February marks the beginning of the end of winter. It might be the coldest month around here before it changes into spring. And boy do I look forward to spring.

Most trees are well protected inside, under a roof, or at the ground where the larger trees aren’t cooled down as much as when sitting on the benches in the wind.

This doesn’t take away the joy of working on coniferous trees during winter. The monthly episode (released today), is focusing on deadwood. Styling a Japanese white pine, correcting flaws and improving the design.

It can be daunting to cut off a branch that has been trained for a long time, but this kind of decisions is part of the bonsai game. In this case, it shows to improve the design and making a stringer expression. White pines are special trees. In the Q&A part, we also look at how Japanese white pines produce back budding.

The headlines this month are:

• Seasonal care. It can be a cold month around here in Northern Europe, and care must be taken to store the bonsai well protected if necessary.
• The classy white pine of Japan. Pinus parviflora is the main subject in this month tutorial, that both looks at styling a pine removing some flaws, and answering Q&A about back budding.
• Deadwood is one of the more dramatic features that can be added to a bonsai to improve the visual age of a tree. Deadwood as a stylistic feature is important but as important is the preservation of deadwood. Wintertime is a very good time to clean up and apply a new layer of protecting Lime-sulphur.

Q&A+

Last month we introduced a new kind of Q&A. We added Q&A+ giving our members the possibility to ask questions ahead of the upcoming episode.

Already several good questions have been sending in (all questions are good by the way), improving the content. We just launched February, but you can ask your questions as a member for the March episode from today.

20% discount – countdown

For a limited time only we give an introduction discount. Save 20% on your first membership period. Sign up no later than February 4th.

Use the coupon code 20percent when checking out.

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