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Most of the time our hand-wringing about wisteria bonsai is when an otherwise happy tree won’t bloom. They can be obstinate and willful. Last year I wrote a post about a few basic wisteria concepts, Why Won’t My Wisteria Bloom? While those ideas might help getting some plants to bloom, when your tree gets very mature, be awake to another problem: A wisteria that only blooms and does not grow tendrils.

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Tendril snaking it’s way out of a wisteria, after flowering. These should be trimmed back, and may be wired. Too much tendril growth may limit flowering…and too much flowering may limit tendril growth (and therefore branch development). A tricky balance, sometimes-

If you’ve a wisteria that blooms itself nearly to death, puts out a few leaves, and then sulks there the rest of the summer, you need to get out the bull whip. Or a least some good loud music and seriously bump up your fertilizing. I had a small tree last year that put out a ton of blooms. I cut 2/3 of them off, and it did not put out a single tendril the whole year. This year it tried the same thing, and I said, ‘No you don’t, you’re going to kill yourself with sex’. So I cut ALL the blooms off (I hope I’m not horrifying anyone with a wisteria that won’t bloom), put on a lot more organic fertilizer pellets, and now I’ve got half a dozen tendrils noodling their way into the air.

A tree that does not grow—and you may see this on any very mature tree: juniper, quince, or vine—cannot develop. It won’t grow enough to develop branches, or more complex ramification. Worse, sometimes such a tree will lose ramification. It’s just hanging out there, lounging on the bean bag, drinking beer, getting obstinate, slack-jawed, and willfully unproductive. Most of us do not have this problem with wisteria. We’ve the opposite problem, reigning in a wildly growing plant. Which, for the most part, vines are: Totally untamed wild things of the plant world.

Much of bonsai care is ‘nudging adjustments’. You waddle around your bonsai yard looking carefully at each tree, trying to notice what each is doing. What type of energy it has, and deciding if you agree with that direction. Then you might add some fertilizer to a tree, or take some off, or reposition the tree for more sun, or less sun. Or bring out the podium and place it in front of your wisteria—or some other plant, like a quince—for a long lecture on flowering too much and growing too little. They are patient with such measures, plants are, for the most part. It’s your neighbor, leaning over the fence, who has a worried look.

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Nothing like a dogmatic title for good dramatics, right? I should add an ‘Or Else!’ but I don’t have the heart for it. Nevertheless, we should be duly chastised for broadcasting fertilizer as if it were an unmitigated good.

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Whatever that guy is using should obviously be applied with discretion-

For bonsai, generally we don’t need axes to control growth. And for fertilizing bonsai, we can make this one basic distinction:

  • Begin fertilizing a young, unrefined tree when it begins growing early in the spring
  • Wait a bit with an older, refined tree—usually begin fertilizing when it’s just hardening off it’s spring growth

This makes two assumptions:

  • For the young tree, you wish to develop the trunk size and continue it’s youthful vigor…to fatten trunk, develop branching, get big joyful growth, have loud cellular parties
  • For the old tree, you wish to retain an ‘old tree’ feeling…to have thin twigs, small leaves/needles, short internodes, fine ramification, and pianissimo afternoon teas

To give some kind of perspective to this, at Shinji Suzuki’s garden in Japan where I studied, we started fertilizing around May 15. That was when the spring shoots were just finishing elongation. About 90% of the trees were attended to this way; the other 10% were fertilized later or earlier according to purpose. Here in my yard in Portland, Oregon, I’ve only got a handful of trees that are developed enough to follow the May 15 rule, so my percentages are reversed. I have mostly undeveloped trees, so I’m seeking more trunk size, branch creation, big leaves, and/or massive budding—so I fertilize most trees with the start of growth in March.

Ok. Quiz: If we were to fertilize everything the same, strongly, starting early in the year, what would happen?

  • The young trees would stay forever young
  • The old, developed trees would become young again

And here’s another one to nibble on:

  • The older the tree, the more important fall fertilizing is

(Disclaimer: There are plenty of exceptions to everything I just said, which naturally makes blogging about bonsai a total disaster. For example: Black pine, forget all about the old tree stuff. You want to fertilize the pants off even old trees in the spring if you’re cutting candles. And if you’ve actually got a pine with pants on, you’ve got bigger problems.)

