Ryan's Bonsaiclopedia: When to Repot

Source Material: March 2020

          It is crucial to prune roots in their optimal window because if roots are pruned at the wrong time, this is one of the easiest ways to kill your bonsai (aside from simple watering neglect). The repotting season also is a vague window that changes from year to year based on the weather, adding to the risk of confusion for beginners and tree death. For the bonsai beginners out there, after today you'll be able to repot with much more confidence that your tree will make a healthy recovery. If you're already a bonsai expert, I put some pretty bonsai pictures in that I think you'll find worth scrolling for either way.

Sections:

1. Optimal Temperatures for Root Repair
2. Swelling Buds
3. Advanced Exceptions, Caveats, & Disclaimers
4. Bonsai Bud Gallery

Japanese Maple/Acer palmatum waking up at Elandan Gardens.

Repotting the Melted Hemlock

Source material: April 2017

          Melted wood?? Yes, melted wood. How else do you describe this hunk of mountain hemlock below? As the Covid-19 virus spreads around me here in Seattle, I have some extra time to also call the melted mountain hemlock below the subject for this week's Throwback Thursday. Today's post is short, so if you're curious about how a tree can become as mangled as this one, read on. 

From this view, we can appreciate some of Dan's deadwood carving, which starts to look more natural as it  naturally weathers over time.

"Asian Sensibilities, Northwest Style"

Source material: Feb 2019

          Hello my bonsai fam, today I'm here to remind you that TOMORROW, SUNDAY MARCH 1st is the last day of the 2020 Northwest Flower and Garden Show at the Seattle convention center! Returning readers might be tired of hearing about this show every year, but too bad! Today we have just one more NWFGS-themed blog as we review the display garden that I helped the Elandan Gardens team create for last year's show. Your semi-irregularly scheduled bonsai content will be back after this week, I promise.

As in every year, would it really be a Robinson garden without beautiful niwaki landscape trees, natural boulders, and other one-of-a-kind artifacts?

Interview with Bonsaiko - NWFGS 2020

Source material: Feb 2017-2019

     Well, friends, that special time of year is almost here again. Yes, early spring means repotting season to us bonsai artists, however, in Seattle it also means it's time for the largest flower and garden show west of the Mississippi River.  Returning readers may recall that I have already written about the Northwest Flower and Garden Show several times to highlight the display gardens I helped the Elandan Gardens team create every year (see the 2017 garden here and 2018 one here). In preparation for the 2020 Northwest Flower and Garden Show, I wanted to share the work of another local landscaper featured in the show - the current president of the Puget Sound Bonsai Association, owner of Redwood Builders Landscaping, and writer of the bonsai blog Bonsaiko, Tony Fajarillo. I consider Tony to be one of the most skilled bonsai artists in the local club and his wealth of yardadori (landscape-collected specimen) turned into beautiful bonsai gems attest to that. Today we will review his past work at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show and ask him what we can look forward to for this year.

Sections:

1. 2017 - Mini Garden
2. 2018 - "Pot Party"
3. 2019 - "The Isles of the Blest: Tao Myth
4. 2020 - Interview with Bonsaiko / Tony Fajarillo

Tony calls this his "Flying Dragon" juniper. I was amazed to learn that this is a phoenix graft - a live tree grown between a dead one! The interplay together so beautifully I never would have noticed. This bonsai was featured in his 2019 display garden called "Pot Party".

Clean, Cut, & Carve. Zelkova in Autumn

Source material: 2019, December 4-8

          Today we're discussing my small Zelkova, aka Japanese Elm, which I introduced you to previously in my Halloween bonsai post. Fall and winter are a great time for improving the branch structure on deciduous trees due to all their glory or faults being laid bare by the lack of leaves. Many Japanese artists prefer to display trees deciduous trees in winter as they consider the underlying structure to be the true indicator of their skill and their tree's beauty. My goals at this time were to clean old leaves off, cut branches which had gotten too long (setting up growth where I want for spring), and carve a few old wounds which I thought would look better as natural deadwood than as a flat cut that would take years to hide.

Sections:

1. Clean
2. Cut
3. Carve 

One task I finally got around to doing this time was to carve a large old pruning scar. More on that later.