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If we wire our trees, we might wonder this.
We notice that there are times of the year that wire bites in. And there are times that it doesn’t.

This past weekend over 1,100 visitors attended the Redwood Empire Bonsai Society’s 37th annual show at the Rohnert Park Community Center in Rohnert Park, California.

When developing primary branches on bonsai with large trunks, it’s common to create them with sacrifice branches that grow freely until they reach the desired thickness. Once the branch is big enough, it’s time to reduce it.

Beautyberry is a great deciduous shrub known for its purple fruit in fall and winter. This show of color makes it a popular choice for shohin as it provides contrast and color to multi-tree displays.

After pruning broadleaf evergreens in summer, you may see lots of small shoots emerging close to the places that were cut. I usually let these grow a bit before thinning them in fall, but this year I’m removing all of the buds that I don’t plan to use and shortening the buds that are already too long.

When healthy satsuki finish blooming, it’s a great time to thin trees that have grown dense.

To determine if a decandled pine needs fertilizer in summer, I check to see how the summer buds look. If they’re strong, I hold off on the fertilizer until later in the growing season (usually September or October). If the buds are modest or small, I consider whether or not the pine looks good in fall.

Before getting to the pruning, wiring, and styling steps, I like to get trees healthy before working on them. For coast redwoods, this usually means repotting and giving them a year or two to regain vigor before going any further.

Three years ago, I wired a shoot on a coast redwood to create a new trunk on a multi-trunk composition (see “Coast redwood cutback” for details). The shoot grew well, and it’s now time to cut it back.

Fall and winter are my favorite times to wire black pines. The trees are relatively dormant, the foliage is mature, and I have a long time before spring to get the work done.