A Grand Leap Down the Bonsai Rabbit Hole 12/6/14

This Mountain hemlock is one of the reasons I love Michael Hagedorn’s bonsai.  Simplicity (understatement), naturalness (respect for nature and for this particular tree), balance, vibrant health and all the rest that makes a bonsai sublime are here for all to see (there’s also the missing pot, but that’s for another time).

Now that I’ve waxed about the bonsai pictured above, I’ll go ahead and wax a bit about the level of insight over a range of topics you’ll find when you visit Crataegus Bonsai. Michael’s recent post on 0-10-10 fertilizer is a good example.

Here’s just a little about what Michael has to say about 0-10-10:
“This is one of our grand leaps down the rabbit hole…0-10-10 fertilizer for bonsai. It has very limited uses, and yet it’s often touted as THE fertilizer for all bonsai in the fall.

“The 0-10-10 fertilizer is essentially for maximizing blooms, or perhaps, when you plant a perennial, you might get its roots better established without much top growth. For a bonsai garden with many non-blooming species present, the recommendation to use it exclusively in fall is on very shaky ground….” (here’s the rest).

 

When I read what Michael has to say about 0-10-10 I felt a little chastened and immediately changed our Stone Lantern copy to: Nitrogen-free bonsai fertilizer works best to help set flower buds. Other claims for its uses are for manipulating growth: reducing needles, and increasing your bonsai tree’s winter hardiness, though many bonsai growers avoid fertilizers that do not contain nitrogen. If you do use 0-10-10 for flower bud boosting and perhaps for other reasons, we recommend using it sparing (Our original copy was: “Nitrogen-free bonsai tree fertilizer is recommended for manipulating growth: reducing needles, setting flower buds and increasing your bonsai tree’s winter hardiness.)

 

Another great potless tree from Michael portfolio. It’s an Ezo spruce and this is not the first or even second time we’ve shown it.

 

I’ll say it again: Michael’s Post-Dated is still the best bonsai read.