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This past spring, as the deciduous bonsai in my garden began to leaf out, I noticed several dwarf flowering quince began to die back. Over the next two months, about half of these chojubai died.

I thought I was nearing the end of decandling season when I remembered a table of black and red pines trained as exposed root bonsai.

SMOKE TREE
During my Open Workshops on Friday and Saturday Harvey Carapella brought his Smoke Tree, Cotinus coggygria,bonsai to share and be photographed. He has been training this bonsai for many decades. This plant is not commonly trained for bonsai, or in the landscape as well. The Purple smoke tree is much more commonly used in the landscape because of the purple foliage. There is also a Golden smoke tree, but I have discovered it is not too vigorous in a container.

Back in February I potted up around 60 bare-root satsuki azalea bonsai. Having not worked with bare-root specimens before, I was really curious to see how the trees would do with so few roots.

When developing material for bonsai, it’s best to avoid creating straight trunks and branches. Many varieties, however, naturally produce straight growth. This gives us two options: cut or wire.

I’ve been working on an old cork-bark black pine since 2004. The tree has improved a lot over the years, but it still has a ways to go. The main focus at this stage is increasing the branch density.

I fully defoliated a shohin Japanese maple about six weeks ago. Here’s what the tree looked like after removing all of the leaves.

Seeing a note on my calendar to finish decandling a pine, I headed outside and brought the pine below into the workshop.

The 45th Upstate New York Bonsai Exhibition was successfully held on May 19-20, 2018 at the Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester, New York. Nearly 100 bonsai were displayed by members of the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York Inc. The Rochester chapter of Ikebana International presented a display of their flower arrangements. The Suiseki Study Group of Upstate New York also had a display their members’ stones. A bonsai demonstration was held on Saturday afternoon, while senior teachers from the ikebana society demonstrated on Sunday afternoon. A large sales area featured bonsai, pre-bonsai, display tables, tools, wire, supplies and more.

In general, we can expect black and red pines to produce a single flush of growth all year. If we remove this growth at the right time, we can expect a second flush to grow in the same calendar year.