has very different characteristics and are known to like to grow on rocks or as epiphytes on trees. To some extent they are drought-resistant and have some characteristics of air plants whose roots need to breath. 
THIRD, our Dwarf Schefflera are grown with professional skills and techniques to produce tough plants that have character within one inch of the soil line and a compact root system. We cull out weak plants and those that do not branch while the plants were still very young. We spent many years learning and are committed to producing the highest quality small plants that have exceptional potential to become high-quality medium and large bonsai! - WHY ARE HAWAIIAN LAVA PLANTINGS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL GIFT BONSAI?
Fuku-Bonsai provides proven detailed cultural information with each plant and if there are suspected problems, email details and a clear photo to sales@fukubonsai.com and receive prompt assistance!
HAWAIIAN LAVA PLANTINGS are recommended gift bonsai for anyone, anywhere who can grow houseplants! They are very easy-care and slow-growing! The plants are pre-trained before being rock-planted, and as they become established in the rock, they become root-bound and grow more slowly. They have the ability to live in a root-bound condition for many years. But the key to a long life is proper watering technique and providing a steady amount of nutrients in EVERY watering. If you carefully follow the following, they become almost "customer-proof!"
- HOW TO WATER WITH SCHULTZ LIQUID PLANT FOOD
- THE STORY AND THEORIES BEHIND THE SUCCESS!
Get a small bottle of Schultz Liquid Plant Food available in supermarkets with plant departments or your local garden shop. Add 4 drops of Schultz Liquid per quart of water. Customers with large lava plantngs mix up a gallon and store left-overs in a gallon jar. Add 4 drops of Schultz each time you add a quart of water. Simply water once per week by soaking the entire rock area in enough water to cover the rock for 30 minutes. Don't just pour water over the rock! When removing it from the water, tilt so water comes out in a stream. When the stream breaks up into drips, level off to trap water in the rock. Do not totally dry out the rock. Larger sizes are easier but small sizes vary in porosity so may need more attention. Here are different alternatives:
For normal situations, place the rock planting on DRY GRAVEL and mound up gravel halfway up the rock and it should do well.
For drier low-humidity interiors with air conditioning or interior heating, use a deeper bowl, place lava planting on the bottom, and pour DRY GRAVEL around and up the sides of the rck and it should do well.
For those who think they live in extreme low humidity areas (who tend to kill lava plantings by overwatering them), use a glass semi-terrarium or even a full globe terrarium as shown in the photos below.
SOME WILL TELL YOU TO ALWAYS KEEP THE ROCK PLANTINGS SITTING IN WATER, BUT DON'T!!! Sometimes Dwarf Schefflera will survive in water for years, BUT MOST DON'T! The roots rot, the trunk becomes soft and you can easily peel off the bark.
Black rotted roots indicate over-watering which can kill the plant. New tiny white roots indicate all is well. After watering, simply tuck the roots under the rock. Once you build up a 1/4" thick pad of roots under the rock, the odds are that you will be able to enjoy your rock planting for many, many years!
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When you first see a Fuku-Bonsai Hawaiian Lava Planting, you may not realize that so much work and effort have gone into it. In the 1960's we learned that plants that became acclimated to growing in Hawaii's semi-dense but porous lava develop unique survivability. The lava rock seems to have enough porosity for air to enter and allow the roots to survive.
While it seems simpler to just pour water over the rock, that does not work long term as only the outside of the rock is moistened. But if you leave the rock is sitting in water, roots rot as explained above. Watering by saturation and keeping it on dry gravel consistently is the most successful! THIS WEEKLY AIR AND WATER EXCHANGE IS WHAT KEEPS THE PLANT HEALTHY!
WAYS TO INCREASE HUMIDITY IN EXTRA DRY INTERIORS 
NOTE: The two photos above came from customers and the glass "semi-terrariums" have proven very effective in dry climates or situations! BUT IF YOU ARE NOT USING HIGHER WALL "SEMI-TERRARIUMS, DO NOT USE LARGER, HARD ROCKS IN SHALLOW DISHES AS YOUR PLANTS WILL DRY OUT TOO FAST.
SYMPTOMS OF UNDERWATERING AND OUR BEST (AND ONLY) FIRST AID EMERGENCY EFFORT
If you see tiny vertical creases in trunks or branches, it may be under-watered and the plant is dehydrating. This can happen if the rock planting is placed on larger hard decorative river rocks rather than 1/4" size gravel and the plant could dry out too fast. Others may be afraid to overwater and soak their plant every two weeks and for a while they are successful. But if they forget, the plant begins to dry out and leaves begin to wilt. If you look carefully, the trunk is actually shriveling and there are tiny vertical creases! If you see these creases, soak in water overnight and the plant could rehydrate and recover. Email a photo to Fuku-Bonsai to assure that is the situation.
