Successful Maple Airlayer

I airlayered this Amur maple earlier in the year and finally removed it a few weeks back.  I didn’t disturb the new roots or moss, just slipped the whole thing into a larger pot of free draining mix that will hopefully insulate the roots from the cold this winter too.  Looking forward to spring to see what I’ve got.

Summer Deshojo

I’m enjoying this Deshojo maple a lot more since heavy pruning and wiring in the winter.  I’d always been unsure about the twin trunks in the first photo and was getting no backbudding down the trunk to fill out the image.  It just kept growing upwards! The trunk was too thin so I decided to make a more compact image. More of a broom style now that its in leaf and I can live with this recent image a lot better.  Nice to see a positive difference in two years.  Hopefully a winter image later this year will be just as pleasing and will show better ramification too.  It’ll go into a smaller pot next year.

summer 2015

summer 2017

Japanese larch Minor improvements

This larch was last rootpruned two years ago.  Since then it has risen slightly out of the pot and the chopped nebari isn’t very attractive.

To remedy this I tilted the tree forward slightly and removed more from underneath the front of the rootball.  I also cut back the long back roots, not by much as it’s the type of work that is best done slowly over time.

One other change I made was to rotate the front of the pot.  I read somewhere that ideally a pot should be displayed with the most stable looking front.  For this pot, it means showing the two pot feet either side of the tree, as opposed to just one foot showing in the first photo above.