Winter is always a time of some trepidation for me. I have this tendancy to think that all my trees have died. Well, at least some of them. After repotting and root work it is always a relief to see the buds opening and the new foliage emerge. This past fall I repotted a pine tree that is about 120 years old, originally imported from Japan for the 1915 Pan Exposition here in San Francisco. I bought it from a gentleman who’s grandmother had purchased it there. For a pine it had been getting far too little sunlight so it was quite weak. On top of that, after a discussion with the former owner I determined that it hadn’t been repotted in over 70 years. As could be expected, about half the foliage died, including the entirety of the remaining lower branch. This makes little difference to the future of the tree though since it would have to be grafted to be a good bonsai regardless of whether or not that branch survived.

I have a large Coast Live Oak as well, I didn’t repot it this spring because I did so last spring; Oaks, in my experience, seem to do better when you don’t repot every year. Still, I don’t know whether it is because the tree is older than the rest of my oaks, or because of the particulars of the specific tree, but it always buds out last of all my oaks…which makes me quite nervous.

My original bonsai, a small maple, would seemingly be one that I could have peace of mind about since I’ve repotted it every year for the last five years and the roots are in great shape. Each year I get rid of just a little more of the large woody roots and I get more fine feeder roots. But this year I trimmed a little more aggressively than in the past so that the tree could eventually be put into a pot that is quite shallow. I had considered air layering the tree only about an inch above the present nebari because I felt that the present roots are too big, but it is slowly growing more smaller roots at the surface, and I think in another few years that I will have an even more refined base on the tree.

I leaf pruned the tree each of the last two years and it now has very fine twigging. I talked to Boon about it, he said that I should let it just grow out until May, without pinching. This will give the surface roots a boost and will expand the silhouette quickly and make the tree healthier…but John Boyce says that I should pinch after the first one or two sets of leaves. Guess I have to decide for myself. I think Boon’s method would give a good tree in less time, but maybe at the cost of the finest twigging that is possible. Pinching every year will give the finest twigging, but will make it take 25 years to get a good canopy of twigs. What I need is two identical trees to test this whole thing on. I have a couple maples I’m developing, but they are five years behind my original one.

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