Tree Tips
March 2024
We have a show date of October 19th with set-up the night before on the 18th. That's a week before the Bonsai Expo in Oakland, so no conflict there. Also, our third Thursday is the day before so we can tune up our trees at the last moment. In addition, we have the Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival coming up the weekend of April 27-28. Keep that weekend open and start working on a tree you’d like to show. It's one of my favorite activities of the year. I work on trees the entire time while people come by to admire our bonsai display and ask questions about our art form.
Nice rain year for bonsai—though not so much for my golf game. Well spread out with drying days in-between storms. Reservoirs are near capacity and a good snowpack may give us good water quality later in the year.
Most trees are popping and we only have a short window open to transplant beeches, hornbeams, boxwoods, and conifers. My boxwoods are in flower and the maples are chomping at the bit. Be careful with aftercare if the leaves are showing on your deciduous trees. I hope that we won’t have any cold snaps going forward so we won’t have to deal with frost damage on new tender foliage.
Continue on your elongating species like conifers. But don’t bare-root conifers. You could lose them. If there is any field soil it must be removed but if it is solid throughout, do half of it this year and the other half two years from now. The half you do this year will be able to support the tree when you clean out the other half in a year or two.
If ANY tree has a good solid root mass with radial roots and is free of field soil, don’t bare root it. Just cut back the exterior and bottom edges and clean the surface in a slant down from the trunk to the outside edge of the root mass but leave the healthy core soil alone. Be sure to cover this with new soil at the end.
Remember to secure all trees in the pot with tie-down wires. If the tree is wobbly, it will not develop lateral roots but will try to put down one or more taproots again—not what we want.
Broadleaf evergreens such as boxwoods and azaleas, as well as junipers and pines are repotted in February and early March. Be careful, but this year we can extend a little as the weather is cooler and the rains are still coming. Needle juniper is an exception - that can wait until May.
At this point, return your transplanted trees to a sunny location unless you have done major root work. The angle of the sun is relatively low still and it will warm and stimulate the roots and get them going faster. Rotate all trees every couple of weeks or at least monthly for well-rounded growth. Try to space them on your tables so each gets unshaded light from all angles. Again - do watch out for late frosts. The weatherman always has a curveball in his bag of tricks.
You can be styling and wiring your conifers. Big bends are okay until about the end of March. Then you run the risk of detaching the cambium from the sapwood.
Don’t fertilize yet except for trees you want to fatten, and young material in a pre-bonsai state. Not on mature trees you are refining. 🌳
