Last of Winter Work-

Early February is the cusp of repotting where I live (Pacific Northwest, Zone 8b). And that means we’re also at the end of wiring, for now.

At this time invasive wiring with heavy bending is put on pause. Light rewiring, like the example below, may be done nearly any day of the year.

Now when the trees wake up and start root growth is a good time to pause our wiring, and focus on repotting.

Here’s a Shore Pine oddball that we enjoy attaching to the shade cloth structure in the warm months, where it hangs like an orchid. This is before taking old needles off.

Old needles are removed to set it up for rewiring. Some second year needles were left.

And wired. All wires are in the 14-20 gauge range, so these are small adjustments. This is the only type of wiring I’d do now, right before repotting. Show wiring, essentially.

We’re constructing a metal support for display, so we’ll revisit this pine later this year.

February 2022 Bulletin Board:

—Looking for a copy of Bonsai Heresy? We are doing a reprint! And like many others trying to print books right now there are slowdowns… Please keep tabs with Stone Lantern for the latest.