Itoigawa Update

I thought I would provide an update of my itoigawa shimpaku juniper that was mentioned in this post last year. It hit a bit of a rough patch last fall that I attribute to overwatering. I did not repot last year and I think the nursery soil was holding too much water. I repotted this year to make sure the soil was well draining because I wasn’t so sure it was going to make it with the old soil. This picture is in May of this year.

I fed it well and gave it sun, and it certainly rebounded. This photo in August will show that the tree is again happy and healthy.

It was healthy enough that I decided to widen the shari as I was hoping this year. It certainly changes the look.

I can see pretty much how I want this tree to go now and think it has progressed well in the year and a few months I have had it. I plan to just feed and water it, and make sure I don’t overwater when the cooler fall weather is here. Thanks for reading!

Night Work

Tonight I got a little time to get a bit of work done on two of my tropical projects. Both are from Wigerts Bonsai that I got in October of last year. Both were also featured in a post back in May. I apologize for the poor quality photos; I was enjoying my time outside.

First up is a bougainvillea with a story that I chopped earlier this year and has grown really well. I’ve never worked with the species but it was getting pretty dense and I decided a haircut was in order. I thought this tree was going to flower but it hasn’t so far. I may try to sneak it into a nicer looking pot next week at my class.

Next up was a ficus retusa that has honestly been worked on quite a lot this year. It’s kind of a project tree that I like to experiment on and see how ficus respond to certain things. See that long branch zapping all the energy from the parts I actually want larger…

Well I decided to try my first approach graft for a back branch. The ones that are there are too straight and large for the tree so I felt like starting over with the branches. I’m curious to see how if it works even though its not the cleanest graft ever made. The apex was left intact to try and get it to thicken up while everything else was hit back. I am trying for a drop first branch, but it also needs to thicken up.

While I am here, I thought I’d update my Green Island Ficus that I have been working on to show this year. Time to let them all grow out again, thanks for reading!