Signs of Life

It's been almost a year since I published my last blog post. The pandemic has been bad for my motivation and my blog hasn't been the only thing I've been neglecting. My trees have suffered too. For 5 months, while shut up at home, I did little more than what was required to keep them alive. Then, as lockdown regulations were eased, I started going to those workshops that were available.

Sometime over the last few months I came to the realisation that, more than growing bonsai, I've been hoarding trees. To a large extent that was true even before the pandemic. Yes, I'd been trying to reduce the size of my collection, but I hadn't been trying hard enough. Now I'm trying a bit harder. But that's not so easy when new waves lead to meetings being cancelled. Figures are low right now, so we're able to meet but as winter approaches, there's the risk of a third wave with more meetings likely to be cancelled.

With that in mind priority number one is to reduce a lot of the trees I'm keeping to a more manageable size so that it's not so difficult to keep the sensitive ones protected during the cold nights ahead. And every branch I remove brings temptation, so priority number two is not to propagate any more trees for the foreseeable future.

There's a tree hiding inside that mess

When I visit my various online bonsai groups lately I see everyone's trees getting tons of love during lockdown. Sadly mine aren't among them.

For me the social side of belonging to a bonsai club has always been almost as important as the trees themselves, and now that club meetings have been removed from my life for the foreseeable future, I'm struggling for motivation. So much so that, aside from watering my trees and providing winter protection where necessary, I've done very little work on them over the last few weeks. It's much easier to go online and read about other people's trees.

That's not okay though. It's time to get back to work.

I finally made an attempt with my Ficus Salicaria (willow leaf Ficus).

More weeds than tree - May 2020

Poor little thing has been seriously neglected. Can you even see that there's an almost decent tree hiding inside that mess?

After a little time spent pulling weeds, here it is.

Sadly it hasn't changed very much since I last wrote about it in August 2018. That's what happens when you have too many trees and don't give them the attention they deserve!

It needs a proper pruning, but first I'm planning to give it a little time to recover from the shock of my digging around in the soil. That disturbance isn't ideal as we're headed into winter, but it had to be done.

I also need a little time to think about my next move.

I'm pretty sure I'll be bringing the height down though - probably to the thickest branch growing upwards on the left side of the tree. Maybe in time I'll go even lower because I like my trees short and fat.

But for now there's a lot of other work to be done. I've got many trees with similar weeds that need to be removed.

The Second Ficus

Yesterday's post was all about the first of my two neglected ficuses, a tree which had benefited greatly from the development of a vigorous and totally unplanned sacrifice branch.

At the time I had not yet done anything to its sibling aside from removing a few dead branches. I've just finished working on that one - it received much harsher treatment than yesterday's tree because the trunk was long and straight with very little taper.

Ficus Natalensis - March 2019

I started by removing the top section, which left potential for something approximating a formal upright tree:

I contemplated stopping there. However I'm trying to focus on short fat trees rather than tall skinny ones, so I knew I wouldn't be happy with that in the long term.

In the end I stuck to my original plan and cut to the lowest branch, leaving what is currently a very ugly tree.

March 2019 - after the chop

No point in wiring that branch because I don't plan to use it as a leader. It's just a sacrifice branch which will be removed along with approximately half the trunk once I get growth where I really want it.

Both trees - March 2019

I can't wait to see what these trees look like a year from now.

The Benefit of Neglect

I hate to admit that the last time I worked on my two neglected ficuses was when I repotted them in November 2015. Because of time constraints only one ever made it into my previous blog post and once again that's the only one I've had time to work on so far. Coincidentally, for the moment it's the better tree.

In November 2015 that tree looked like this:

Ficus Natalensis - November 2015

A few sharp bends and hardly any taper!

Although my neglect means that the trees are no closer to being bonsai than they were three years ago, the move to bigger pots has allowed them to grow big and tall and their trunks have fattened up considerably. Unfortunately the top growth has blocked light from the lower part of the trees and as a result, both have lost some lower branches. The tree above also developed a massive low branch which grew upwards, reaching a height  twice that of the intended apex.

