fredtruck
Omono
JudyB's story about her troubles with her hawthorne made me think maybe someone would benefit from this story:
I haven't written much about this tree lately. In fact, I haven't written anything about it for a year.
Trouble began late last winter, the time when it usually blooms. It didn't bloom at all. At the time, I had no idea what was going on. We had a very cold spring. It never did warm up until June. We had snow on May Day. By June, the tree was putting out shoots like crazy, so I assumed things were okay, and it would bloom next year. We were also having floods and torrential downpours.
Just before we went on vacation in June, the tree shed a whole bunch of leaves, all in the interior. I had no explanation. The tree still looked good. The last few days before we left, the temperature skyrocketed.
When we came back, temperature was still in the high 90s and this quince had lost almost every single leaf. Bark was peeling in very unusual ways. Even on the very oldest sections of the plant, big checks of bark were flaking off.
I kept it on its regular watering schedule and feeding. Nothing was happening that was good. Branches began dying.
I began to search around for reasons for the tree's behavior. I began considering the horrible weather conditions we'd had since spring. I decided the tree was suffering from heat stroke...at least at this point.
All my quinces were struggling, but the Chaenomeles S. and my toyo nishiki had failed to bounce back. All the others had, and were looking strong. I took the 2 afflicted quinces and put them in the garage. It was much cooler in there, and the light conditions were very low. I watered the trees once, and let them be. I did some very drastic pruning on the Chaenomeles S., because it was very clear large portions of it had died.
In about 2 weeks time, the Chaenomeles S. had pushed some leaves. I started watering the trees about 2x a week. I gave them no fertilizer. Eventually, both looked strong enough to go back outside. Instead of full sun, they went into partial shade and were given about half as much water as before.
The Chaenomeles S. continued to flourish. Eventually, near mid-August, it sort of leveled off. I gave it some high-nitrogen feed and it began to push shoots. I have kept feeding it regularly until just this week.
I repotted the Chaenomeles S. in a 14" round mica drum pot. The repot was simple and without complication. Styling the tree was another issue.
Ironically, one of my criticisms of this tree as it existed before was that the branches were too long. To promote flowering, you need short branches. The weather-borne assault had solved the branch length for me. The attached picture shows my styling efforts.
Finally, in a recent blog-post, Michael Hagedorn remarked that adverse weather is very hard on large or old bonsai.
Confirmed. Pics below are before and after.
I haven't written much about this tree lately. In fact, I haven't written anything about it for a year.
Trouble began late last winter, the time when it usually blooms. It didn't bloom at all. At the time, I had no idea what was going on. We had a very cold spring. It never did warm up until June. We had snow on May Day. By June, the tree was putting out shoots like crazy, so I assumed things were okay, and it would bloom next year. We were also having floods and torrential downpours.
Just before we went on vacation in June, the tree shed a whole bunch of leaves, all in the interior. I had no explanation. The tree still looked good. The last few days before we left, the temperature skyrocketed.
When we came back, temperature was still in the high 90s and this quince had lost almost every single leaf. Bark was peeling in very unusual ways. Even on the very oldest sections of the plant, big checks of bark were flaking off.
I kept it on its regular watering schedule and feeding. Nothing was happening that was good. Branches began dying.
I began to search around for reasons for the tree's behavior. I began considering the horrible weather conditions we'd had since spring. I decided the tree was suffering from heat stroke...at least at this point.
All my quinces were struggling, but the Chaenomeles S. and my toyo nishiki had failed to bounce back. All the others had, and were looking strong. I took the 2 afflicted quinces and put them in the garage. It was much cooler in there, and the light conditions were very low. I watered the trees once, and let them be. I did some very drastic pruning on the Chaenomeles S., because it was very clear large portions of it had died.
In about 2 weeks time, the Chaenomeles S. had pushed some leaves. I started watering the trees about 2x a week. I gave them no fertilizer. Eventually, both looked strong enough to go back outside. Instead of full sun, they went into partial shade and were given about half as much water as before.
The Chaenomeles S. continued to flourish. Eventually, near mid-August, it sort of leveled off. I gave it some high-nitrogen feed and it began to push shoots. I have kept feeding it regularly until just this week.
I repotted the Chaenomeles S. in a 14" round mica drum pot. The repot was simple and without complication. Styling the tree was another issue.
Ironically, one of my criticisms of this tree as it existed before was that the branches were too long. To promote flowering, you need short branches. The weather-borne assault had solved the branch length for me. The attached picture shows my styling efforts.
Finally, in a recent blog-post, Michael Hagedorn remarked that adverse weather is very hard on large or old bonsai.
Confirmed. Pics below are before and after.
