A Case Study for Applying the Water and Sugar Equations - Repotting the Risky Rose

Source material: 3/19/2021

            Hola bonsai amigos! Today is a great day because not only does your friendly neighborhood microbiologist (me!) receive his second Covid vaccine dose, but my immunized arms also come bearing another present to the bonsai community. As spring continues to march on, so too does the blog's coverage of my giant rosebush bonsai - this time the rose's latest repot reveals two fundamental equations of life to consider when manipulating bonsai or any plant.

            The "Risky Rose" was the second major repot I did this year; returning readers will recall from last week's post that this operation involved another of the largest trees in my collection - a yardadori/landscape origin rosebush turned bonsai. As discussed in the previous post, now that the tree has recovered several years after its initial transplanting endured a cross-country move and survived its first Ohio winter, our rose has definitely earned renewed attention this year. For now, I'm calling it the "Risky Rose" because it needed severe root reduction in order to change its planting angle and lift the upper half of the trunk out of the pot. Read on to understand the motivations behind this bold action, including what steps were taken to ensure this radical root reduction could be done safely.

            As with my last repotting post, "Repotting The Monster Mulberry - Revisiting the Basics", this repot was done with the help of my friend in the Columbus Bonsai Society, Kevin. Thanks, Kevin!

Sections

1. History of the Risky Rose (Last post)
2. Current Repot Operation
   2A. Repotting in Action
   2B. The Water Equation
   2C. The Sugar Equation
   2D. Applying the Water and Sugar Equations
3.  Blog Announcements

Here you can see a teaser of the rose's chunky trunk in its new position after its 2021 repot.

Origins of the Risky Rose & Steps for Transplant Recovery

 Source material: 2/09/2018

            As the weather continues to warm up and frosts become rarer here in Ohio, repotting season is on its tail end - if you're not already finished with it. I'm hoping to squeeze in my last few this week and also plan ahead for future bonsai by sowing my newest batch of seeds. In the spirit of finishing the repotting season, I was also planning to post the second major repot I did this year - once which involves substantial risk and reward. For now, that's all you'll get about it because, in the spirit of breaking my habit of writing overly long articles, today we have to first take a trip back in time and discuss the history of my gargantuan rosebush landscape-origin/yardadori prebonsai. It has perhaps the largest trunk rose I've seen in the bonsai world (not that they're a common bonsai subject to begin with!).

Sections

1. History of the Risky Rose
2. Current Repot Operation (Next post)
3.  Blog Announcements

Possible planting angle #1 (This is how it was originally buried).

Repotting The Monster Mulberry - Revisiting the Basics

Source material: 3/16/2021

            After a few weeks of being buried in snow, last week my larch seedlings started setting off alarm bells with green needles bursting from their dormant buds. "REPOTTING SEASON IS HERE, GET YOUR A@# INTO HIGH GEAR!" - is probably what they were telling me. I quickly reorganized my work and homework schedule to make the past week as bonsai-focused as possible for this narrow springtime window. While spring is also the perfect time for planting seeds, today we will discuss the first of a handful of major repots I did last week. Today's repotting report focuses on one of the largest trees in my collection at the moment - a yardadori/landscape origin mulberry tree.

            This repot was done with the help of my friend in the Columbus Bonsai Society, Kevin. Kevin grew up around Portland, Oregon and moved to Ohio just a year or two before I moved back. It's been great having another PNW native person to talk bonsai with. Thanks for your help building the grow box, Kevin! Y'all will definitely see more of him in future projects on this blog 😉.

Sections

1. Repotting Basics Recap
2. The Monster Mulberry
3.  Blog Announcements

First up: The Monster Mulberry with a falling apart plastic pot (hence the need for the repot).

Seed Experiment #1 - Survival Methods for Early Germinators

This article was supposed to go out before my last one, but apparently finding time to photoshop memes is much easier than reading research articles on acorn germination… Anyways, let’s just pretend this article came out a month ago so I don’t have to slow it down by rewriting the introduction.

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Source content: 12/20/2020

Hellooooooo bonsai world! It’s been a minute since I posted but I'm happy to report I am alive and well in Ohio. To celebrate surviving the first semester of my Ph.D. program, it's only fitting that my first blog post of 2021 focuses on a bonsai experiment I'm designing - the first of many I have in mind.

Of course, throughout the move to Columbus and starting graduate school, maintaining my bonsai collection has remained a priority even if new articles and videos were put on hold. In August, I packed my trees into a UHaul and drove my trimmed-down collection across the country. Since then, I’ve also found time to scout for local Ohio yamadori, service trees for my first local client, attend two workshops at Yume-en (Rob Hoffman’s new bonsai nursery in Marysville, OH), assemble my first grow tent for overwintering my tropicals, collect new seeds stock for 2021, and join the Columbus Bonsai Society’s Board for 2021. All of these and more from my archive could be future blog posts so stay tuned!

Sections:

1. Purpose

2. Introduction

3. Materials & Methods

4. Results

5. Discussion/Conclusions

6. References

7.  Blog Announcements

A young Brewer's oak seedling emerges!

Where's Bernie?? Bonsai Edition

Contents:

1. Bernie in Elandan Gardens
2. Bernie as a Mudman
3. Blog Announcements

          No doubt most of you have seen the meme going around this week based on Senator Bernie Sanders braving the inauguration day cold bearing his now-iconic mittens and practical Vermontian fashion sense. Political leanings aside, Bernie's inauguration sighting has quickly exploded on the internet as netizens place the Senator in their own photos around the world. The senator is even selling T-shirts and sweatshirts featuring his inaugural meme and is donating 100% of the proceeds to Vermont charities like Meals-on-Wheels which helps feed low-income seniors. Naturally, I had to join in on the fun! Not only is this meme a good opportunity for some Bernie bonsai sightings, but I'm also glad to have the excuse to go through my old Elandan Gardens photos and to play around in Photoshop again. Without further ado, enjoy my Bernie-fied walk down memory lane at Elandan Gardens including some experimental ideas with Bernie standing in for traditional Chinese mudman figurines.

          So sit back and enjoy the refreshing taste of this fresh can of memes I've cracked open for you. If you need to spice up that work-from-home life, feel free to use these as ZOOM backgrounds or you can put Bernie in your own photos through this free photoshop-esque template. 

Bernie at Elandan Gardens

Bernie admiring one of the many old ponderosa pines by collected and styled by Dan Robinson.