Time to go back into the ground
I moved this crabapple into this Tokoname pot in the spring. I wanted to photograph it covered in fresh little red apples, but the birds ate them the morning I planned on shooting. It’s not really ready for bonsai anyway; the nebari needs more time, the scar needs to heal and more branching needs to develop, so I’m going to stick it back into the ground in a couple weeks (I’ll post a photo). As an aside, I just noticed how the companion plant’s pot (by Wendy Heller) mirrors the color and texture on the bark on the crabapple (a fortuitous accident).
Clip and grow
The visible scar is where I cut the tree down to its current size (to about 10″ – 25cm, from about 30″ – 76cm) when it came out of the field the last time. There’s another barely visible scar lower down on the back from the first major cut five years ago. This technique is called clip and grow.
Here’s a cascading juniper that went from a nursery pot into a rock garden two springs ago. It has some interesting deadwood (you can’t see it very well) near its base. It may become a bonsai someday, or it might just stay where it is. That’s a larch upper right, a spruce sticking up in the lower right corner, a quince in the lower left corner and a weeping needle juniper peeking out above. The rocks are home grown Vermont natives.
Late summer early fall
Here in northern Vermont, the next few weeks are good time to move stuff from pots into the ground. You don’t really need to disturb the roots much and the ground stays warm for a while after the air cools, so you can plant fairly late. To play it safe I don’t plant much later than about three weeks before we expect the first hard frost. Some people plant even later. Either way, a thick layer of mulch is a good idea.
Does anyone repot in fall in Zones 5,6,7 ? I maintain its OK to do for a couple of weeks at Septembers end. What I would call modest re-potting. How about wiring in fall as well?
Hi Dan,
I used to live in zone 6 and would repot well into September with minimal rootpruning.
I wire in the spring summer and fall, but avoid the winter when the branches are frozen and brittle. Trunks and branches put on much of their girth in the fall, so you have to be careful that the wire doesn’t cut into the bark too much.
Anyone else?
I live in zone 5.
As opposed to watching calender dates I underwent a transformation of my own by watching the weather and it’s trends. It happened all on it’s own but I just found that spring never sprung when the calaneder said it would.
Since, I have watched and waited becoming my own farmers alamanac. When day temps are less than 75 and night temps are below 60 for a couple to a few weeks towards summers end I throw caution to the wind and let fly the urge to repot thinking all the while take it easy…..
I also take them out of direct sun light and keep’em watered allowing them to nearly dry out in between watering.
To clarify Spring is my usual prefered time to repot but sometimes I miss a tree or two and catch them in the fall. Like this fall I’m repotting a young Lonicera.
Gaffer here
Here in the northwest I transplant conifers up until the middle of October . Around here on the island
In some of our microclimates it dosen’t freeze until middle of November and sometimes not at all. We have more trouble in April. Sometimes we get a 0 degree during April, and that can be as bad because it burns and spoils all of your spring flowering bonsai, new maple growth etc. I prefer fall especially if you have a place to put trees in case of a late high pressure system.
Qualicum Brian