I'm pretty new to bonsai, I tried some trees years ago, but didn't really know what I was doing at all, and they died over winter one year. I just became interested again last summer.
This is my CO blue spruce, still buried in the vegetable garden for the winter. I picked it up cheap at a nursery last summer for $10. It looks pretty sad right now.
This is what it looked like when I bought it, and a close up of the trunk and where I planned to cut it at the time:
I waited until fall to cut it. I picked the tree because it was cheap and had nice bark, but I didn't know anything about spruce when I got it. I realize now that they don't like to have much work done and shouldn't have more than 50% of foliage removed at one time, and need a growing season to recover from anything major. Just lopping off that top section was more than 50% of its foliage, so I didn't dare do anything more with it.
I'm kind of unsure what to do with this tree. I left that thick knob of the old trunk on and I know it needs to be carved down, but I'm thinking that should wait until next fall or winter.
In a few weeks, I will dig it out and remove loose soil and try to get it into a pond basket without barerooting. After that, from what I've read, it should get a good 6 months to recover and then I can do some work on it in fall if it's healthy.
This is my CO blue spruce, still buried in the vegetable garden for the winter. I picked it up cheap at a nursery last summer for $10. It looks pretty sad right now.
This is what it looked like when I bought it, and a close up of the trunk and where I planned to cut it at the time:
I waited until fall to cut it. I picked the tree because it was cheap and had nice bark, but I didn't know anything about spruce when I got it. I realize now that they don't like to have much work done and shouldn't have more than 50% of foliage removed at one time, and need a growing season to recover from anything major. Just lopping off that top section was more than 50% of its foliage, so I didn't dare do anything more with it.
I'm kind of unsure what to do with this tree. I left that thick knob of the old trunk on and I know it needs to be carved down, but I'm thinking that should wait until next fall or winter.
In a few weeks, I will dig it out and remove loose soil and try to get it into a pond basket without barerooting. After that, from what I've read, it should get a good 6 months to recover and then I can do some work on it in fall if it's healthy.