Summer Olive Blow Out and Clean Up

This time of year, I pay considerable attention to the olives in my collection. I have let them blow out their aggressive growth twice this year; Spring and Summer. The pushes of growth generate a huge amount of leaves and long spikes of growth that strengthen the tree. I even reworked a small olive I had in show recently after my teacher indicated it needed more refinement.

Olives that are not cleaned out this time of year suffer from white fly and scale infestations. Since I have cleaned them already once this year, I saw not signs of white fly for a change and only a few California scale which I kill with some alcohol and a cotton swab after removing the carapace.

First up is the olive shohin:

This is how the tree was in the show before refinement. Too many strong upward branches.

After restyling. Notice the lack of foliage now and how open it the tree is. Some of the strong branches were considerably reduced. The new growth will be smaller and denser.

Now the next tree is a clump I have been refining for far to many years.

I let this tree push hard this summer and it filled in. This was to strengthen smaller branches and develop some ramification.

The clump after cleaning and wiring. That made a big difference and the clump is starting to get an interesting form. I want the internal branches to develop and ramify and keep the top shorter now. This will develop nicely going into the late summer months.

The next tree is a Seikei. The primary stone adds to the composition to create a trunk. There are actually two trees behind the stone. It has been in show many times in various states but is maturing now and having more character.