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This is a guest post by Ryan Neil. I am in full support of his words here:

Over the past fourteen months of research and planning the potential of the Artisans Cup has been a driving force in our bonsai community to grow and improve the level of our trees. The enthusiastic response of the entire western bonsai world fueled our ambition and helped shape and even evolve the Artisans Cup team’s own concept of the possibilities for such a show. The project was daunting from the beginning, but we’ve all grown learning just what it takes to put on an event of this scope and size, and to stay true to our vision of bringing bonsai into the public eye in a premier venue such as the Portland Art Museum.

We are truly grateful for the enthusiasm of the bonsai community and the encouragement you have all given over the past 14 months. And throughout the process and the many challenges we have encountered along the way, I find myself more motivated than ever to realize this exhibition. I believe I have been able to convey to so many folks around the country and the world that the Artisans Cup has the capacity to expand the awareness and level of bonsai in North America, to reach a new audience heretofore unaccustomed to experience living sculpture in the context of the Art Museum. Bonsai should be acknowledged as a vibrant and life affirming art form, rich in tradition but provocative and relevant to our contemporary culture.

However, despite my best efforts to accumulate a critical mass of backing to move our show forward, the state of the economy and the timing for such a show is still early. It’s clear that the Artisans Cup needs more time to gain momentum and support in the Pacific Northwest, as well as to raise the funds necessary within the bonsai community to make the show possible.

For once in my life I’m realizing the truth behind working smarter and not just harder. I see I will need the time to garner more support. As a result, we have made the decision to postpone the Artisans Cup until September 26th-28th, 2015.

Why delay the show, you ask? The overwhelming response to our proposal from the Portland business community has been very positive. Likewise the bonsai community has expressed its enthusiasm and anticipation for such an event. But because of continued uncertainties of where our economy will be even six months from now, most businesses can’t afford to commit funds at this point in time. We’ve also had to face a limited response from the North American bonsai community in the form of financial assistance. We need your help!

Why 2015? It’s no secret the Artisans Cup will be one of two major shows in North America, the other being the National Show in Rochester, NY. Through joint collaboration between the two exhibitions the hope is that there will be prominent venues for the highest level of bonsai achievement and presentation across the country. In order to honor our commitment and relationship with the National Show, the Artisans Cup will skip the 2014 season and come back stronger than ever in 2015.

What happens now? We keep pushing forward with our newly gained knowledge and experience. The learning curve was really steep to set up a show of this size and we have come amazingly far in such a short amount of time. However, there are more improvements to be made to fully do justice to the concept we have envisioned. We have one chance to do this the right way and the entire Artisans Cup team is fully committed to making sure the product we deliver to the public on such a large scale does justice to bonsai as an art.

What can you do? LOTS!!!

  1. Donate! As I mentioned before, we need your help! We have a strong, healthy, growing bonsai community in North America and this is an opportunity to take a major step in the advancement of our art form. Help us make that happen. There is a “donate” button on the Artisans Cup website (www.artisanscupofportland.com), or you can send a check to the Artisans Cup (PO Box 1121, St. Helens, OR 97051). For all the perks of donating, please check the website!
  2. Improve your bonsai and continue building the best show-able tree you possibly can. There are so many talented instructors teaching in North America, and so many resources for truly world-class material it’s time to make the commitment, take the plunge, and seize the opportunity. If you weren’t going to be ready to show a tree in 2013, now is your chance to get a tree ready for the Artisans Cup 2015!

The Artisans Cup is scheduled for September 26th-28th, 2015. Let’s all take this opportunity to utilize the momentum we’ve gained and the experience we’ve accumulated to take ourselves and our trees one step further in preparation to make an even more robust display of bonsai. We need your help, we need your trees, and we need your contributions! Together let’s make this show happen!

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Of course we’d been awaiting him forever… cheerful help coming from the heavens. Nick announced himself in the form of a random email that said, ‘Hey I’m 22 and I just moved to Portland from Arizona so I can learn more about bonsai.’ Sure, happens all the time. NO IT DOESN’T!

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Nick cutting errant shoots on a Japanese maple that I did not have time for, since I was muddling around with the website for the Portland Bonsai Village… of which he is a shining example. He’s been helping out at my place and Ryan Neil’s for the last month. Glad to see he was wearing a local brand, Nike, or of course I’d have booted him out on sight and told him to re-cloth. We’re a very particular and locally-loyal bunch, Portland Villagers. Of course, given the sheer size of Nick, I’d not have managed much of a booting. Oh well. If you are built like Nick you can wear whatever you want, I guess. Just be careful with that tree…

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We’d been planning it for years, this visit to Jim Gremel’s place. It finally happened after a few presentations in California last week. Here’s a few photos of my couple of days at Jim’s in beautiful Northern California, USA:

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Lots going on in Jim’s backyard—trees on posts, azaleas in the ground near them, bamboo in the back, redwoods in the distance-

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Jim is famous for getting the molecules in wire very excited, and then bringing them down into a disappointed state again. His annealed copper is softer than anything I’ve used in Japan. When Matt Reel was working in my studio last month he started laughing, saying ‘This stuff is like aluminum!’

