It has been quite some time since I bought my first bonsai. I didn't write anything about it then because I never knew I would take bonsai passion this seriously (and offcourse I didn't know about this site either ;-)).

I have been fond of bonsai trees ever since I saw this little wonder in a movie called "Karate Kid". The old japanese man is pruning some of his bonsai trees in this little room, I was wondering what on earth are these little trees. Firstly I thought it is a camera trick and they are showing big trees in a small form factor just to impress some people but I was wrong there.

After the movie, I saw a similar plant in my friend's room in University. I was amazed by looking at the small tree, I asked "where did you get this?" and he replied "my mum bought it for me from the shop". I was like are these things really that small!!

So since then I started searching for these little wonders. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to buy one during my 2nd year of University however, in the third year I managed to buy one from an open market in Cambridge. The tree was, I would say in a pretty bad shape. Firstly it was in a small green ugly looking pot, secondly it had a trunk which was turned, just like if someone had turned someone's neck around,thirdly it had very little leaves on it and forthly it had wires around it's trunk and branches and they were all rotted.

The whole sene was like if some prisoner is tied up in chains locked up in a dark cell where one drop of water is dripping from the roof.

I rightaway thought I'd take this poor fella and will try to take good care of it. So, I bought it.

First thing I did was, I cut those ugly wires off the tree then I bought a bigger pot for it along with a big 1.5Kg fertiliser from B&Q and some bonsai feeders. I took the plant out of its old pot and put it in the bigger pot surronded by fertiliser. I then added one feeder into the fertiliser and kept it on a windersill. I started to water it every now n then and hey guess what, leaves started to come out again.

I was happy that it is getting better however, one day it turned its leaves into yellow and some leaves had these holes in them. It was like if some insect is chewing the leaves. So what did i do?

I cut all those small thin brances off the tree and water it again. After some time it had new leaves without any holes in them. I thought it maybe was sick and by trimming a bit it will keep the tree in healthy shape. Ever since I always cut the leaves when they get very long and sometimes become yellow or have holes in them.

Until very recently I didn't know what kind of bonsai it is nor I knew what tools or things I need to groom the tree. So I thought I'll search on the internet and find it out. I emailed one company called Ma-Ke Bonsai asking if he can help me out identifying this tree and he happily agreed. At the same time to support the argument I registered myself on Bonsai Help website and created a thread on it "Idenfiy my bonsai". There people replied with the same answer.

I finally got the name of my plant "Chinese Elm"!. I have read quite alot about it now and I am thinking of buying tools for it and going to buy a good looking pot soon.

Here is how my bonsai look like today:

Though the plant is not in the proper pot nor it has the best soil nor I have any tools to trim the branches I still managed to save it and I think that is one of the best things I have achieved. This gave me more confident and I think I'll do anything to save my plant for future.

Thats all folks! That is my little story of bonsai!

I am sure some of you are already sleeping!!

<<slap slap>>wake up! show is over!!