Just a quick update on the Japanese flowering quince, ‘Chojubai’. These are very small plants, but vigorous growers. Mine flower from September through about April, so there is always something of interest…to viewers and to aphids…
As purchased in 2 3/4″ pot from Evergreen Gardenworks, April 2013:
I think this one is on the right, being grown as a single trunk, and is about 4″ tall, in a oversized Bigei pot:
And maybe slated for this beautiful blue Tofukuji pot at some point.
Which would make this the one from the left, 7 growing seasons later…all in a pot:
The orange leaves and red flowers look great atop the aqua pot by Byron Myrick. With the leaves removed:
The bark is starting to develop, and winter is a great time to examine the trees’ progress, and look for problems as well.
See the aphids clustered around the base of the buds too? Time to hit everything with a winter pest control program!
I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.
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Nebari Bonsai 
Reblogged this on Wolf's Birding and Bonsai Blog.