Same tree - March 2019

Under the circumstances I found myself having to treat it as nursery stock when I took it to a workshop on Saturday afternoon.

First I had to get both trees out of the greenhouse though, and that proved to be quite a mission as once again one had sent a root into the other one's pot and both had also sent roots through the slats of the shelf they were living on. To complicated matters further, the neighbouring orchid (a gift which I tend to ignore) had sent roots into both pots. That meant there were quite a lot of roots that had to be cut before I could move the trees.

Once at the workshop the first step was to remove that huge branch.

After removing the huge branch

The tree was already looking better but it was rather top heavy, with a leader growing in the wrong direction. The club member I was working with recommended I cut back to a new leader, advice I was happy to follow, as I'd already said in 2015 that "At a later stage I might reduce the height further".

March 2019 - after pruning

As it's still in the same pot, the change in the thickness of the trunk is pretty obvious.

I've left all the aerial roots for now as we're headed into winter. I'll decide whether to keep any of them when I repot the tree in spring - as long as I don't forget!!

As for the second tree, it looked like this when I removed it from the greenhouse:

Second tree - March 2019

I've removed a few dead branches so far and plan to cut it back to the lowest living branch, then wait for back budding before cutting in to a more suitable height. I'd like to make a short, fat little tree from this one.

My First Carving Attempt

When I bought my crab apple a few years ago it was about seven foot tall with no low branches, so it's taken a bit of effort to get it to where it is now.

January 2019 - before pruning

A lot of the tree had to be discarded at the time because repotting was a matter of urgency when I bought it, but there was enough left to allow me to do an air layer before I started developing this, the parent tree.

I'm ashamed to admit that since the air layer was removed, however, I've largely ignored both trees. That created a problem with this one because the top branch on the left was thicker than the lower branches and apex. I had to change something.

Two options presented themselves :

1. change the planting angle and turn the thick branch into the new leader
2. remove that branch

I opted for the latter.

January 2019 - after pruning

After the branch was removed I was left with an ugly bulge where it had been.

In the past I'd have asked for help with that bulge, but I recently bought a Dremel carving tool, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try it out.

Janurary 2019 -  after carving

Not a perfect job by any means, but for a first attempt, I'm reasonably happy. When I've got a bit more carving experience, I can still come back and improve on it.

For now I want the two side branches to thicken a little more before I shorten them, and the new leader and back branch need a lot of fattening up.

How to Ruin a Bonsai Without Really Trying

The first tree to appear in my blog was this Ficus Natalensis which I grew from a cutting in 2007.

Ficus Natalensis - September 2015

As an overenthusiastic newbie I made a lot of mistakes with this one, but in 2010, when I moved it into a bonsai pot and put it on show for the first time, I was really proud of my little tree.

In recent years however I've been trying to correct some of my early mistakes, so in November 2015 I moved it back into a training pot.

The idea was right, but it was a plan poorly executed. After initially pruning too hard, undoing the good growth that took place during its first couple of months in the training pot, I went to the other extreme, forgetting to prune it at all.

December 2018 - unpruned

After a quick pruning, there's some resemblance to the tree it once was.

December 2018 - after pruning

All that new growth has done some good, fattening up the trunk and reducing the reverse taper I was so concerned about in 2016.

Reverse taper - August 2016

Improved base - December 2018

Unfortunately all that vigorous growth has created a new problem. Some of the lower branches weren't getting enough light, leading to significant die-back. The second branch appears to be dead.

Dead branch

The tree won't look right without it.

In one of my 2016 posts I said:

"At times I've contemplated giving this tree a whole new look but a part of me feels I should stick to the original plan to show how my sense of style has evolved over the years."

Now, without that branch, I'm starting to think that a total makeover may be the best way forward.

Back From the Dead

With so many trees to care for I have some which have been sitting in my bonsai area for years receiving little more attention than what is required to meet their need for food and water. It's for this reason that I've sold most of the Junipers which entered my life when I participated in my club's "New Talent" competition.

