My fall decandling project has been moving along slowly – as expected. After trimming spring growth last October, small buds appeared before the tree slowed down for winter. By March, the buds had begun growing again. Some of the more vigorous branches produced five or six new buds. To keep these areas in check, I […]
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Restoring an old Japanese maple
I’d gone several years without a Japanese maple in my collection and I missed working with the variety. It’s hard, however, to find good specimen. I resigned myself to starting a tree from scratch, either by layering nursery stock or by working with an old tree that needed help. A few months ago, I found […]
Restoring a Japanese beech
You never know what you’re going to find when you repot a tree for the first time, or when you finally get around to addressing a tree’s major flaws. The Japanese beech below was due for a reboot. The tree’s owner began by working on the roots. Japanese beech Poor nebari In addition to removing […]
Evaluating bonsai at Bay Island Bonsai meeting
Learning to evaluate bonsai is a big part of the Bay Island Bonsai experience. If one doesn’t understand a tree’s good and bad points, it’s hard to improve the tree, and it’s hard to know how much to pay for it. We’ve been using a simple form designed by Boon for over 10 years. The […]
Cryptomeria from air layer
I started an air layer last May on a cryptomeria shoot. I saw a few roots peeking through the plastic after a couple of months, but I didn’t know how many more roots were hidden within the moss. Figuring that too many roots is preferable to too few roots, I decided to remove the layer […]