Recent content by Brian Van Fleet

The bark on AP is incredible, always thought they could make a fun bonsai project. There is one on a golf course I played several times years ago and the bark reminded me of arakawa JM. It is really amazing in person.

Probably don’t need to do anything. But if bothers you, you can scrape away some soil under the root, fashion a staple out of 3mm wire and pin it down, then cover it over again.

First, carve the dead area away, and leave it concave, except an area that forms a bit of a “spout” so water doesn’t pool up in the center. If that isn’t possible, sometimes drilling a hole straight down and through allows water to drain away. Carving can be done with whatever you have that...

It is some type of grafted ficus, and it looks like the scion has died back (which is the circled part you are likely describing as rotten). It appears that the rootstock has budded and is now growing. Not altogether bad, just large leaves. Typically we carve away rotten wood, careful to not...

This has become my go-to concave cutter over the last few years. Good quality for the price and versatile. I like the rounded cut it makes, it’s a good hybrid of the concave and knob cutter. Checks all your boxes. https://bonsai-tool.com/goods_en_USD_5.html

Coming along nicely! JRP are such cool trees, wish they were more common. I would suggest wiring a little movement into the next trunk section marked with green in post #8. It should be subtle, to not contrast too much with the lower sections. I would also keep at least one branch marked...

If you’re choosing from nursery stock, choose based on the trunk at the soil level and the next 6” up. Then, make sure the leaves are a shape you like, since there is some variation which won’t change without grafting. I used to chop mine in spring just before bud-break. It will be a long...

This works. It has a bit of a shiny finish at first but it does fade. I’d use lime-sulfur first if you want to whiten the deadwood, and a week or so later, use PC Petrifier...

Grafting seedlings into gaps will help. It’s important to use shallow grow pots but plant deep as roots swell better underground and slow above ground. Planing of the underside of the trunk at repotting to eliminate downward-growing roots in favor of those growing out radially. After that...

Some people have shelves stuffed absolutely full of pots. I won’t say who…😂

I’d agree that it depends on quality of repair and how it fits into the overall composition.

Usually you end up pruning the stronger shoots back to interior ones, which helps push growth closer to the trunk, but also makes the tree rely on weaker growth.

Mine always got trunk-chopped in late winter…like last week for you. Ginkgo doesn’t really have a strong second flush in my experience.

Nice recovery and patience along the way. It’s pretty amazing to see it barely grow for 3 years, then the quantum leap from 2024 to today. Any idea what actually caused the decline? I assume it was healthy when it left Suthin’s.

Really cool interplay between the deadwood and the live vein twist about halfway up. Definitely want to let the viewer see it.