Hello everyone. I have owned three bonsai. All were bought from a bonsai store at a mall. MY first one dieid wich I believe was due to the use of tap water. I now have graduated and hope to explore the art of bonsai much more indepth but as I spend time learning I'm afraid I might have done everything wrong.
1 My second and still living bonsai is what I believe to be a flowering bush cherry. I know from the tag when I bought it it is a type of cherry. I have had it for about a year and a half.
A few months ago my boyfriend who was taking care of the tree for me thought to be cute and cut it into a sphere on top. Although cute at the time it stressed out the tree and it lost many branches. With the additional stress of moving from PA to NC it is not doing too well.
I recently re potted it, When I did I found two foot long roots that hand been coiled in a circle like they were making a stand for the tree. I cut 3/4 of the roots off but they are still very long. The tree is tall, lanky, fairly bare and what leave it does have look muted and dull.
I fertilized when I re potted with has lead to wonderful new growth but the growth is getting brown streaks on the leaves. The trunk is a straight 1/2 inch wide and one foot tall. I have been keeping it out side. 80% of the branch are on the top 2 inches. I am keeping it outdoors.
2 My second bonsai is a small Japanese maple sapling. I had it outdoors but it have trouble with sun and win burn so I put it inside next to a huge glass door. I was hoping to turn it into a curvy informal upright and had the tree tied to begin growing that way. The leaves are green with red around the edge but have brown spots and I trimmed off the wind and sun burned parts off. as I learn more it seem if have done so much wrong.
Both plants were sold as indoor plants and were kept indoors before the move. What can I do to start my trees feelings better and is there anyway to save my miserable looking cherry. I currently can't provide pictures but ill see what I can do
Really, pictures are the best. Maples are not indoor trees and will not do well indoors. They are deciduous and need a winter period. In the Carolinas, you should be fine as long as the tree is kept outdoors. For the cherry, it could a number of trees, the brush cherry is a commonly used tree for indoor bonsai, but so is the Barbados cherry, and other various "cherry" trees. It sounds like this tree was allowed to become pot bound. You should never let a tree get to the point where 3/4 of its root system needs to be trimmed. This is extremely stressful for the tree and can even kill some trees. The best thing to do right now is to keep it warm to encourage root growth and just to leave it be. A good part of the art of bonsai is in acheiving symmetry, balance. This doesn't mean that the left side of a tree should be the mirror image of the right, but rather that the entire tree should balance. This holds true, as well, for what is above and what is below. A root system can only support so much foliage and branching. So, if you're going to trim off more than 1/3-1/2 of a root system, you can expect that you may have some die-back in the branches and foliage. There's not really a lot that can be done about that right now. Let the roots regrow, and you'll find that some branches may not make it, but others will. Don't necessarily give up on branches that "look dead" either as these may come back next spring. The key here, though, is patience and waiting.
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Kenshin14435
- Senior Member
- Posts: 284
- Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:33 pm
- Location: Northern VA USDA Zone 7A
Maples are really tough especially when you consider that most photos of the best specimens are taken when they're "looking their best". Complete defoliation is done to make the leaves smaller, but since this is highly stressful for the tree it is not done every year, usually, but rather every 2-3, or even 4 years. So, that picture you see, that's what the tree looks like (barring a winter photo of course) for a couple of season in every 8 or 10 seasons or more. 
As with most things bonsai, patience is the key.
As with most things bonsai, patience is the key.