The decandling season is starting earlier than normal for me this year. I’m looking to prepare a few trees for an exhibit in September but the pines in my garden usually grow through October and into November. By decandling early, I can increase the odds that a tree will look good in September at the […]
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.
Focus on defoliation – determining how many leaves to remove
After an experiment with full defoliation on a Korean hornbeam – see the process (here) and the results (here) for details – I’ve made it an annual practice to partially defoliate refined specimens. The question I’ve been asking in recent years is, how many leaves should I remove? Last year I took a fairly conservative approach. Here’s […]
Cutback and wiring on a semi-cascade ume
Mid-May is when I usually begin working on my deciduous bonsai. If a tree has grown well, I’ll reduce the new shoots to 2-4 leaves and wire any branches that need adjusting. An ume in my garden has been growing vigorously this year. It’s time for cutback. Ume It was hard for me to see […]
Defoliating a shohin Japanese maple
I started working on a shohin Japanese maple about a year and a half ago. Here’s what it looked like at the end of 2016. Shohin Japanese maple The first order of business was repotting. I found the tree didn’t have a lot of roots so I was expecting it to grow slowly. And as […]
Thinning a red pine forest
In general, I treat red and black pines the same. This doesn’t, however, mean that the trees respond the same to the same work. Black pines are generally the more predictable of the two varieties. After decandling, I can expect between one and three shoots per branch in all but the strongest areas where it’s […]