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  1. Brian Van Fleet

    Keep it or Cut it?

    Here is a fall color shot. This year, I let that grafted branch on the left grow out a few feet to thicken it up. It did more than double before I cut it back, and needs to be wired down a little when the leaves fall.
  2. Brian Van Fleet

    Tricolor Beech development and re-potting

    My bad, two different trees. I love it when people drop full-size images into someone else’s threads. You clearly know what you want to do, so best of luck.
  3. Brian Van Fleet

    Advice on Repotting for a newbie

    Always best to water based on the needs of the plant vs. a schedule, it just seems to me that watering every 2 weeks is really infrequent. Here is a resource from years ago that discusses watering, might be helpful: https://www.bonsainut.com/resources/watering-bonsai-trees.10/
  4. Brian Van Fleet

    Advice on Repotting for a newbie

    That’s probably not enough. I’m watering my ficus every 3 days or so keeping it in the sunroom. I repot it in late June.
  5. Brian Van Fleet

    Advice on pre bonsai ginkgo

    You bet. It’s what I did with mine and it turned out pretty well.
  6. Brian Van Fleet

    Advice on pre bonsai ginkgo

    Looking at your tree, I would probably chop it really low in the early spring, down to 8-10” tall if you want at 30” tall tree eventually. I would let it grow freely for 2026 after chopping the trunk, and then dig it up and do some work on the roots in the spring of 2027. Then, it may be ready...
  7. Brian Van Fleet

    Advice on pre bonsai ginkgo

    If you’re putting it in the ground, I’d just put it in the ground and let it grow. It will “stool” up and throw shoots from everywhere for a few years. After a few years, you can dig it up, prune it hard to create a trunk line, and then back in the ground for a few more years to accelerate...
  8. Brian Van Fleet

    Advice on pre bonsai ginkgo

    Welcome to the site. First steps depend entirely on what you want it to look like and how big you want it to be. Normally, this tree would benefit from a few years in the ground to fatten up the trunk. Yes, some branches will need to be removed along the way, but really not yet. However, if...
  9. Brian Van Fleet

    Japanese Maple, 'arakawa'

    Night shot of some fall color.
  10. Brian Van Fleet

    Fall color 2025

    Trident Maple, Ino pot, last night…
  11. Brian Van Fleet

    Tricolor Beech development and re-potting

    First, to me the image on the left is better bonsai material than the image on the right, so in my opinion it has regressed. I’ve done it too. Second, repotting into a narrower, deeper container will not “get the roots in order” since bonsai pots are typically wider and shallow. This is...
  12. Brian Van Fleet

    Tricolor Beech development and re-potting

    You didn’t ask, and I hope your tree makes it, but my experience with beech is similar to @Gabler: they are unforgiving to training, need to be allowed to develop slowly, and they will punish efforts to be pushed like they are a maple. Like mine did, yours has regressed over the years. Out of...
  13. Brian Van Fleet

    Tricolor Beech development and re-potting

    Was this recent work, as in repotted in December into the smaller, deeper pot, carved and wired?
  14. Brian Van Fleet

    Bonsainut.com url unreachable?

    Then how are you here?🤣
  15. Brian Van Fleet

    Wow! New Blog

    Good to see ya back at it, Al. Looking forward to seeing some updates from your collection.
  16. Brian Van Fleet

    Bonsainut.com url unreachable?

    We’ve been meaning to tell you….and there’s no easy way to say it…but… 😂😂😂
  17. Brian Van Fleet

    Japanese Black Pine Refinement

    He’s a pretty smart fella.😂
  18. Brian Van Fleet

    Shohin Zelkova

    Looks great Serg! Definitely has a big tree presence.
  19. Brian Van Fleet

    Erodium Winter care in zone 6/7

    I don’t think they come back after a few freezes in a pot.
  20. Brian Van Fleet

    Erodium Winter care in zone 6/7

    Y’all make me jealous. These are my favorite accent plants but I always seem to forget to bring them in when it gets cold outside.
  21. Brian Van Fleet

    Shimpaku from Evergreen Gardenworks

    Thanks Rob, good to hear from ya.
  22. Brian Van Fleet

    Promote back budding arakawa

    Thread-grafting is a good solution in this case. You can stick a new branch anywhere you want it and it will reliably make it.
  23. Brian Van Fleet

    Japanese Black Pine Refinement

    Cutting candles weakens the tree a little overall because this year’s needles are the most efficient, and you’re removing them in the peak of the growing season. Leaving them helps strengthen the tree overall, even though the outer and upper shoots are strongest, the weaker and interior shoots...
  24. Brian Van Fleet

    Shimpaku from Evergreen Gardenworks

    Not that I can recall. Itoigawa will do that, and you just need to let it grow out, and then trim it away when mature foliage returns.
  25. Brian Van Fleet

    Help with juniper identification...

    It could be J. ‘torulosa’, Hollywood juniper, but I can’t remember seeing those with juvenile foliage.
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