There are times when things just come together perfectly, and I can officially state that I actually had the right pot for the tree for the first time. I spent much of the morning re-wiring and redefining my Crepe Myrtle. I can’t believe the pictures from last January and how far this tree has come.

 Just look how nicely the pot compliments the bark of the tree.  When this tree is leafed out and flowering it will really be something special.  When I repotted the tree I found that the roots had been holding a lot of water.  so with the new soil it should produce a lot of new growth and be much healthier.

Here is a close up of the tree.  This tree is not the easiest tree to wire.  I’m using 1mm wire on branches that are about 1mm thick.  However if I don’t the branches tend to curl up.  I need the branches mid way up the trunk to fill in over the scar.  I should be able to achieve that this year.  I have a feeling the next time I post this tree it will be a finished Bonsai.

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So I got a chance to take a look and the trident maple now that the leaves are gone. What appeared to be a lot of new growth wound up being not very useable. The problem was that the growth from the lower part of the tree blocked out growth from the upper section, so no new branches near the top of the tree.

As you can see I was able to bend many of the branches down as planned. However what I exposed were few branches near the top.

Keep in mind, I am only focusing on developing the basic structure of this tree, not complete branches. The Secondary and Tirshiary will come in following years. So I am using wiring and bending, along with Clip and Grow to develop this tree.

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At times I’m reminded of my Mother saying, “well you wanted a puppy…”, because when it comes to Bonsai there is a lot of work to be done.  However I am still very happy that I have my Bonsai collection, and my trees are all doing very well.

Here is my huge Trident Maple after its first year in a Bonsai pot. The weather hasn’t fully turned very cold yet, so I helped my tree go dormant by removing the leaves.

You can see all the buds in place ready for next Spring, so removing the leaves didn’t hurt the tree. However it does allow me to get a look at the growth, and get prepared for all the wiring.

Notice how all the new growth is growing straight up, well that’s what needs to be wired down. Why? Well first of all old trees have hanging branches, whereas young tree have branches that grow upwards. So by wiring them down we add the illusion of age. Also it opens the tree so that light can get to the trunk and more branches can grow. Remember last year there were very few branches so in a very short time this tree has become rather dense.

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Well Fall is here, and sometimes it even feels like it. In Orlando our weather ranges from the 60′s – 80′s during the day and 40′s – 50′s at night. So most of the time it just feels like a really nice Spring day. However it is officially Fall so I thought I’d take a look at the trees for some evidence.

According to my Bougainvillea it is Spring time and time to flower. The poor thing is a little confused because of our warm weather.

The Crossostephium Sinesis isn’t doing much better and has manage to put out one more flower for the year. Not a very exciting bloom, but still interesting to see.

The Bald Cypress has figured it out and is ready for next year all ready. It has pretty much lost all of its leaves but have a few branches with bud loaded and ready to pop next Spring.

However there is no fooling my Trident Maples. They know it is Fall and time to drop their leaves to prepare for next Sping. This is an exciting and active time in Bonsai because most of the wiring and styling happens while these trees are dormant. Fall colors in Orlando are usually pretty boring so I chose to show this picture in Black and White.

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