This year’s winter in Florida started very early and was very cold, but it didn’t seem to last that long. My trees started popping out new growth a few weeks ago and now they are well on their way to having full canopies of leaves. However this is no time to sit back and enjoy the trees because there is a lot of work to be done. In this video I talk about controlling the growth o fyour bonsai during the initial growth of the Spring season. You need to stay on top of your trees or you’ll lose a great opportunity to make the most of the fast growing period.
It has been just about two years that I tried an approach graft on my trident maple. Well today as I was doing some repotting I looked at the graft and see that it was successful.
You can see at #1 the branch that was used for the graft. Number 2 is the new branch. You can see how much bigger it is than the original branch. This shows that the branch has grafted to the cambium of the tree and is now sending food down to the roots. The size difference is sure indictaion of a successful graft. Section 1 has now been cut so the branch is own it’s own.
This photo was taken when the graft was first started. You can see how clean the cut was before the cambium rolled over the graft. Also the branch was the same thickness at both ends.
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.
Well last year I attemped my first approach graft on my Trident Maple that was not budding out where I needed it to. Today I got an opportunity to inspect the graft and it looks like it was successful.
The last time I showed the tack the branch was much thinner. However over the year the branch has thinkened, and the graft has really healed.
Here is a close up after the tack was removed. Normally I would clip off the lead branch before the graft. However I think I’ll leave it on a little longer just to be sure that the graft is ready and strong enough to support the branch.
Here is the tree as it looks right after loosing its leaves for the year. I have some wiring to do, but the tree has filled in nicely.
