I have been growing Japanese black pine bonsai from seed for the past 17 years. During this time, I’ve done a lot of repotting. This past January, it dawned on me that I had to repot almost 50 young pines. Very few needed repotting last year, but this year all but a handful needed it. […]
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Repotting a Japanese plum
Northern California’s mild winters aren’t always enough to put trees to sleep for the season. My Japanese plum started sending out new growth in December before all of the old leaves had fallen, but I didn’t get around to repotting it until January. The tree has become quite a long-term project for me. I’ve refined […]
Repotting Korean hornbeam
Repotting season has mostly wrapped up in Northern California. Once trees start to grow in spring, repotting can slow or even stop new growth. I repotted the hornbeam below ahead of Bay Island Bonsai’s 12th annual exhibit this past January. I wrote previously about cutting back the branches and displaying the tree at the exhibit […]
Refining a corkbark black pine
Refining old bonsai isn’t always a quick process – especially when the bonsai is a corkbark black pine. With brittle branches, the variety does not lend itself to dramatic restyling. I’ve been fortunate that the pine below has been healthy enough to decandle three years in a row. Many corkbark pines need a year to […]
Witnessed in a recent workshop
I know that life is good when I wake up and have only to attend a bonsai workshop for the day. I’m guaranteed an opportunity to work on my trees, and I’ll get a chance to observe what others are working on around me. Some of these projects are quite intriguing. A few weeks ago, I […]