Not all field-grown bonsai are ready for refinement work when they come out of the ground. One of my trident maples is a good example of this. Although the trunk has reached the desired thickness, there are a number of steps to take that will set the tree up for refinement down the road. Trident […]
Trident Maple
Leaf pruning vs. partial defoliation
Spring is a good time for managing vigor on deciduous species. We can fully defoliate our strongest trees, and partially defoliate less vigorous bonsai. An alternative to defoliation for species with larger leaves is leaf pruning. Leaf pruning works best when you want more light to reach the tree’s interior but you don’t want to […]
Cutback on root over rock trident maple
I recently cut back a root over rock trident maple during a live Q&A for Bonsai Empire. Here’s the tree before I got started. Before cutback And here it is after removing the leaves and cutting back the branches. Front Right side Back Left side The goals of the cutback were simple: Replace large branches […]
Cutback on field grown trident maple
One of the challenges of working with field grown material is replacing large, straight branches with slender shoots that have better movement. I’ve been doing this work incrementally with the trident maple below. Trident maple Even though it’s November, fall has been mild where I live so the leaves are still healthy. Here’s what the […]
Cutback and partial defoliation on trident maple
Healthy trident maples are among the most vigorous deciduous bonsai species. When they are growing well, they can be defoliated three – and sometimes four – times each year. Climate and tree health determine exactly how many times makes sense for any given tree. I partially defoliated a root-over-rock trident back in June. Two weeks later, […]