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A few of Jim’s well-known and well-designed junipers—Kishu and Itoigawa—that he has trained since young whips.

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Although I was looking forward to long sleeps and nothing but ironic bonsai chatter for a day, Jim ended that daydream with this small juniper…

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This is the little guy after I fiddled with it for half a day. I think it was about 14″ tall- Grown by Jim for 17 years.

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Jim at the beach, during a ridiculously windy day that exhausted us after a few short minutes. Happily we had already absconded with some succulents and ferns on a rocky outcrop on the way there, so the day was not lost.

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James Bonsai Bond reclining with some soup-

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Jim’s massive studio being swallowed by luxurious foliage-

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The benches of trees recede into the distance…

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Wonderful bonsai prospects on the ground— large Sierra junipers waiting to be grafted-

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Jim’s well-regarded Green Atlas cedar that appeared in the National Show some years ago-

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Greenhouse full of recently repotted and grafted trees-

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Valentine, ‘Bali’, a highly skilled bonsai worker that I  tried several times to lure away from Jim, with no success.

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Latest firing in the studio kiln, many non-bons-

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I did catch a glimpse of a cloud on leaving, actually it looks like 1 1/2 clouds. Studio to the right. Redwoods, left. Thanks Jim! Great visit. Still upset I could not steal Bali, but I’ll recover eventually.

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Silly fun with Ingo Klemmend and Ivo Druge at Bonsai Zentrum, Germany. Ingo owns Bonsai Zentrum with his father, Wolfgang, and Ivo is one of the brains behind the beautiful German magazine Bonsai Art.

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Wandering around Bonsai Zentrum-

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Teaching a workshop in Germany using… interpretive dance…?

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A favorite Mexican restaurant of Portland students-

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The Portland Bonsai Village passport on its trip through Holland…

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Treating juniper deadwood last summer-

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What a shoe-free home looks like when Seasonal Students (‘SeaStudents’) drop in-

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Greg Brenden and I on our first Portland Bonsai Village ‘organizational dinner’, which ended up as an outrageously transparent excuse to treat ourselves to some good food-

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Under a shelter waiting for the light rail to the Portland airport-

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Quirky small Shore pine collected last fall, now growing buds-

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Nice client tree, Japanese White pine-

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Map of European trip, not showing a very brief stop in the Czech Republic–

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Fall color in my bonsai yard-

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Cool bamboo bike in Portland-

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My artist friends Pigment, Print, and Photo (named after their media) at our first, and sadly only, brunch meeting. Guys, we are a sorry lot for not doing this since last summer!

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The ‘Bison Bank’, courtesy of Greg Brenden’s whimsical brain. It’s only 1/64 filled with coins so far.

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Lovely antique chinese pot-

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Vine maple tower, in an early phase, planning out the adventure with a sharpie pen-

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Eileen with her larch at a Portland Study Group-

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Joanne at a Portland Study Group (and Greg, peeking around the door)-

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Jorge with a hornbeam project-

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Cowpie blooming this spring-

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Gary Wood at Telperion Farms working on a young rascal-

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Gravel moving day in my backyard with Jorge, Troy, and Ed-

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My friend Chris with Ruri, looking at her climbing wood-fired kiln-

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Amsterdam-

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Vine maple tower-

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Troy with a massive pomegranite-

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Noelander’s Trophy in January-

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Prague, a shot very late in the day. My camera invented light that was not there-

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The John Lennon wall in Prague-

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Olympic National Rain Forest-

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Curious stairs in Prague-

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Opera house in Vienna-

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Ray watering in my backyard-

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Wacky light show in a church, Vienna-

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My opera-singer aunt, Elizabeth Hagedorn, entering a rather glitzy elevator, Vienna-

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Konnor and a lime sulfuring project-

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Stair moss (I think), Olympic National Rain Forest-

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Hemlock clump (to be featured later…)

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Photo shoot for German bonsai magazine Bonsai Art, with translator Heike von Gunst. This looks weirdly like a posed shot, but wasn’t. Tree is a larch. Another future post-

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Sharing rice pudding recipe with complete stranger-

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Spring Watering Tips—

Once again let’s wade into the deep waters of writing about the basics of bonsai. This time, watering. Of course, there are many methods of watering…

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This method seems a bit erratic. Watering bonsai should be more uniform, with the timing less related to our own needs. The rule of thumb we are taught is that we want to wait until the soil dries out a bit before watering again. And in rough strokes, this is accurate.

