A lot has happened since the last bonsai log update.
First off, my first bonsai is dead, kaput, pushing up daisies. I had hoped that its leaves were falling off because winter was coming, but it's the end of May now and it's time to throw in the towel. It was a lovely little tree, and it will be missed, but I've not let my first failure stop me.
Weeping Willow
I took some clippings from the weeping willow in my parent's back garden, planted 4 of them, and had a total of 1 survive. I'm quite surprised that any survived, given the 3 days they spent traveling across London in a plastic bag before being planted.
I've re-potted the cutting into its own pot, with rather a disgusting disregard for aesthetics, and it's been growing along nicely. I'm planning to let it spend the rest of the summer growing and settling in, and maybe check how the roots are doing at the end of summer. I'm not very happy with how lopsided it is, so in a few year I expect to cut it right back and try to get it a bit more formally upright.
For a long while I was leaving it standing free and watering it daily: willows are very thirsty and need the soil to stay permentantly damp. But a few weeks ago I was away from the house for 3 days and needed some way to keep it watered. I used an idea I saw on the Bonsai Zone tried leaving it standing in a level of slightly fertilized water, and it's been a resounding success! The only down side is that the fertilized water is a hotbed for algea, so I have to fully clean and change the water once a week.
Finally, I was begining to worry that my tree was much too lopsided. As you can seek I keep the tree in a glass container, because the winds on my balcony are much to strong, but this means the tree has very little space for lateral growth. A few days ago the tree was too big to fit in the glass without folding its leaves up against the side. Because of this I've wired the tree into a much more upright shape, with a gentle spiral up. I expect to leave the wire on for the rest of the summer.
Future updates
I can't promise that I'll ever have more time to write a proper bonsai log, but I've added a monthly reminder into my task manager to take photos. Hopefully I can at least go back through them and back fill old logs when I have the time.