Hello everyone, my name is Andrew and i live in Kent, England

[andrew beattie]

I have been growing trees in pots for years mostly British native deciduous trees. Unfortunately i have had poor results on the whole, almost entirely my fault.
In the last couple of years i have tried to put more time and effort into my trees and have expanded my selection to include more flowering varieties.
I have also just bought 2 Picea Glauca trees which i hope to train as shohin. Is now a good time to style conifers and what sort of soil would be best, at the moment they are in 7cm pots of fibrous organic material and are showing lots of new buds.
Here are some pictures of my latest starter plants. All pointers/comments greatly received.
Should i pluck the old leaves off the Chinese Elm?

[Geoff Hobson]

Hi Andrew,

you have some nice trees there. Now is the time to re pot if you need to.  I would wait until the first flush of growth has hardened before pruning but you can wire. Chinese Elm leaves should drop naturally, but if the leaves are dead you can remove them.

I have a lot of trees of many species, just finished re potting.

Geoff.

[andrew beattie]

Hi Geoff, thanks for responding i appreciate any help. I have re-potted all my Chinese elms except for the raft style one pictured above as it was only laid down last year and i am not confident of how much roots it has. The quince, stewartia, gooseberry and larch are all new to me so i have not done anything with them yet but the gooseberry especially needs a good prune later.
With regard to the picea glauca, i chose them as they had a decent trunk size and looked healthy but was i fooled into thinking dwarf species would be easier to produce good shohin from?
Thanks again, i am really enjoying all the content Morten has put out and hopefully my trees will now start to improve.
Andrew

[Geoff Hobson]

Ok, Andrew. Well, dwarf does not always mean small. Sometimes it refers to the needle size. It is easier to cut down a bigger tree than to try to increase girth especially in a pot. Gooseberry is an interesting one, never heard of anyone trying. My Chinese Elms are just starting to push buds, they all dropped leaves this year which is unusual, the cork barks do but the others usually keep them until spring.

We have a workshop today for the first time in five months, the venue is an open barn. You can find us on Facebook and our web site blackmorevale bonsaigroup.co.uk

I am waiting for this months’ videos, looks like it will have to be when I get back this afternoon,

Geoff

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