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Riparium Bonsai
I have been trying out a couple of new kinds of plants for use in ripariums that might be good candidates for growing as bonsai specimens.
The riparium setup needs to be designed right for this idea to look good. Here is a list of general proposed characteristics for a riparium of this sort...
- shallow and broad rimless aquarium enclosure
- the best hardscape and gravel materials
- nano fish
- single erect riparium tree or shrub bonsai plant trained in literati bonsai style
- shorter midground riparium foliage providing depth and contrast
It is of course important that the palnts chosen for the riparium planting be adapted to growing with their roots permanentlly underwater: most kinds of trees will die fo grown in this manner. Therefore, I have selected true swamp or wetland species for this concept. A few weeks ago I got the first of these plants Buttonbush is a native North America swamp plant in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) and it has attractive and fragrant white snowball flowers. Here is a still dormant plant that I got through an eehbay sale.
Most temperate zone trees/bushes like buttonbush do not like to grow indoors and require a cool winter dormancy period, but I found several references to growing it as indoor bonsai. So I'm going to try it out.
(Wikimedia Commons image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ce...cidentalis.jpg)
Here is another species. Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) is a large riverbank or swamp tree from Mexico. It has this beautiful conifer foliage.
(Wikimedia Commons image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...ucronatum1.jpg)
I'll post more soon!
Always admired your work. Subscribed!!
I got the Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) sapling that I had ordered. The potted plant that they sent looked pretty good. It came rooted in a 1-gallon pot.
The tree had an extensive root system and I had to prune it back quite a bit to fit it into a riparium planter.
Hope to see more of your updates!
I have some new shots.
Since the Montezuma cypress tree was looking good with some new root establishment I decided to go ahead and wrap it with aluminum bonsai wire. You can see here that the little tree is just straight and sticky: it will look better with some more natural bends and curves.
Here is a shot of the tree after bending. After putting the tree in the tank I sharpened some of these angles a bit more.
You can see the new, white roots in the planter. I was very pleased to see good root development so soon after transplanting. This is a sign of a healthy plant.
This picture shows the tank construction. The glass is 1/4" plate and I sealed the seams with GE Type I silicone. After bonding the five glass panels and letting the silicone cure for a couple of days I scraped excess silicone from the inside corners, then masked for 1/8" seams all the way around. This is the easiest way to get nice and straight seams. I gave the completed tank a full week to cure before setting up the tank and adding water a few days ago.
I wrote a blog post about this setup. It includes some of the same details that I have already mentioned here as well as some updated content. Here is the link if you want to check it out...
http://ripariumsupply.com/?p=901
I still need to set up the tank with substrate, hardscape, fish, a few more plants and a better setting, so the blog post just describes it as a work in progress. I will try to make more headway with it as soon as I can.
I got another new plant to try as riparium bonsai in the mail last week. These are three bare root sapling of swamp rose (Rosa palustris).
As a northern rose this is a temperate plant, but I hope that it will work out in the riparium. I have seen a few cases of roses growing as houseplants, so they might not necessarily require a cold winter dormancy.
Here is one of the plants unwrapped. I planted this specimen in a ripairum planter on Saturday and already the buds have started to open and I see new roots in the planter. This might be a pretty good plant to grow like riparium bonsai.
Here is the bloom of R. palustris.
(Wikimedia Commons image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...River_2011.JPG)
I have a quick update photo. This is with a black background and some Photoshop. I added a couple of new plants. You can see the Marsilea fern over on the right. I am trying to decide whether I like the underwater area or not. The oak leaves have stained the water and sand. I wonder if I might prefer very clear water instead and a combination of sand with gravel and stones(?).
Still no fish yet.
Nice, maybe just one or two ranchu goldfish will complement the cypress tree.
Thanks!Originally Posted by cdckjn
This setup is much too small (33 litres) for a goldfish, but you are right a shallow and broad tank would be nice for some ranchu. I have thought about doing a riparium planting in a 30G breeder tank.
Get a few of those "lionhead" guppy
Looks good! Would love to see the fishes that we're added.
I think we would need at least a month or so for the plants to be fully grown.
Hi folks. I haven't been back here in a while, but I have a quick photo update for this tank.
There are currently eight Boraras brigittae and a single chocolate gourami in this setup.
The cypress tree has grown and filled out a bit more. I replaced the Marsilea fern with some Lysimachia creeping Jenny (lower right) and it is filling in nicely.
Very nice..
What leaves are that at the bottom of the tank?
Yeah. what's the black black thing in the bottom of the tank?
colin | The Wilderness and Forest | FTS
What black thing?
The leaves are Quercus oak tree leaves.
I see. Thank you. Trying to figure out what these oak tree do to leave an impression.
colin | The Wilderness and Forest | FTS
Nice deco and plants. Wonder if this bonsai required special light source and high light fitting, and if the bonsai pot submerse below tank water level.
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