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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.

Decandling season is a good time to do cutback on black pines. Although we can’t cut past green needles and expect buds to pop on old wood, we can cut anywhere else as long as there is healthy foliage on the branch. (See “A cutback decandling technique” for details.)

Almost twenty years ago I made my first exhibit catalog – a retrospective featuring trees from Bay Island Bonsai’s first five exhibits.

It’s been a couple of years since I shared an update about a twin-trunk stewartia in my garden.

Eric Schrader and the team behind Bonsaify.com released an online course this week titled, “Mastering Shohin Japanese Black Pine Bonsai: A Complete Guide from Seedling to Show Tree.”

Now’s a great time of year to check the foliage on deciduous bonsai to see how full the crown is. If you can’t see through the tree, it may be due for some time in the workshop.