Last Tuesday, Akio Kondo visited Bay Island Bonsai’s monthly meeting and gave a mini demo and critique. He worked on two small shimpaku and offered suggestions for further developing a few member trees. Kondo has visited the U.S. the past few summers, making time to work on client trees and teach workshops (see write-ups from […]
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One-and-a-half-year-old pine seedlings
This past March I potted up a number of seedling cuttings made in 2012 (see Repotting 1 year-old black pine seedlings). 1 year-old black pine seedlings Just four months later, the seedlings are much bigger. 1.5 year-old black pine from seedling cutting Low buds developing without prompting Apical shoots opening – a good sign of […]
Watching trees grow
Common approach to writing about bonsai: photograph full tree, cut something, photograph less-full tree. Mixing it up for a change, here is progress after spring cutback on my Yaupon holly. I’m focusing more than normal on how quickly this tree grows as I’d like to show it in January and I’d like to calculate how […]
Flowering quince – summer work
Most work on Japanese flowering quince ‘chojubai’ is done in fall or spring, but one task – beyond watering and fertilizing – requires some attention year-round. Removing flowers. Japanese flowering quince ‘chojubai’ in July Chojubai mostly bloom in late winter and early spring, but some specimens can produce flowers – and fruit – year-round. I […]
Let summer buds grow
In general, we want two new shoots at the end each branch to develop on black and red pine bonsai. Red pine – two summer shoots Nature, however, doesn’t always provide us with what we’re looking for. Black pine – three shoots Four summer shoots More shoots than I want to count One shoot can […]