Back in the bad Winter of 09/10 Stephen’s Trident got a really bad freezing and lost practically every root. The whole apex of the tree died and for many months it just slowly died back along the trunk. It had an emergency repot in Spring 2010 to assess if there was any live roots. We couldn’t see any to be honest! It was potted into a wooden box with pure grit mix. In September 2010 it produced a few leaves on lower heavy branches. Any dead branched were then removed.

This year having sat happily in my green house it came into leaf and produced a few new strong shoots from the trunk. Those in the right places were left and the rest removed. After 4 weeks away I came home to find the Trident looking like this!

Extension of 20 inches + 🙂 This was the old front of the tree which is no longer viable as the apex is gone and most of this trunk is now deadwood.

This will be the new front of the tree.

The tree is currently putting energy into growth that will not be used within the future design, therefore this was removed and a few placement wires added to direct new shoots. This is the tree now.

Considering that this tree was all but dead in Spring 2010, Stephen is happy with the progress.