But let’s refine that idea a bit. To start with, those trees we’ve recently repotted:

  • A tree you’ve repotted that has a dense root mass—such as a well-established bonsai—will likely dry out very rapidly. Keep a careful eye on the interior, that solid root mass that you put back in the pot (which should be showing a little bit on the surface, so you can see it). You may end up watering those very often.
  • When we repot a tree with a sparse root system, you’ll notice that it tends to take a while to dry out. A tree with only a few roots may not establish very well if we’re watering very frequently, with the same cycle as those above. You might want to wait a bit longer to water these trees—and how much longer is what skill with watering is all about.

Sometimes ‘wait a bit longer’ means waiting a few hours longer. Sometimes it’s waiting a few days longer. That’s the part we can’t talk about online, that part has to be learned in person.

Be very alert to a tree that suddenly needs very little water. If the soil stays wet it maybe one of several things:

  1. You may have a tree that’s simply stopped it’s spring growth cycle, and you’ll find that you’ll water about half as often. This is normal.
  2. Another situation with wet soil is a tree that has a drainage problem—some containers need extra holes drilled for good drainage; others need to be tipped so that excess water drains out and to help the tree establish after repotting.
  3. You may have a tree with a root problem if the soil stays wet. The way we get root rot is if it dries out completely having missed a few waterings, killing some roots, then it’s watered frequently—this makes the dead roots rot.
  4. Look up to see if it’s raining.
  5. Make sure your kid has his shorts on.

When we do water a healthy tree, pass over it with water at least twice. Deeper containers and more compacted root systems may need a third or fourth pass before it’s soaked.

There are many goals to watering, and many things to keep a look out for—we water differently according to health, training goals, the species, the specimen, the season, the soil—and that’s where words again begin to fail us, and learning on site is best.

Weak trees with very poor root systems need extra care. Greenhouse the tree if possible, make sure the soil is not soggy, and don’t soak these trees when watering. Keep it lightly damp. Mist the foliage. And explain to your child that you’re handling the watering. He’ll think you’re very cool.

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I’ll find any excuse to share photos of Chojubai!

A few of these photos are of older trees blooming in my yard this spring, in their new antique pots. (Love that oxymoron, ‘new antique’—new to me, but also old to me and everyone else). I’ve also included photos of younger plants I’m growing.

‘Chojubai’ is the cultivar name for a dwarf form of Japanese Flowering quince. Because of the scarcity of Chojubai bonsai in the United States, and because I enjoy working with them, a few years ago I started growing them in some volume. Even though the ability to develop woody plants is nearly unparalleled in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, it’ll still take me about 8 years to make a product I’m happy with, ready for a bonsai pot. In the meantime I’ll share a few of the Chojubai I’ve got going here, in various stages.

To date, pots with Chojubai outnumber all other plants combined in my yard… although I’d NEVER admit to any favoritism. Really, they just multiply whenever I turn around, I have nothing to do with it. Randy critters. I think they need a lecture on safe propagation. Until I do that, I’ll keep potting up the newcomers.

For more about Chojubai including some famous trees from Japan, see my earlier post Diminutive Jewels.

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12″ H, 22″ W. One of the older Chojubai I have. This one seems to start growing a bit later than others and only flowers once a year, but has great bark. In a pot that is not antique but maybe 40 years old, and must have been used for at least 39 of those years as it has a lovely patina developing on its surface, softly greying the cream glaze.

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10″ H. This modest-sized tree is in a nakawatari Chinese shirokouchi, which is fancy bonsai lingo for: The pot came from China about 150 years ago and has a cream glaze. Pot supplied by Maestro Matt Reel.

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16″ H. Although about as old as the first one, maybe 40 years, this tree doesn’t have quite as good bark, but it grows more vigorously and blooms 2-3 times a year. Bark is related to age, but more significantly for Chojubai, it’s related to genetics. So if we’ve got a young plant and don’t know where it came from, we won’t know when or if it will develop that wonderfully craggy, checked bark that adds so much to their beauty in the winter. One 25-year-old plant I have still has none of that characteristic bark.