Among the other species which I'm becoming increasingly reluctant to work on are my succulents, among them a Portulacaria which has been with me longer than most of my other trees, and longer than I've been a member of my club.

When I first acquired it my plan was to create a cascade and I wired it accordingly. But I was forced to change that plan after a massive hail storm in late 2007 which, in addition to damaging what was then a small collection of trees, broke thirteen windows in our house. Remarkably all my trees survived.

Over the past ten years the Portulacaria has been to a couple of workshops and was taking shape quite nicely at one stage, but as my collection grew it found itself sitting neglected on the lower shelf in my greenhouse (where I'd put it to protect it from further hail damage). And so I failed to notice a Melaleuca seedling which planted itself in the same pot as the Portulacaria. By the time I noticed it, it was already towering over the little Portulacaria. Of course I knew it needed to be moved to its own pot but there was always something more important to take care of. And so it kept growing until I recently realised that it was now towering over me as well.

My first thought was to cut the Melaleuca back to a more convenient height (as I did with this one last year) and put the two trees back into my greenhouse until next spring before separating them, but when I gave it a bit more thought I realised that the wait would only make a really tricky job even more difficult. Although it was the wrong time of year (summer in South Africa) in the middle of December I decided that separating them was a risk I had to take.

December 2017

First I cut the Melaleuca back to half its height, then, with much trepidation I pulled the trees out of their little pot, anticipating a tough time trying to untangle their roots. I had no idea what lay in store for me! The Melaleuca roots were long, thick and inflexible, growing in circles around the inside of the pot. I had no choice but to remove most of them.

By the time I was able to separate the two trees, each was left with only a fairly small root ball.

Portulacaria straight after separation - December 2017

Succulents are tough so I was convinced that the Portulacaria would be fine but, despite having reduced the size of the Melaleuca so much, I was not too optimistic about its chance of survival.

Melaleuca straight after separation - December 2017

My fears only grew when, within a few days, all the old foliage started wilting.

A few weeks later all the foliage had turned brown and I could see no signs of new growth. I was convinced the tree was dead.

Melaleuca looking dead - January 2018

However, I'm never in a rush to throw away my dead trees just in case I'm wrong, so I decided to move it from its shady spot to the area where I've put some of my other dead trees - a spot in which it's been getting only a little morning sun and a rough sprinkling of water.

I hadn't given it much more thought until today when, while watering, I noticed a spot of green near the top of the tree. I felt sure it was my imagination, but on closer inspection I discovered this small cluster of leaves.

New buds - January 2018

There are also several smaller green buds forming lower down on the trunk. Clearly it's not dead after all.

Thankfully all I ever wanted was part of the trunk, so the loss of the branches isn't going to be a problem.

Now I need to find a more suitable spot where it can continue its recovery.

Photo progression of this tree as it recovers can be found here.

To Cut or Not to Cut?

For some reason the willow leaf Ficus (Ficus Nerifolia) seems really hard to come by in my city. I searched long and hard before I eventually found a bonsai nursery which had one. Yes, only one!

It was really small and quite ugly, with terrible nebari, but it was that or nothing, so I bought it.

That was back in August 2011. At the time it looked like this:

As purchased - August 2011

A couple of weeks later I did a little pruning and wiring and repotted it, burying the ugly roots.

August 2011 - first attempt at styling

With hindsight it would have been better to simply let it grow for a while but I guess I was impatient to turn it into a proper bonsai. And yet five years later it's not there yet. Not even close.

I'm not sure why I've paid this tree so little attention over the years. My photographic records seem to be rather sparse, suggesting I haven't done much work on it. I only remember that at some stage I decided to get rid of the fat ugly roots. When I removed them I planted four root cuttings, three of which survived. But I'll save those for another post.

Stuck away at the back of my greenhouse in its tiny pot, my tree developed quite slowly but by June 2015 it was starting to develop a frame which I could build on.

June 2015

Then one day I noticed a bit of die-back (the lowest branch on the right) so I changed its position in the greenhouse and went on ignoring it.

A couple of days ago I was looking for a tree to work on and noticed that one side of the tree had really shot up.

