Czech Yamadori

The picture below has been taken in 2018.  Happy days... On this picture you can see the thread graft - on the left side of the trunk.   I was quite optimistic that it is on a good way to make it and that it can be separated  later that year.   Reality? You can see the remains of it on the picture taken in early October 2019.   Bad luck or doing something badly? As you can see I have left this year growth untouched.  Till the early November to be precise... Then a short visit in the barber shop and another meeting with my Dremel.   But that was just a fine tuning. No dramatic change. November 2019 I have left the low branch on the right side in place.  Not sure if I will keep it in the future design.  Height: close to 50 cm

A word used by Czech writer Ota Pavel in one of his stories published in "How I came to know fish".  Meaning?  I know it and if you like to know it as well  - just try to figure it out... The Snake - a yamadori that is very special  for me. It is one of my first mahaleb yamadori.  And a love on the first sight. Having the Snake for a few years in a pot I have had a feeling that adding one or two branches to a lower section of the trunk will improve its existing outline.    ( Note: most of my mahalebs from this location really do not like to put new growth in the lower section of their trunks.  Just strong apical domination - so that's why I use threadgrafts.. ).  2017 The grafts did well for two years after separation but during this summer they both have dried out.   I guess problem with a live vein. Well, after more than three years the only thing that has left is the JIN on the left hand side of the trunk... ...

Just kidding.  Showing lack of respect for a famous bonsai amateur.   A shame on my old bald head... The true fact is that looking at the weather fcast for this week I have made a quick conclusion: "The spring is just behind the corner - lets start with the first items from  my project list for this season.  Banzai." Root pruning Trying to reduce the size of a root ball with the main focus on reduction of the taproot and other main nowadays useless structural roots to get more space for hard working fine roots... Projects for this year 1.  Still need to work on a better transition between the "old and new" section.  I think I will let the current leader to have another full season of an unrestricted growth.  Once I am happy with the transition I will replace the current leader with the small side branch ( labeled NEW LEADER ) 2. Need to produce some additional branches on the  left and back side of the tree.  ...

How much dead wood is too much???   Well,  if I look on some specimen of Prunus mume I know there are no limits for that.   So lets go and see what the tree will look like in another 5 years from now.  I certainly hope for more visible progress... 😎 2017 Finally,  I have separated the stronger of the two threadgrafts.  The other one doesn't look like it is ready to go without the feeder.  Let see how it goes next season... CURRENT FRONT FRONT_OPTION LEFT RIGHT 2012