Decandling is a great technique for refining selected pine species trained as bonsai. At its most basic, decandling refers to the removal of spring growth with the aim of stimulating summer growth (see “Decandling” for details). Decandling a Japanese black pine As great as this technique is, its full application is limited to a small […]
Bonsai Development
Bonsai Development posts form the heart of Bonsai Tonight. Learn about varieties like Black Pine, Shimpaku and Japanese Maple, techniques like Decandling and Grafting and Air Layering, and bonsai features like Deadwood.
Spring tune-up on Japanese plum
I like to check every tree in the garden at least once during the growing season. For deciduous trees, I look to see if there are branches that need wiring or pruning. The tree below produced a lot of new shoots this year. By wiring the base of these branches now, the curves can begin […]
Pruning a field-grown trident maple
When I picked up a field-grown maple to work on a few days ago, I had no idea what the trunk and branches looked like. The tree had grown almost four feet since last year and the foliage was too dense to see through. Trident maple This made pruning difficult as I had to make […]
Leaf pruning Chinese wisteria – follow-up
The first time I cut back and leaf-pruned a Chinese wisteria, I was curious how it would respond to the work. I knew wisteria can grow well after mid-season cutback, but hadn’t experimented enough to know what to expect. Now that I’m comfortable with the technique, it’s fun to see how quickly wisteria can fill […]
Decandling a mini-size black pine
Although I’ve been growing shohin pines for years, last year I decided to try making mini-size trees around 4″-5″ tall. As most of these pines were over 12″ at decandling time, I did a lot of cutback when I decandled. Here’s an example. Black pine – about seven years old The tree above has a […]