This was air-layered about 4 years ago, and has been wired out for the last 2. It’s growing strong, and it’s time to get the wires off, prune to back a little, and clean up the dead wood.
Before:
Wires removed:
Pruned back, about 1/3 of the foliage removed. Sucker growth, strong tips, and weak growth was all removed:
Finally, trunks scrubbed up and deadwood treated with lime-sulfur:
Should be all set for the rest of the growing season. Pot? Shinobu.
This is a sargentii from Evergreen Gardenworks. It’s an older tree, by Brent’s description, but new to me in late 2016. It came in a 1-gallon can:
It took significant root reduction to get the tree into a Bonsai pot; this one a gift from Roy Minarai:
Unfortunately, I let it go a few hours too long between watering and it dried out in June 2017:
It was pruned back in the early spring 2018, before and after:
Repotted again in March 2018:
It bloomed for the first time in my care in April 2018:
And it grew fairly erratically, but very strongly, and even bloomed again in June 2018. I decided it was strong enough to prune some of the coarse branches back which should help define the nice taper and movement of the trunk.
Brace yourself…
As the new shoots extended, the best-located ones were coaxed into position and given some movement with a little wire.
And a month later, it’s starting to take shape…
In early July, this tree’s primary branches were wired. Interestingly, since they were wired up and out, so each had a place in the sunshine, the tree responded with rapid growth. In about 3 weeks, it became necessary to remove the wires.
Branch selection:
Wired on 7/14:
3 weeks later:
Wires removed, and the primary branches were shortened…significantly:
We should have enough growing season remaining to make 2 more rounds of growing and clipping…
