Good day for bonsai.

The sun is shining, temps are 53 to 79*F, holiday for me so I stayed in the backyard pretty much until now.

Repotted a Flowering Pear from Home Depot, chopped and repotted (from nursery pot) a crab apple, and worked on a new Hollywood/Torulosa/Kaizuka Juniper that my wife bought for me for Valentines.

It is an 8 foot tall topiary in 10 gallon pot with nice "bones". I slowly lowered the soil level by about 2.5" removing lots of fine roots and four 1/2" big roots. I am glad I did, it was hiding a nice trunk and potentially much nicer nebari. I decided to stop and let it get exposed slowly as I water the plant.

Just when I thought I am done...I decided to apply 11 grafts on it using small cutting I collected from my tiny Shimpaku. I hope some of them take. Grafting was the plan to begin with (being a topiary it is a perfect candidate, no foliage near the trunk and very open). I just didn't know I will do it this soon.

I was having so much fun...I didn't notice it is almost 3pm...and I skipped lunch!

No pics yet...will take some later today if I find time since I am off in a few minutes to run some errands.

Hope some of you are having same "fun".

Would love to see what the flowering pear looks like now.

aphid said:

Would love to see what the flowering pear looks like now.

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I will snap a pic of it also. But note it is just a stump now since I chopped it from 8 feet or so.

Awesome you are able to "enjoy" and "play" - we are getting a few more inches of snow here tonight so most everything is on hold except for some Azaleas that are small but in a huge bloom indoors right now. Even though I have plenty of home renovation to do I am probably going to separate the four and pot them this week and start the design The old man needs a break and I think that will do it as well as a Dinner "Out" to break up cabin fever here

Grimmy

The Bradford Flowering Pear. It is grafted but it has sprouts below the graft so I kept them (for now-as security). If it doesn't sprout above the graft, then I will keep these. It has a nice nebari though not shown much right now. Not bad for $16 Home Depot find. IMHO

Another recently re-chopped and repotted boxwood that I purchased at Lowe's last year.

My Crape Myrtle. This is about 12 feet IIRC when I purchased it last year. Chopped and then re-chopped because I wasn't happy (still too tall). All branches shown were grown after August last year. This will be grafted with smaller leaf variety eventually once the branches are in the right proportion with the trunk.

A Prairie Fire Crabapple that got chopped and repotted recently.

And the Hollywood/Kaizuka/Torulosa juniper valentines day gift from my wife.

The soil is 2.5" lower now than it was and the 11 grafts are just random. Not sure if I will use or need them all but decided to just put them there knowing that some may be chopped off eventually once I decided on a design goal. Hope they take.

Another tree I repotted recently (about 2 weeks ago)...a buttonwood I am training for less than 2 years from a stump. First pic was taken April 16, 2012. Second is today which is almost same as November last year since it hardly did anything this winter.

It is coming along I believe.

GrimLore said:

Awesome you are able to "enjoy" and "play" - we are getting a few more inches of snow here tonight so most everything is on hold except for some Azaleas that are small but in a huge bloom indoors right now. Even though I have plenty of home renovation to do I am probably going to separate the four and pot them this week and start the design The old man needs a break and I think that will do it as well as a Dinner "Out" to break up cabin fever here

Grimmy

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We are getting a few inches tomorrow after it is done with you.

No biggies for me. It is still sleepy time for the trees and I can get some rest and relaxation too before the busy spring and summer season starts.
One day at a time, May will be here soon enough.

Poink88 said:

Another recently re-chopped and repotted boxwood that I purchased at Lowe's last year.

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I have never seen a boxwood with that big of a trunk at any nursery, much less lowes. Nice find. I guess lowes sells bigger stuff in Austin.

jkd2572 said:

I have never seen a boxwood with that big of a trunk at any nursery, much less lowes. Nice find. I guess lowes sells bigger stuff in Austin.

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This was on sale (25% off) when I found it so it must be there for a while. Few months later a similar one was further reduced to 50%. I passed since I already have lots of Boxwood.

BTW, it is the same store where I bought my Olive.

Trees look cool,keep up the good work!

Nice boxwood score. Buttonwood looks like it is taking shape nicely too.

Dario, on the Bradford Pear the sprouts below the graft will be whatever the rootstock is and not the Bradford. I guess it won't matter much as long as its some type of pear?

ed

Buttonwood looks awesome Dario. Prob best I have seen in your collection. I too have been repotting and conducting spring work here. Maple bonsai buds are swelling and our native maples are already leafing out. Much the same weather with temps around 50-75. Repotted ten trees including some very root bound 10 gal azaleas(serious pain in the a), junipers, maples. Worked on my sole boxwood that I am following your procedures on. Took it way back. Hopefully not too far. Cheers and good luck to another growing season.

edprocoat said:

Dario, on the Bradford Pear the sprouts below the graft will be whatever the rootstock is and not the Bradford. I guess it won't matter much as long as its some type of pear?

ed

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Ed, I read about it some and the usual root stock used is Pyrus calleryana aka Callery pear. Bradford is a sub-specie of Callery so hopefully, the flower & leaves won't be too far off. I plan on keeping the lower branches and see if the flower is similar. If it is (and I strongly believe so), I will just re-chop below the graft.

drew33998 said:

Buttonwood looks awesome Dario. Prob best I have seen in your collection. I too have been repotting and conducting spring work here. Maple bonsai buds are swelling and our native maples are already leafing out. Much the same weather with temps around 50-75. Repotted ten trees including some very root bound 10 gal azaleas(serious pain in the a), junipers, maples. Worked on my sole boxwood that I am following your procedures on. Took it way back. Hopefully not too far. Cheers and good luck to another growing season.

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Thanks. The pic didn't do the buttonwood justice...especially the branches. I like the initial structure I managed to create on it...just need to thicken them now.

Good luck with your boxwood. I bought an azalea before for its flower and attempted reducing the root ball. It was like a matted fur ball! If I do it again, I will treat the initial root reduction like I would a Juniper now and do it by "pie slices" over a few years.

Dario very nice trees.
Fatten the leader some more...I am jealous!