I’ll find any excuse to share photos of Chojubai!

A few of these photos are of older trees blooming in my yard this spring, in their new antique pots. (Love that oxymoron, ‘new antique’—new to me, but also old to me and everyone else). I’ve also included photos of younger plants I’m growing.

‘Chojubai’ is the cultivar name for a dwarf form of Japanese Flowering quince. Because of the scarcity of Chojubai bonsai in the United States, and because I enjoy working with them, a few years ago I started growing them in some volume. Even though the ability to develop woody plants is nearly unparalleled in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, it’ll still take me about 8 years to make a product I’m happy with, ready for a bonsai pot. In the meantime I’ll share a few of the Chojubai I’ve got going here, in various stages.

To date, pots with Chojubai outnumber…

Here it is in ’10…it’s been in that can for at least 4 years:

Being styled by Peter at a demo in April ’11. Note the plaid redneck turntable. I have since aquired 2 actual turntables…

After initial work:

In October ’11:

We reworked the tree when he returned in October ’11:

Then took a break to play:

In summer of ’12:

After fall work:

And now in Spring ’13, repotting

Saw bottom of root mass to make it easier to work out the soil.

It would have been good to have a slightly deeper pot available…but mounding up the soil should help with airflow through the root mass, and should be ok for a couple years:


All set for the ’13 growing season!

Many of you are deep in the thicket of repotting, which I know can be one of those puzzling puzzles. This is just a short post on what I think are some of the big ones to not forget:

1. Don’t have your tree TOO dry before repotting. Although a bit easier for us, we would have a dehydrated tree just before cutting off many of its feeder roots—which ends up as a lose-lose bargain. Better to have it too wet than too dry.

2. As a general rule, don’t bare-root your trees. That’s for specialists doing special work and try your best to ignore the Japanese magazines showing someone boldly bare-rooting a 100 year old pine, or some silly blog like Crataegus Bonsai showing hosing of a deciduous tree. Bare-rooting probably kills more things than all others combined, so without the attending techniques, I would say don’t do it unless…

Last Friday night brought  another NIBS club night attended by Robert Porch who in his very relaxed style hosted the evening. He did a very basic styling demo on a few members trees and basically demonstrated what could be done on some raw material in a very short space of time and with a bit of thoughtful consideration.

The first tree he worked on was a rather tall and slender Mugo Pine that had been grown from seed by a member over a
period of about 20 years.

The Raw Material

Santa’s little helpers wiring the tree

On the way

 The finished product

A few members were bold enough to offer some suggestions re the design of some raw material and Robert very quickly enlisted their practical help. Here is Stephen AKA Bonsai Baker after he  had been press ganged into putting his suggestions into practice. It was one of…