About a month ago, I noticed some of my pines turning yellow near the base of the needles. Yellowing pine needles I rarely see this in my older pines, but it sometimes shows up in the younger trees in my garden. It’s a common sign that the trees are staying too wet between waterings. After […]
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When to graft and when to bend: evaluating branch structure
Since repotting a neglected San Jose juniper last fall, I’ve been thinking about the tree’s options for future development. The main question is whether to work with the existing branches or graft new branches. San Jose juniper Whenever possible, I like to work with existing branches because it’s much faster to develop a tree by wiring […]
Defoliation follow-up: refining a Korean hornbeam
Two months ago I partially defoliated a mature Korean hornbeam (see “Focus on defoliation” for details). After defoliation – May 2018 I’d been curious about the effect of removing more leaves than normal so I cut about 60-70% of the foliage to see what would happen. Since then, the tree has grown well. New leaves […]
Bonsai Development Series #9: Evaluating sacrifice branches mid-season
For my young trees in development, I tend to focus on a single question during the growing season: do I prune now or wait until fall? Chinese quince – four years old from seed The goal at this stage is to develop the trunk as fast as possible. Because the sacrifice branches are well-positioned, I’ll […]
Can you see the signs? Identifying weak roots by checking the foliage
I acquired a number of field-grown shimpaku junipers earlier this year. Most are growing well. Healthy juniper The best signs of health, in this case, are the green color and the handful of elongating shoots at the ends of the upper branches. Vigorous shoot Here’s another healthy juniper that produced a lot of growth this […]