Taming the prickly bush

You’ve seen this tree before.

I’m a bit lazy at the moment, but there have been several blog posts on it in the past.

I had even done a post on creating the pot from concrete. It’s there in the archives.

If someone wants to search, I’ll post the links and even mention your name at the end of this post.

But for now, I’m in the moment. The tree needs work. It’s a Brazilian Raintree (Chloroleucon tortum).

First step is to defoliate it. You can usually tell when a BRT needs to be defoliated by the old foliage not wanting to be perky (or always looking like it’s wilting) and you can see the new buds ready to pop.

So, it’s a snipping time.

Komorebi style!

Since I’m a little lazy today, I won’t be telling any stories or revealing any secret professional secrets this time. Just the usual B.S. I talk about.(Bonsai Stuff, as it were). Well, here’s one secret: defoliate before you repot. That way you don’t have to clean up the leaves on the fresh soil surface.

All nude: And ready for wire removal.

I unwrap the wire myself. You can reuse it that way.

Now it’s repot time……ok, one more trick: you don’t need an expensive saw or repotting scythe to remove a tree from a pot. An old steak knife works fine. Steal one from your Mum next time you visit. Or from your Aunt Minnie’s mismatched set. They won’t notice it.

Empty pot.

Good root mass.

A little wash and you can see my masterpiece concrete pot.

I call the effect “sexual chocolate”.

Now I’m going to do something that’s frowned upon, I’m going to pot the tree very high in the pot. Why? Because I want the extra growing space and I just like the look. Makes it seem like it’s been in the pot for a long time.

I would usually wire at this time but I think I just need to make a few judicious pruning choices…..

Some sphagnum moss and one guy wire (I can’t help it…)

And Bob’s yer uncle!

I’ll let it grow now until maybe October, and I’ll get wire on it. Look out on the socials for the tree in leaf in a couple of weeks though. I do like to show off, as they say.

But for now, back on the bench, in the sun.

I hope you enjoyed it. Just a quick post for your entertainment.