Author: Brian VF

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.

Tropical Update

In 2014, I received this old ficus from a family member who had done bonsai for 50 years, and this was supposedly his first tree. With no desire to own a tropical tree, and yet some obligation to continue the care for this tree, I decided to use the best and trash the rest. That’s the lesson today.

As received, about 25” tall, in poor health and leggy, but with a large, salvageable base, the best part.
The rest is history.
This is what I restarted with. August 2014.
August 2020, 6 years later and it has earned a spot on the bench.

If you have a tree with trouble spots, can they be removed, and when the tree is stripped back to the best parts, can it be started again and redeemed in a few years?

Shohin Shimpaku summer cleanup

Before:

Foliage cleaned up, undersides and dense areas only:

Soji, cleaning up the soil and adding a fresh top layer to get it through the rest of summer:

Work completed for now.

The pot is by Shinobu, an award-winning Shohin pot maker whose work is regularly featured at the Gafu-ten exhibition each winter in Japan. I think it’s a fantastic fit.

Incidentally, this composition is 5 years along from an air layer.

Summer ‘Soji’

Soji is the term for cleaning up, and in this context, cleaning up the surface of the soil. Oxalis grows like crazy, as does Irish moss (Sagina subulata), and once it takes hold, it is a pain to eradicate during the growing season. These two weeds are my sworn enemy.

Irish moss circled above.

It is important to remove weeds to allow for good watering and air exchange. Irish moss, in particular, keeps the soil wet.

This azalea has gone several years since the last repotting, and the oxalis spreads like wildfire in the off years. During repotting, it is possible to distinguish the tree’s roots from the white rhizomes that support the oxalis rampant growth.

First step is to pull the moss, and get as much of the oxalis runners and rhizomes as possible. I use a root hook and tweezers.

Then, I use a hose blast to get rid is some of the mud…

…and use opportunity to remove some of the oxalis rhizomes.

Then fill in with some recycled soil until I can do a proper repot next spring.

Next up, JBP

See the velvety tufts of moss on the far left side? That’s the early growth stage of Irish moss. It’s really pretty at this stage, but it gets nasty when it grows.

Using tweezers and a root hook, the moss and top 1/2″ of soil is removed. I also remove the moss growing up the trunk.

One of my favorite details about this tree is the nebari starting to age on the left side. Over time, I’m hopeful the right side will develop as well.

Moss and crusty top layer removed:

And filled with some new soil…