This year’s winter in Florida has been the coldest one that I can remember.  However one good thing is that it gave me a long time to do some major pruning, repotting, and even taking some photos.  Here are just a couple of shots that I took recently.

Crape Myrtle - defoliated

I can’t believe that it has been 5 years since the dwarf crape myrtle branches were grafted onto this wonderful crape myrtle trunk.  However the development continues to improve. It has a great shape and balance.  This year it should be the year for this tree to shine.  In on a few weeks the tree will begin to leaf out and the canopy should be very full and complete.   Who knows how much better this tree will be in 5 more years?

Black Pine repotted

I took advantage of the cold weather to repot this pine.  I didn’t really remove much of the root mass, but it is a much more expensive pot.  I still have a lot of branch development to do on this tree, but it already has developed very well already.  Next year we’ll try a smaller pot to show off this large base of this tree.

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I wanted to show an update of my little Black Pine that I have worked over the last year.  It has come a long way, added new branches and is doing very well.  This tree is pictured straight off my bench.  So there are weeds, a dirty pot, and a tree that really needs wired.

Shohin Black Pine

I hope to have it wired out in October, and will post a new photo at that time.

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A few weeks ago I worked on my shohin ficus nerafolia to get it back into shape.  As you may remember I priuned this tree pretty hard to get it close to the trunk.  Well just a few weeks have gone by and the tree has pretty much completly filled in and regained its great shape. 

New foliage on Ficus Nerafolia

It still needs so refining, but it won’t be long until my negleted little tree is back in show shape.

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During the month of July the candles are cut from Black pines. The reason is to cause the tree to put out new buds to create shorter, and more dense branching.  Otherwise the branch becomes to “leggy” and too long for the tree.

Black pine budding after candles removed

As you can see the new buds are growing out just below where the candles were cut.  In a few months these will be branches so that the process and repeat.  Don’t worry about the brown tips, it’s not needles cast.  It is just a bit of die back after the tips of the needles were cut.  Also the water drips are because of a rainstorm we were having when I took the picture.

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