February 2017

I brought it inside that night planning to cut back the long branches. One problem - I wanted to keep the cuttings and didn't have time to plant them. So I waited.

Next day I prepared two small pots of soil for the cuttings. I was ready to go. But some niggling doubt seemed to be holding me back. Late that night, when I had planned to work on my tree, I came online and read a few articles about willow leaf Ficus instead.

When I went to bed that night I was still thinking about my tree. And that's when it struck me that shortening those branches might not be the best thing to do right now. Well not the longest one anyway.

What I'm considering doing is shortening the thinner of the two branches to keep it in proportion for future use, and letting the one on the far left grow as a sacrifice branch. Of course if the left side thickens up too much it may ruin the framework of the tree, but if necessary I can always find a different style option later. It just feels really stupid not to take advantage of its current vigour which is offering me a great opportunity to let it develop into a fatter tree.

One more thing - it's time it went into a bigger pot!

When the Weeds Take Over

This little olive tree is one of the rare trees I've bought as bonsai stock, meaning that it required a lot less work than most of my other trees do. Here it is as purchased at our club show in October 2010.

Olive tree - October 2010

I was quite happy with the way it looked in the spring of 2015 and was planning to move it to a bonsai pot but for some reason I never got around it it.

Instead it got lost among my bigger trees and I failed to notice the little Melaleuca seedling which planted itself at the side of the bag. By the time I discovered it, it was too deeply rooted to simply pull it out and move it to a pot of its own, so I left it there and waited for a suitable time to move it. And, as is my wont, I forgot all about it.

Now it had become so tall that it was totally dwarfing my poor little olive tree.

Olive tree and Melaleuca 'weedling'

Something had to be done about it. Unfortunately it's mid-summer in South Africa - not the right time for repotting trees, so that will have to wait. (It's on my brand new list of things to do in Spring though, so hopefully it will finally get done this year.)

For now I decided to cut it down to a more suitable height so that it doesn't interfere with the olive tree more than necessary.

Olive tree and Melaleuca 'weedling' after chop - January 2017

It's a shame I had to do that because the Melaleuca was growing so vigorously that I'd have loved to see how much it would fatten up with another couple of years of unrestrained growth. I'll have to content myself with trying that out with one of its younger 'brothers' - another weed which I rescued before it was established in the pot in which it took root.

Melaleuca seedling - January 2017

Sadly fattening this one up is going to take much longer. The one positive is that I was able to wire the trunk to add a little movement while it's still young and flexible.

Melaleuca seedling after wiring - January 2017

While I was at it, I tidied up the olive tree.

Olive tree, after trim - January 2017. The Melaleuca is hidden behind a piece of white paper

While doing so I discovered that it had suffered a little die-back. Fortunately I caught it now. It could have been a whole lot worse.

A Neglected Abelia Bonsai

In 2010 I received an unexpected gift from a senior member of my bonsai club - this Abelia:

August 2010 - as I received it

As we have a large Abelia growing in our garden, I already had a few little trees which I'd grown from cuttings, but this one's trunk had a lot more character than my others, aside from one flaw - some nasty reverse taper right at the base:

Interesting trunk with a really skinny base

My first step was to move it into a deeper pot but, perhaps unwisely, I made no attempt at layering it. In effect I was hiding the reverse taper rather than dealing with it.

By October 2011 I had a couple of new branches.

October 2011 - before pruning

It was time to get rid of the handlebars and select a new leader.

October 2011 - after pruning

Over the next couple of years it grew quite well, and with a few trims it was starting to look quite good. In the spring of 2013 I moved it to a bonsai pot (another gift) in time for the club show. The deep pot was not ideal but it was the only way to hide the reverse taper.

October 2013

Not much happened over the next two years during which it made a couple more appearances on club shows. Then, when I was looking for trees to display at last October's show, I discovered that I'd been paying this one too little attention and that it was in no condition to go on show.

Still I did nothing. I had too many other trees that needed my attention.

Finally today I decided it was time to fix up some of the mess. My tree now had some vigorous growth where I didn't want it - like the branch heading up to the top of the photo - while there was a lot of die-back to branches I really needed.

