I usually aim to prune flowering quince such as boke, toyonishiki, or chojubai in fall after most of the leaves turn color and begin to fall off. In recent years, however, my garden has lacked the cold required to make this happen. Flowering quince in early January When this happens, I defoliate the trees and […]
Chojubai
Developing chojubai – tips from Left Coast Bonsai
Last week John Eads of Left Coast Bonsai was in the garden to help get my young trees into shape ahead of repotting season. As John studied with Michael Hagedorn, he’s a great resource for developing the dwarf Japanese flowering quince known as chojubai. Here are a few of the trees he worked on this […]
Seasonal maintenance – removing flowers from dwarf flowering quince
Removing spent flowers every month helps quince grow and keeps them looking great.
Cutback on a white chojubai quince
I usually hold off on pruning deciduous bonsai past the first half of August. Not all trees can grow well enough late in the season to make it worth investing in new shoots before fall. That said, I’ve worked on deciduous trees fairly late in the season as some trees will keep their leaves through […]
Summer repotting dwarf flowering quince
Chojubai, a variety of dwarf flowering quince, is one of the few bonsai I can repot in summer. Repotting chojubai in early spring also works, but by repotting now I can get a jump on the upcoming repotting season. Chojubai can be repotted with or without defoliating first, but I prefer to defoliate as most […]