This post is a follow-up to a post I did in December 2012; click on that in ‘archives’ if you don’t recall the post. I styled the tree for the first time from raw stock yamadori. That was back in December with winter to get through, I kept the tree on my deck and it got through winter just fine. I tilted the tree on its axis from nearly horizontal to a steep slant and used a milk crate to keep it in position. The new angle was awkward to water properly and I made the decision to ask my client to be on the look out for a pot for the tree. She found one she felt suitable (I gave her the physical dimensions it had to be to maintain the health of the tree, the aesthetic end was left to her) and shipped it to me late April. I potted it for the first time then and kept an eye on the tree. It had lots of good roots which were much like spaghetti and I cut very few to get it into the pot. I felt confident it would be alright. Then in mid-May, the tree decided to slough its old foliage, which made me nervous. It turned orange-yellow in color and dropped off on its own but it seemed like it was losing an awful lot! Then the first two weeks of June it stabilized and began to push new growth. I gave it a good feeding with Portland Rose Society organic fertilizer and it has come through very well, as you can see in the photo:
My advice to you if you want to take one of these on is that the foliage is a nice green like this during the growing season, then turns a slightly brown color for winter, then sheds old foliage prior to the new growing season. That was late May here in Portland. I hope you’ll consider trying one of these as the trunks are quite interesting with their naturally carved hollow trunks, they can be quite appealing.
I’m pretty sure once the tree has been in the pot a while the foliage should stay a more even green color most of the time…I really rocked this tree’s world, if you will, in a short span of time and it came through the process looking good. It’s passed the first test for me as a species worthy of consideration as a bonsai 😉 Alas, I will have to turn it over to it’s true owner but there are more of them out there…
brendenstudio 