My red maple forest has filled in nicely this spring – so much so that some of the interior leaves are already turning yellow. Acer rubrum, Red maple Weak interior leaf To let more light into the tree’s interior, I shortened elongating shoots and removed the largest leaves. Elongating shoot with red, bronze, and pale […]
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Bonsai Development Series #24: Twisting young junipers
The best strategy for creating junipers with interesting deadwood is to add twists to the trunk while the tree is still young. Some people begin by twisting young whips before they add movement. The alternative is to twist the trunk while setting the initial bends. Here’s what this looks like on a rooted cutting that […]
Bonsai Development Series #23: Wiring young juniper trunks
For years I’ve wanted to write about wiring rooted juniper cuttings, but I stopped short as before and after photos aren’t always helpful. Rooted juniper cuttings before and after wiring To make the trunk-line easier to see, I removed the foliage from a branch to use as an example. Wired juniper branch – 18″ From […]
Developing branches on Chinese wisteria
For the last year and a half, I’ve been working to increase the branch density on a Chinese wisteria. Last fall, I was able to see the results. Here’s what the tree looked like in fall. Fall color – November, 2020 After removing the leaves Seeing that the new shoots were 4-5″ long, I reduced […]
Repotting a Sierra juniper with a compacted root ball
When a bonsai hasn’t been repotted in a while, the broken down soil and roots can fill most of the gaps between soil particles and make for a compacted root ball. It’s hard to keep bonsai healthy when water doesn’t move through the soil well, so the goal for repotting a tree with compacted roots […]