This past spring, as the deciduous bonsai in my garden began to leaf out, I noticed several dwarf flowering quince began to die back. Over the next two months, about half of these chojubai died. I found no evidence of insects or fungus, and a nearby lab couldn’t identify the culprit either. Our best guess […]
Bonsai Care
The bonsai care category includes topics like Watering, Fertilizing, Repotting and Bonsai Soil. You can also find information about the Pests commonly found on bonsai, and read Interviews with bonsai professionals.
Bare-root azalea follow-up
Back in February I potted up around 60 bare-root satsuki azalea bonsai. Having not worked with bare-root specimens before, I was really curious to see how the trees would do with so few roots. Most started out slowly due to cool weather, but since spring warmed up, they have been growing quickly. And now that […]
Early appearance of summer buds and a decandling tip
Seeing a note on my calendar to finish decandling a pine, I headed outside and brought the pine below into the workshop. Partially decandled black pine The idea was to remove the weaker shoots ahead of the stronger shoots. Although I usually decandle all of a tree’s shoots on a single day, I occasionally remove […]
An unprompted second flush of growth on black pine
In general, we can expect black and red pines to produce a single flush of growth all year. If we remove this growth at the right time, we can expect a second flush to grow in the same calendar year. On occasion, we might see pines produce this second flush of growth on their own. […]
Caring for recently dug pines
The first few years of growing pines from scratch can be a lot of fun. From sprouting the seeds, to making seedling cuttings, to setting the first curves of the trunk, the early years of pine development include some fun steps. The opposite is true when working with field-grown material. Field-grown Japanese black pine The […]