Two years ago I grafted a prostrata juniper with itoigawa foliage (see “Side-veneer graft aftercare” for details). Since then, I’ve been incrementally reducing the original foliage. Here’s a photo of the tree eight months after making the graft. October, 2018 I repotted the tree the following spring. A few months later, I removed the branches […]
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.
Timing spring pruning on coast live oak
April is a busy month for oaks in my garden. At the same time that my largest cork oak starts growing, a second flush of growth appears on the coast live oaks. Coast live oaks can start growing anywhere from December through April in my garden, but usually get going in January. By mid-April, the […]
Developing branches on Chinese wisteria
For years, I’ve been curious about what it takes to create dense branching on wisteria bonsai. I’ve seen many beautiful specimens that bloom every year, but I don’t see as many that have fine, twiggy branching. One of the first steps in ramifying deciduous bonsai is cutting back to create a compact silhouette. This can […]
Bare-rooting a trident maple
The first thing I want to do when I acquire a new tree is get a look at the soil. Based on what I found when I started repotting the trident maple below, I decided to bare-root the tree. Trident maple After removing the soil The tree had been well-cared for but was growing in […]
Wiring a large cork oak
The last tree to start growing in my garden each spring is also the largest. It’s a cork oak I acquired from Kenji Miyata. Cork oak I try to cut back and wire my oaks in fall or winter, but I often put this off for the big oak as it typically doesn’t start growing […]