Japanese Stewartia

[Emotter1984]

I thought I couldn’t do any root work in the fall?

 

[Emotter1984]

I was trying to protect it from frost this winter.

My first post could have been super helpful, and outlines exactly what I would have done differently:

So my question for you is this:
What are you planning to gain by slip-potting it into an oversized box, using super heavy soil, while the tree is dormant?

 

[Hack Yeah!]

@Hack Yeah! @bwaynef according to Michael Dirr the cuttings will root but he cannot get them to survive overwintering.

Thanks @atlarsenal , I didn't have my copy of Dirr available. I think I was also confusing japanese stewartia/pseudocamelia with stewartia monadelpha

 

[Owen Reich]

I thought I couldn’t do any root work in the fall?

To clarify, I wouldn’t do much to it until you know the root system can respond well to major work to the top of the tree. I re-pot stewartia grown in nursery mix as the bud scales shift to “actually” open. The bud scales slowly flare a little for last half of winter, so it’s easy to think they are waking up during February on in most climates I’d imagine. My stewartia were grown in ground in North Georgia, and weren’t irrigated for most of their life. Big roots formed @ base in trees’ search for water, but not always in scale for a future bonsai. So, I gauged the two old root locations.

Depending on how long preparing root system for bonsai will take, heavy reductions to canopy may need to wait. It could be fine to chop and repot next spring; can’t tell. There could be a clay blob inside the nursery mix and and woven basket of roots.

 

[Owen Reich]

One last thing. Please let us know if it’s a Stewartia pseudocamellia or otherwise. S. pseudocamellia responds much more poorly to major cut-backs. Roots far more fungal sensitive.

 

[mwar15]

Did you ever air layer this?