When weather cooperates, the fall color can be pretty special. Sunny days, low wind, and plenty of water is a great combination for bright leaves in November here. Last year we had an early freeze, and all the leaves were zapped around 11/1. We’re well past that now, and the colors are getting impressive.
A couple more “formal” displays of fall color:
Have a great Thanksgiving, to our US readers. New posts in a couple weeks.
Here is a shot before the work. I started this as an air-layer about 10 years ago, and it has been mostly container-grown. It has a decent nebari developing under the soil which will have the characteristic ‘arakawa’ bark as it becomes exposed over time.
Close up
Removed leaves
Closer up
Branch grown and shaped for thread-grafting
To fill in this space, just under the cut scar and above where it originates from the trunk:
On to the pruning…heavy, long internodes, and those pointing up need to go:
Another example, before:
After:
This one looks pretty good, evenly balanced, tertiary branches emerging in pairs, laterally:
A branch terminating in 3 shoots, prune down to an acute pair, emerging side-by-side:
Crossing branches need to go, especially those which are heavy and pointing straight up. These are the strong shoots that will run long, and overshadow the rest of the tree, and weaken the branches around them.
Finished for now.
A comparison from winter 2019 to late fall 2020, one year of work:
The pot? Older Yozan with the kiln’s iconic red clay.
Well, thanks to tropical storm Zeta, not many leaves were left for a fall show this year, so I decided to take a minute and defoliate the tree so I could get in and prune it back.
Defoliated:
Shorten long shoots down to an outward-facing bud:
And:
This year, not much was removed:
Next up, remove the moss:
Finished:
