I’ve seen signs, recently, that some of trees in my garden are staying too wet. What does this look like? On pines I might see yellow at the base of the needles. On junipers, new shoots may extend too far or mature growth may turn juvenile. In a few cases, I’ve spotted signs of damage […]
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Recent Posts
Pruning and repotting an exposed root ficus
It’s been almost one year since I started caring for an exposed root Green Island ficus. I pruned the tree toward the end of summer last year and have been waiting until this year to repot it (see “Cutback and wiring” for photos of last year’s work). Ficus respond best to repotting when the weather […]
Decandling young bunjin pines
A few years ago I came across a batch of slender black pine seedlings from a corkbark parent. They were wired for the first time one year ago and are now ready for decandling. Seedling from corkbark pine I shortened the apex and decandled the remaining branches before removing the old needles. After cutback After […]
Decandling a shohin black pine
Late June through mid-July marks the end of the decandling season in my area. This means it’s time to start working on the smaller pines in my garden. The tree below is sixteen-years-old. It grew strong this spring which is a reflection of the fact that the tree is still young and not fully ramified. […]
Slowing down sacrifice branches on black pine
When the trunk of a tree has reached the desired thickness, I evaluate the sacrifice branches to see if it makes more sense to remove them all at once or to remove them in stages. In many cases, removing large branches can cause vigorous new shoots to develop. This is especially true for species like […]