Twisted pomegranate & Azalea

These two trees were rescued from my damaged cold frame

The first one is a twisted pomegranate that had roots growing out of the bottom of the pot & into the ground. when I moved the pot, the root continued to grow in the ground over the next 2 yrs & became this small tree. It had a deep taproot which needed to be cut off. This left it with few feeder roots.

After having cut off the tap root I potted it up in a Styrofoam box with my bonsai mix and did some preliminary pruning

The 2nd is an Azalea I had planed to plant this into one of my growing beds and let let this grow into a nice sized bonsai. Since so many of the branches are broken I decided to make it into a smaller bonsai maybe a "shohin"?

It was in a 3 gal. pot this is the root ball out of the container

This is after drastic root pruning. The only reason I'm doing this at the wrong time, is because I have a greenhouse & can control the temperature. Normally azaleas aren't re potted until after the blooms fade or if you don't care about the flowers, in early spring.

To add further insult or injury to this shrub you should not cut the roots and make major cuts to the trunk & or branches at the same time, as I have done here.
As a result the shrub has less than a 50/50 chance of survival.......but I feel lucky punk!

This Azalea had a lot of feeder roots and is reasonably healthy and its already been through a lot. I potted it in my soil mix & peat moss and I'm watering it with rain water.

So here it is in its new home I'm not going to cut on it any more just hope it recuperates......... wish me luck!

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Let it snow ,let it snow_____Bah ! humbug!

Enough with the snow already!!!!

I thought it was pretty cool two snow falls, one in December & now one in Feb. I went to bed thursday night thinking every thing was alright........wrong....this is what I woke up to Friday morning!




This snow laden branch had broken off and landed on the juniper below it & some of the
other bonsai trees around it.








This is the branch after I removed it form the nursery.

Luckily there was minimal damage done to the trees that were underneath.



Unfortunately the real damage was to the cold frame. The accumulative snowfall became to much wieght for the frame to hold up under & it collasped.





So I have my work cut out for me. My bonsai are still trapped in the cold frame 4 days because of the snow. Tomorrow I should be able to get rid of the rest of the snow and rescue them & see how much damage has been done.


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record snowfall in metroplex

I was supposed to attend the Ft.Worth Bonsai Society meeting tonight & I was on my way
until I had a flat tire. I pulled off the freeway & got stuck in the snow; I had to call a tow truck to
bring me home.

This is the second snow fall this year so I thought I'd record it, since it was a record in Feb. Here are some pictures of my nursery. The troppicals are safe & snug in the green house and some are in the cold frame; the rest are out in the cold! Read more!