By On the last day of February, I spent the morning repotting some trees. This has been a fun month with work for a client on some old trees and then on my own collection working on shohin and experimental trees.
A few years ago, I purchased a 3 Peruvian Rain plants from Calaveras Nursery. Two of them I have been working differently as I did not have any experience of them as a bonsai. The first one, I did a hard repot on to remove all the tangled root mass and potting soil. It has thrived and bloomed well last year as well as creating new branches. The second larger plant was a non-invasive repotting. In the two years growing, I noticed it was becoming root bound and coming through the bottom of the pot. It was time to repot this plant like I did the other one.
Roots were tight and soil was well used up. I was not afraid to remove the organic soil and reduce the roots. My goal for this tree was to get it planted deeper to develop a better nebari. I am looking forward to this tree creating better branches. Copper wire overheats and kill the branches here so I need to be careful not to wire too tight.
Earlier this month I worked on a Needle Juniper and a California Juniper for a client. Both were hard repots because it had been many years since they were last done. I know these trees are going to grow like gangbusters this year.
I repotted a heart ivy and Geranium which will have black flowers. They are placed in accent pots for displays. I will be showing them later as they settle in.
Be safe out there!
artsofjc 