Facing My Fears

Spring is my favourite time of the year. I loving seeing my trees coming out of dormancy and being transformed into a sea of green, with lots of fresh young leaves free from the blemishes that our summer hailstorms will eventually create.

But it's also a time I fear because I've never become totally comfortable when it comes to repotting trees - especially not when it comes to downsizing from a training pot to a proper bonsai pot. I think a part of that stems from a workshop I attended early in my bonsai days.

One of our club members brought along a tree which was in serious trouble. One side looked reasonably healthy but the other side was dying. On close inspection it was discovered that the trouble came from the roots. There was a large air pocket in the soil which prevented some of the roots from getting the moisture they required. I'm not sure what became of that tree but it's haunted me ever since.

I had big plans for this spring though, but things haven't quite gone to plan. August (still officially winter) got off to a really warm start and around the middle of the month I pruned this newly acquired nursery tree and moved it from its black bag into a training pot.

Ligustrum Ibota - August 2017

It's slowly showing signs of new growth but most of the new buds aren't where I hoped they'd be. In fact the thin branch on the left now has no foliage at all and I fear I may lose it. But more about this tree in another post - when I have something to work with. For now I'm playing a waiting game.

Shortly after I potted this tree we were hit by a cold snap, so I decided to wait for the weather to warm up a bit before I continued my repotting efforts.

And then, just as the weather warmed up again, our landline and internet connection suddenly stopped working.

Okay, I hear you thinking, loss of technology should be the perfect opportunity to give my trees my full attention. But no, as I battled to get the problem fixed, I seemed to be constantly sitting at home waiting for repairmen who never arrived. I was afraid to get my hands dirty in case the doorbell rang at an inopportune moment. And every time the problem was fixed, I found myself playing catch-up with my online activities, so I still had little time for my trees. As a result, to date I've only managed to repot a handful of trees and, with most of my deciduous trees now covered in leaves, I fear many of those I'd planned to work on will be remaining in the same soil for another year.

One of the trees that topped my list of priorities however was one of my favourites - a little Ficus Natalensis which has appeared in several of my earlier posts. As I want to display this one at our club's annual show in mid-October it was essential that I get it into a bonsai pot as soon as possible. So a few days ago I finally plucked up the courage to move it.

Ficus Natalensis in training pot - September 2017

For the most part I'm fairly comfortable doing root work on ficuses, but once I got started on this one I became really nervous at the realisation of just how much root I had to remove before I could squeeze it into its tiny new home. And when I thought I was done it didn't look right. The tree wasn't quite straight in the pot and it seemed to be leaning slightly backwards. So I removed it from the pot and started over. It was only at the end of my second attempt that I realised it was sitting too high in the pot, so out it came once more. Getting it to the right level required yet more root pruning and I'm a bit concerned about some of the cuts I made.

While working on it I also removed most of the foliage in the hope of encouraging it to produce nice small leaves for the show.

Ficus Natalensis in bonsai pot - one day later

Since this photo was taken some of the remaining leaves have turned yellow and dropped off but thankfully the new buds are still looking healthy. Still, I won't be comfortable until it shows signs of new growth. Hopefully my concerns will prove to be unfounded, but it's in my nature to worry.