I have been looking for a clump style bonsai for a long time, but never have been able to find one that I really liked.  However yesterday when I visited Jim Smith’s nursery I was able to track one down.  This is a pretty large planting, and will take some work to get it right, but it is easy to see that this will be a great bonsai one day.

Raw clump pre-bonsai

 Here it is as I bought it.  It never fails to amaze me when I see the small amount of roots needed to support so much foliage. 

Clump repotted

I wanted to do a few things by repotting this tree.  First I will get a wider root base.  So when I repot in to a more shallow pot in the future I will have more surface roots.  Also I need to get more energy to the top of these trees so I can develop more branching.  Also I want to add another trunk on the far right side to balance the tree.  Right now I have 6 trunks and I need to get to an odd number and 7 is the goal.

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One of the most amazing bonsai nurseries in Florida is the one belonging to Jim Smith. Located in Vero Beach it is the bonsaist dream. Row after row of pre-bonsai material.  Hardest part is deciding which one you want

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Sometimes it’s more challanging to decide on how to style a tree, however there are times when the tree just tells you how it should be styled.  I have done pretty much nothing so far to this bald cypress, and yet it shows every indication of a weeping informal upright.  The huge base of the tree is softened by the low handing branches which bring the whole tree together.

Weeping Informal Upright Style

The plan going foward it of course wait for it to go dormant, carve the trunk, repot it into a smaller pot, and then do the initial style wiring.  I’m really pretty execited about seeing this one in a few more months.

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It was not even two weeks ago that I removed the leaves from my large Trident Maple, and today the leaves are already popping.  It has been a very hot and sunny Summer, so the risk of too much sun is always a concern.  However with leaves popping all over the tree I know it will be a very short time that this tree has its canopy back.

Close up of Trident Maple bud

Here is a close up of one of the branches.  The brown stem on top is where the leaf was removed.  The large shoot to th right was the small bud at the base of the old leaf.

2 leaf intersection

Here is another example of the end of a branch where two leaves were removed.  Although this looks to be one bud, there are two.  One formed at the base of the old leaves.  I’ll be sure to post future pictures to show how the size of these leaves were reduced by removing them.

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