takira
Yamadori
After a long stretch of oppressively hot weather, it was a nice cool clear day today, so rather than waiting for the fourth of July weekend as originally planned, I potted up both my mugos (the little one is on my original post) this morning!
This big guy had the usual octopus coming out at the soil level, and given the directions indicated not to remove more than 50% of the foliage at this event, I mostly settled for cutting back the two main side branches down at the base. I left a stub on each side for die-back, and left little shoots at the base of both, in hopes that it'll keep the trunk and roots healthy - if things are looking good later in the summer I'll start to pick off the little shoots and go a little more branch selection. For this one, at least, I've got a good idea for what I want to accomplish longer-term - I just couldn't do quite that much pruning at one go, so it'll be a process over the next couple of years.
Sourced a big-ass pond basket and potted it up with 3:1 pumice/akadama and a very thorough watering - it's huddled in a semi-shady spot on the patio for the next couple of weeks and then will get back on a bench for better sun.
As much as I like the idea of larger bonsai, once they're potted up in a bunch of rock and soaked in water, dang they get heavy. >_>;;
This big guy had the usual octopus coming out at the soil level, and given the directions indicated not to remove more than 50% of the foliage at this event, I mostly settled for cutting back the two main side branches down at the base. I left a stub on each side for die-back, and left little shoots at the base of both, in hopes that it'll keep the trunk and roots healthy - if things are looking good later in the summer I'll start to pick off the little shoots and go a little more branch selection. For this one, at least, I've got a good idea for what I want to accomplish longer-term - I just couldn't do quite that much pruning at one go, so it'll be a process over the next couple of years.
Sourced a big-ass pond basket and potted it up with 3:1 pumice/akadama and a very thorough watering - it's huddled in a semi-shady spot on the patio for the next couple of weeks and then will get back on a bench for better sun.
As much as I like the idea of larger bonsai, once they're potted up in a bunch of rock and soaked in water, dang they get heavy. >_>;;