Some customers insist that the air in their homes and offices are too dry. But we have customers in all parts of the United States who use air conditioning and/or interior heating. It is not advisable or necessary to sit plants in water or water more than once per week. Some customers are successful and happy by increasing the humidity by using open top glass cylinders, bowls, or "semi-terrariums."
EMERGENCY FIRST AID: Place the rock planting in a bowl with enough water to cover the rock, then place all into a clear polybag, blow up like a balloon and tie the top to something above so the bag does not collapse onto the plant. Place in a warm brightly lit area not receiving direct sun and watch the newest emerging leaf. It it begins to stand up, cross your fingers as it may be starting to re-hydrate. Watch the creases and if they begin to round out and disappear, you can begin a small smile. I believe both of the plants above recovered and you have a chance if there still are leaves. But survival odds are very poor if there are no leaves and the ends of the branches are black and dried out.
OTHER EMERGENCY SITUATIONS:
HEAT AND COLD DAMAGE
ETC???
PLEASE CONTACT ME IF I CAN HELP!
~~~David
We primarily sell only our small size Hawaiian Lava Plantings in Fuku-Bonsai Authorized Retailers in Hawaii as pre-packaged, pre-certified plants that are sold to visitors who hand-carry them back to all parts of the United States. Our label warn to KEEP FROM HEAT AND COLD! But sometimes visitors have them in a hot car and they get burnt leaves, or they purchase and don't get home for many days and the plant suffers and leaves fall off. Use the emergency first aid effort above and sometimes the plants recover. During the coldest part of winter, Hawaii visitors purchase but do not adequately protect plants enroute home --- or the rock planting was left outside when the weather changed --- or the plant was near a door that let in an icy blast every time someone came in --- or the dog somehow carried it outside and the owner found it in the snow --- or there was a party and in cleaning up, they found a rock planting was "watered" with a martini!
We guarantee satisfaction and safe arrival. During winter, we hold back shipments to destinations where low temperatures are below freezing. We know that some believed that our trees need fertilizer and is a little is good, than a lot must be better --- or they use strong outdoor fertilizer and it burned the plant! Wash off as much as possible, soak and change water twice a day, and sometimes plants recover! These are tough plants and I've tried to help and there have been miracles. Send me photos and a lot of details and I'll try to help!
AN EVOLUTION TO BONSAI TRAINING! AS FUKU-BONSAI RECOVERS AND EXPANDS, WE WILL AGAIN PUBLISH THE MONTHLY FREE FBnews EMAIL NEWSLETTER TO HAVE MORE BONSAI TRAINING INFORMATION.
TO RECEIVE A COPY PLEASE SIGN UP ON THE HOME PAGE
THIS WEBSITE WILL ALSO GROW TO INCLUDE AN ENTIRE BOOK ON HOW TO GROW OUR TRUE INDOOR BONSAI™
Most who enjoy growing our Hawaiian Lava Plantings or those who receive them enjoy them a attractive long-term easy care plants. In the past few years, we were lucky and know only one plant suffered cold damage and we replaced it. FUKU-BONSAI IS THE ONLY CERTIFIED BONSAI NURSERY SHIPPING TO ALL STATES THROUGHOUT (MOST) OF THE YEAR. We keep track of weather throughout the country and in borderline situations where customers really want to get a gift to a recipient by a specific date, we use 60-hour shipping heat-packs, double-box with insulation between cartons, and are generally successful! Knowing how easy-care and successful they've been, they give them to others as gifts for special occasions. But an increasing number of customers are enjoying faster-growing Premium Potted Bonsai and some are becoming interested in training bonsai and obtaining our Introductory Workshop Package and other workshops.
For those with lava plantings who want to convert to bonsai, please visit Giftlist #3 and study the "Conversion Kits" that will be again available in the future. If you become interested in learning True Indoor Bonsai, consider joining the Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation and our study groups. If you have no experience and there are no one nearby that can help you, consider obtaining four Introductory Workshop Packages (to get a lot of experience and free shipping). (NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE) Upon receipt, review all materials and email if you have any questions. Please feel free to email if you have questions.
Those who participate in the study group send photos, captions, and reports and receive critiques, recommendations and assistance. Fuku-Bonsai and the 501(3)(c) non-profit Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation has teamed up into a vertically integrated partnership that provides information, specific plants, and assistance. We will train instructors who will have quantity discounts and teacher's aids.
E KOMO MAI . . . come discover the serenity of nature, the beauty of bonsai, and the spirit of Hawaii!
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