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• Saturday, April 04th, 2009

I always like to share information to help other people display their trees.  Although a lot of work goes into styling and caring for the tree, it is the finishing touches that really make your tree stand out in a display.  Some easy touches are adding a fresh top layer of soil mix, and cleaning the bonsai pot. 

Surface soil prior to show

Surface soil prior to show

As you can see the condition of both the soil and the pot were in pretty bad shape. 
New Soil applied and the rimmed oiled

New Soil applied and the rimmed oiled

Here is the tree with just a quarter inch of new soil added and fresh moss.  In order to bring out the great color of the pot I apply a thin layer of walnut oil.  It has a nice satin finish compared to other oils.

The pot before oil applied

The pot before oil applied

As you can see there is no depth to the pot and the color is a bit washed out.

Ready for show

Ready for show

What a difference!  Just look how much better the color is.  Even though the pot has a shine to it now, the oil will soak in and take the strong oil look away.    With just a few minutes of effort the tree went from plain and ordinary to a real treasure.


Category: Bougainvillea | Tags: , , , Comments off
Author:
• Saturday, September 27th, 2008


So I needed to do a few things to this tree becuase they really bothered me. First I repotted into a oval pot. The squared edges of the rectangular pot that it was in didn’t work with the curved lines of the trunk line. Also I removed a number of jins that really added nothing to the tree itself. Lastly I opened the tree up with wire and brought the branches lower so that it has a better branch structure. I plan to let it grow out for a while, but I like the look of this tree, and the new growth is already popping


Author:
• Monday, April 21st, 2008


Repotted into a blue glazed pot. It really makes this tree’s colors really stand out. It needs a new coat of lime sulfur, but it has come a long way. Apr 2008


Category: Buttonwood, Collection Highlights | Tags: , , Comments off
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• Monday, May 21st, 2007


The amazing thing about ficus is the ability to root prune them drastically and they won’t even slow their growth at all. As you can see I took about 80% of the roots.


Don’t let the foliage fool you, it is only changing out last years foliage for new growth for this year. It will fill in just a couple of weeks. Notice how much better it sits in the pot now. This tree has been an absolute joy to grow and develop. In the next few weeks I hope to really capture a great picture of it. May 2007


Category: Ficus Nerafolia | Tags: , , Comments off