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11″ H. This Chojubai was grown by Anne Spencer since 1990 from a three year old plant. Container by Sara Rayner. Anne was meticulous in her notes, and they read: “Purchased at GSBF convention from Roy Nagatoshi. Is cutting from original plant near Nagatoshi’s nursery, originally from Japan. $7.50–3 yr. cutting. Planted into garden for winter.” This little tree blooms a couple times a year. We all miss Anne.

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20″ wide. This rascal has been growing in my yard for a couple of years, bought as a 6-7 year old plant from Telperion Farms. Blooms several times a year, if I let it. Which I don’t.

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More rascals in the back-forty, also originally from Telperion Farms a couple years ago.

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A rascal-to-be. Cuttings taken last year from the old multiple-trunk tree on this post, the first photo. Love the bark on that tree! Some of these cuttings were trying to bloom less than a year from growing roots. I don’t make this stuff up! They’re crazy plants.

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Tips for Repotting-

Many of you are deep in the thicket of repotting, which I know can be one of those puzzling puzzles. This is just a short post on what I think are some of the big ones to not forget:

1. Don’t have your tree TOO dry before repotting. Although a bit easier for us, we would have a dehydrated tree just before cutting off many of its feeder roots—which ends up as a lose-lose bargain. Better to have it too wet than too dry.

2. As a general rule, don’t bare-root your trees. That’s for specialists doing special work and try your best to ignore the Japanese magazines showing someone boldly bare-rooting a 100 year old pine, or some silly blog like Crataegus Bonsai showing hosing of a deciduous tree. Bare-rooting probably kills more things than all others combined, so without the attending techniques, I would say don’t do it unless you’ve been taught how to, and which ones it’s ok to bare-root and which ones you should never do that way. Bare rooting is extreme, for extreme circumstances.

3. Sing while you work. Or at least put on some calming music, as repotting tense does not help us or the trees. (Singing is the primary job of apprentices, by the way. Evenings are usually taken up by long singing lessons, as to not dishearten anyone overly with poor vocals.)

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4. Don’t refer to your repotting log to determine when the tree was repotted last and when next it should be repotted; refer to the tree. If a sharp chopstick won’t enter the soil easily in several places, it probably needs repotting. A weak tree for whatever reason might take three times as long to fill a pot with roots as a heathy strong one. Time is irrelevant.

5. Don’t cut too much root off a young tree or you can stall it’s momentum. And when repotting young trees in general, don’t cut the top much the year you repot.

6. Bamboo is your best friend. Drive shafts into very firm root balls for anchoring wires, or for bracing trees with really bad root systems. Get timber bamboo with walls about 1/3″ thick, and split it. You can see how bamboo is used in several places on this blog.

7. Have a REASON for repotting. If you’re just going through the motions because it’s what you always do at this time of year, well, rethink that one. Assess each tree and its needs. If you don’t know how to answer that, then find a teacher. No Star Trekking through your tree’s root systems, bolding going where no one has gone before…without a clue. Get clueified. Really. Repotting is like open heart surgery; we’re dealing with a tree’s life here.

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February ended with a great Seasonal group comprised mostly of new students—three newcomers, one returnee. Thanks Andrew, Dan, Steve, and John (our veteran) for a fantastic and productive three days. And thanks too for taking such great photos! Many of these I did not take, yet found on my camera-

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The one shot I found of everyone: A sliver of Andrew, John, Steve in the background, and most of Dan.

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Old trees…

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…and young ones.

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Steve and Andrew tackling the root mass of this Japanese maple.

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This maple is the sister tree of the one I had in the last post, air-layered about six years ago from a sweet spindly thing I bought after coming back from Japan. I got it at Wee Tree, I think.

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Levitated bonsai. (Enjoy,Greg-)

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John noodling a Trident, giving it a strong suggestion to have a better nebari. Seedlings to be threaded on the table.

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Dan excavating part of a Limber pine’s root system.

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Our bronze mascot crab—as yet unnamed—who wanders around and shows up in random photos. Crustacean courtesy of Matt Reel.

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Rather wretched ‘potting soil’ discovered at the back of this spruce, so it was partially bare-rooted. The opposite side was in akadama/pumice set in place a couple years ago and was untouched.

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Dan- are you a professional photographer or what? Loved this one. (Think it was Dan with the camera this time…?)

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Steve and I chopsticking. To anyone who does not do bonsai, that does not mean we’re fencing with chopsticks. Read: ‘Settling soil between roots’. With chopsticks.

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Gotta love rawhide mallets.

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It’s such fun photographing photographers. Why?

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Exit with spruce-
Thanks SeaStudents! Great times-

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