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Spring is a good time for managing vigor on deciduous species. We can fully defoliate our strongest trees, and partially defoliate less vigorous bonsai.

The Bay Area Satsuki Aikokai held its 24th annual exhibit last weekend at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, California. And thanks to the weather this spring, the timing of the exhibit was perfect for seeing azaleas in full bloom.

The year’s annual bonsai exhibition & sale took place at the Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester, New York, on May 18-19, 2019. Our society of approximately 150 people have members from Erie and Williamsport, PA, Syracuse, Buffalo, Ithaca, NY as well as in the greater Rochester area. Members from these far distances prepared their bonsai and brought them for display for others to enjoy and learn.

Last year I defoliated a shohin Japanese maple in an effort to stimulate back buds (see “Defoliating a Japanese maple“). The approach worked (see the “Follow-up“).

For the last few years, I’ve taken a simple approach to refining a dwarf wisteria (Millettia japonica ‘Microphylla’). In May or June, I reduce long shoots that extend beyond the desired silhouette. The process looks like this.

Each year the second Saturday of May has been designated as World Bonsai Day. This is an internationally celebrated event dedicated to furthering bonsai awareness and appreciation. World Bonsai Day was initiated by the World Bonsai Friendship Federation to honor the memory of Saburo Kato, renowned bonsai master and founder of the WBFF. Clubs, organizations, arboretum collections, businesses and individuals plan special events to celebrate World Bonsai Day. Exhibitions, demonstrations, displays as well as people donating their bonsai to collections are some of the events that happened today. However, perhaps the most popular activity celebrated on World Bonsai Day is the actually working on bonsai, which happened all over the world. That’s what bonsai is all about, the trees.

Three months ago I pruned and repotted a coast redwood.

If you’ve been working with bonsai for several years, you may have an idea of what needs to happen when. If you’re new to bonsai, or to a given species, it can be helpful to create a calendar to keep track of annual maintenance tasks.

In the last post we looked at the benefits of removing root sprouts on developing bonsai. We can take the same approach with water sprouts.

Although I typically wait until May or June to start working on deciduous bonsai, there are a few jobs that I try to do sooner rather than later. One of these is removing unnecessary root sprouts.