Acer air layer Progress

Heading to the dormant season, the chunky Acer layer is doing REALLY well. The small pot that originally held the growing medium was chocked full of roots by the end of the summer. That was replace with a larger pot and some soil, essentially growing the air layer on in stiu on the parent plant.

As cold weather is coming, that has now been insulated and placed in a sheltered location. My intention is to separate in Spring, just after the layer has received a boost of energy from the parent.

It's quite a large layer, so it;s going to need a lot of support from the root system stright away, so this seems like the best way to give it the best shot.

Looking forward to working on both specimens as trees in their own right. Beautiful autumn colours!

Chinese Elm - Root Over Rock

This was bought as a sapling at the same time as the Acer. It was worked as a root over rock from the start and it's probably 

something like 27 years old.

It's always been in a bonsai pot, so it hasn't got as big as the Acer/ Again, needs some work, it's just been maintained and needs some styling. (it was saved from near death at one point, so style wasnt top  of the agenda!)

Second Juniper

Similar story with this one, it has been with my parents for a number of years. It was bought for me by them as a mature specimen.

A bit unruly like the one I brought home. I based my effort on this one.

Will bring it home next year and work on it.

Second Acer

So this one is still with my parents. It is an early air layer off the other Acer that is pictured. Don't know too much about it apart from that. Initial styling I must have done - into a broom style. But then any work until now was not me.

Cutting propogation

And my small collection of cuttings taken this spring. First real try at taking cuttings, never did any when I was "active" previously.

Lots of Quince cuttings from a garden shrub which has beautiful peach/pink flowers in early spring, a few acers  from my original tree and a pink flowering hawthorn collected from the "wild" !

Plan to also take some larger hardwood cuttings from the quince over winter.

Flowering Cherry 1

My last purchase for now. It's an ornamental shrub anyway  Flowering Cherry ("Prunus Kojo-no-mai") and was in full flower at the nursery, so I couldn't resist a bit of instant gratification! Bought a deep but cheap pot to go with it.

Once the flowers had dropped it's been pruned back and I'll just let it grow wildly for a couple of years. Enjoy the flowers and then see where it goes after that.

Just some mild training in the meantime as I don't really know what branches i'll keep or lose at this stage.

Privet 1

Another internet purchase, an "indoor" bonsai. No such thing really, but it seems to do OK. Needs to be at the window to get enough light, but positioned it away from light for a while to get some long growth, which will now hopefully harden off and balance out the look of the tree in the longer term.

This is how it looked when I bought it. Pretty shapeless, but it has potential. Not really a serious long term tree, but again, for a bit of fun.