New acquisitions

Last weekend, because I am starved for things to "do" in this off-season (for most bonsai tasks, that is), I dug up 2 small maples from my yard and put them into pots:

Both were doing fine, until I noticed the leaves curling and getting brown this morning on the larger of the 2. I removed a few of the worst leaves, and moved both trees into a location where they will get less direct sun. This time of year is not ideal for transplanting--spring is best--but we'd just had a lot of rain, and we may not be in this house in spring, so I decided to go ahead and try. It's not as if the trees had to go very far to be transplanted! Plus, they were free, so if I lose them, it's just a learning experience.

I also visited the Home Depot on Friday, where I purchased a cotoneaster (Cotoneaster horizontalis) nursery shrub, as well as a Ficus bonsai
I probably won't touch either of them until fall. The ficus definitely needs repotting--it had the glued-on rocks typical of "mallsai", and is potted in a very deep pot with no drainage. I removed the rocks on top but will wait a bit to repot it into a proper container. The cotoneaster is a practice tree, but I need to read up on it a little more before I figure out what to do with it. At least now I have a lot to work with!