I bought this tree back in May of this year from the TBS Spring Show. The tree was challenging to style because of how the branches were heading their own separate ways. Throughout these few months of looking at the tree, I’ve decided to bring the two side closer together by making some quite drastic bends. Before making these bends, it’s always a good idea to protect the branch such that the cambium layer doesn’t separate from the wood. In the past, I’ve used raffia to wrap the branch, but this time I’ve bought this self adhesive rubber tape. The tape doesn’t have any glue on it, so it won’t leave a mess on the branches, and it’s flexible, so it hugs the contours of the branch quite nicely. Although the bends were quite drastic, I didn’t hear/feel any cracking, so I think the tree should do fine. Now I’ll just leave it be for the rest of fall/winter. Come next spring, I can start developing pads and move it closer to a show tree.
Eastern White Cedar StyledEastern White Cedar New Apex
This year I had a very bad case of black spot fungus on my Chinese Elms. The lime sulfur spray doesn’t seem to do much in stopping the outbreak. I’ve read online that removing infected foliage (or even fully defoliating the tree), and repotting into new soil will help. As a result I went through all my Chinese Elms and repotted them. For the trees which were harder hit by the fungus, I even fully defoliated the tree. To my surprise, the trees reacted quite positively and put out a lot of new growth, but some of the new growth were still affected by the fungus. I keep inspecting the trees everyday, and whenever I see any signs of infected leaves, I made sure to dispose of them ASAP. I’m hoping the trees are able to put out healthy growth faster than the fungus can take over. Most of the trees are doing great, while a few of the trees do seem to be struggling with the fungus. For the ones which are struggling, perhaps I’ll try just watering the soil to ensure the leaves remain dry. Hope that will help with battle against this nasty fungus.
Chinese Elm RepottedChinese Elm RepottedChinese Elm RepottedChinese Elm RepottedChinese Elm Repotted
Throughout the spring and early summer, I leave the P. afra outside for their summer break. This is the time when they can recover from their dry winters indoors and regain some of their vitality. Over the year, the roots become quite root bound and would inhibit its ability to take up water. While summer time is a bad time to work on most other trees, P. afras don’t seem to mind being worked on over the summer time.
As P. afras propagates quite readily, I’ve accumulated quite a number of trees through propagation over the years. The first one here is my very first P. afra. It wasn’t doing well over the winter time, and lost a lot of leaves. I figured a repot would give it a good opportunity to reset. I chose this new pot which cutely aligns with the width of the tree (tip-to-tip).
Portulacaria afra Repotted
The next one I worked on is a raft style P. Afra that I had for a very long time. This one was suffering a bit over the winter too, but it has since recovered. Repotting into some new mix should trigger it to recover quicker.
Portulacaria afra Repotted
I had another Mame P. afra bonsai that’s doing quite well despite being in a very small pot and very root bound. But over the years, it’s front is no longer the front I wanted, I’ve decided to repot it and to align it to the new front.
Portulacaria afra Repotted
There are a few other P. afras that I repotted, and as a result of the pruning, I now have a few more cuttings which looks very much like bonsais of their own.
I had this raft style in a colander for a while now, allowing it to grow, thicken up, and develop some roots. It’s now ready for its own pot. The next steps is to develop pads to make it look more like a forest.
Portulacaria afra Repotted
I also had a tray of P. afra cuttings that is just sitting around and growing on its own. Rather than give it away as is, I’ve decided to pot them into pots that I had lying around. Maybe one day I’ll give them away to some friends/family who are interested.
Throughout this process I’ve thrown out A LOT of P. afra cuttings. I’m sure someone can make some good use of them, but alas, there’s no bonsai meeting over summer time, and I don’t want even more P. afras taking up my growing space. So, off to the green bin they went.
Bonsai Workshop 