January 2017 - before pruning

I've now removed all the dead branches as well as a couple of upward growing ones that didn't belong and shortened everything else to encourage back-budding.

January 2017 - after pruning

Once I see how it develops I'll have decide whether I want to revert to the style of 2013 or whether to try to develop a slightly larger tree. And next spring I really need to see if I can pot it a bit lower as the reverse taper is starting to show again.

Starting Over

In early 2008, shortly after I joined my bonsai club, I won this little Privet off the raffle table. It had a decent trunk leading up to two thin leaders and was totally devoid of branches.

As I got it, 2008

I quickly set to work on trying to turn this tree into bonsai, removing one leader and allowing the other to thicken up a little. After a while it started to develop some sort of shape and in 2012 I decided it was ready to go into a bonsai pot. Shortly afterwards it made its first appearance at our club show. I was rather disappointed when one of the senior club members told me that the front I'd chosen wasn't showing off the trunk to its best advantage, but to change it would have meant I'd need to regrow the branches, so I decided to stick with what I had.

In bonsai pot, 2013

As I grew in experience I realised that I'd grown quite a boring tree, but I didn't feel motivated to change it. Then over the past year I neglected it, allowing it to put on a lot of unwanted growth, including this new branch coming out close to the base and growing straight upward.

Before latest pruning - detail, 2015

The tree had put so much energy into that branch that it was now the tallest part of the tree. After removing it, the tree still looked awfully overgrown, but a few of the branches were dead.

Overgrown, 2015

A few days ago I decided to see what I could do with it, but after I'd removed the unwanted upward growth and dead branches I could see that its structure had been totally ruined, so I cut back really hard and moved it back into a training pot. While I was working on it I recalled the advice I'd received several years ago and decided to rebuild the tree with the correct front.

Cut back hard and moved to training pot, 2015

It's not looking very good at the moment, but I've got more to work with than I did in 2008. For now I'll have to wait and see where it pushes out new growth before I start planning for its future.

Hopefully in a couple of years I'll have a much more interesting tree.

Two Neglected Ficuses

One of the problems with having too many trees is that I don't have time to give all of them the attention they need. As a result some of my trees are developing nicely while others are left to grow wild, and all they usually get from me is water and a little fertilizer. Grown in optimal conditions this allows them to develop fatter trunks so that, when I finally find time to work on them, they will make better bonsai than they would have if I'd started styling them too soon.

Unfortunately these two trees - two young Ficus Natalensis which I grew from cuttings - have never been given optimal conditions.

Two neglected ficuses - before

They've been living tucked away at the back of my greenhouse behind other trees and have been deprived of adequate light. As a result, when I pulled them out of the greenhouse I found a few dead branches. I'm not too concerned about those though as I've still got plenty of branches to work with, and after a heavy pruning they're sure to give me more.

A bigger concern is that they've been in their pots for far too long and have masses of thick roots growing in circles around the edge of their pots.

Overgrown roots

These roots are invasive too and, aided by the humid environment of my greenhouse, the larger tree sent its roots looking for more space. One root was tightly lodged inside the other tree's pot and I was forced to cut it before I could start work on repotting them. Another had invaded a pot occupied by a less vigorous tree, but that one came out without much effort.

Due to time constraints I've only been able to work on the smaller tree so far. I removed the heavy roots growing above the soil and reduced the root mass inside the pot, cutting back the long thick roots and keeping the finer ones, before repotting it into a wider but shallower pot.

Repotted and tidied up

As the top section was far too long and straight, I cut back to a suitable bend which makes it look in better proportion.

After pruning

For now it will be allowed to grow wild to see what new options it offers me. At a later stage I might reduce the height further. I'd also like some lower branches to fatten up the base of the trunk and give me better taper. Hopefully my tree will cooperate.

Note: I don't usually keep my trees in saucers, but use them when I bring the trees inside to photograph as I don't want them wetting the furniture. Drainage is important and saucers full of water will quickly lead to root rot.