Foreign [Applause] Nigel Saunders here today I'm going to Be repotting my little Cedar Spirit tree My little Cedar Spirit tree was started In 2018. It was a small tree growing near the Edge of a pathway it had been stepped on Many times driven over many times And the trunk was actually bent in half At one time and then the tree repaired Itself which is amazing so there's a lot Of Cool features on the trunk live veins Dead pieces I'm sure as the tree matures That will kind of sort out the live Veins from the dead veins and it'll Become more obvious But a very interesting tree I planted it a root over Rock in um 2020 And today I'm going to expose The Rock More lift the tree up and I may change Pots this is a plastic Mica pot and I Have a nice pot made by Sophie That might look good with this Composition Here is a look at the pot I got from Sophie It might be a little too big it's a Fairly large pot for this tree however Maybe with the rock exposed it'll look Just right I don't know we'll have to Try it out if not it can always go back Into this Mica training pot until I find
The perfect pot for this tree I can't believe it's been five years Since I started this tree time sure Flies when you're having fun let's go Back in time now and look at the trees Progression From the beginning to what it looks like Today the little Cedar Spirit tree Did Ojibwe call it money do jizzicons The tree is an ancient thuya Occidentalis or White Cedar It grows on the North shore of Lake Superior And is likely over 500 years old [Music] This tree is held sacred to the Ojibwe To many it represents survival through The hardships of life Despite its old age it's less than 4 Meters or 13 feet high I'm going to start with these smaller Cedar tree [Music] I'll be pruning this cedar tree which is A thuja occidentalis I'll be pruning it Back as tightly as I can get it Minimizing the foliage and then over the Next couple of years I'll let it grow Again the goal is to get a really Weather beaten tree with all kinds of Twisty veins growing up the trunk and Just a tree that looks like it survived Everything nature can throw at it Right here I go with the pruning
I want to get again that Cathedral type Top where I've got spiers coming up and Then all the tight foliage coming off of Those So I don't want these loose droopy Branches all right let's get this on the Rock now [Music] So It fits in quite nicely there That's got a good front to the tree Maybe rotate it just a bit To about there Now I'll arrange all the roots Let's have a look at the planting now And you kind of have to use your Imagination because you can't see the Rock that the tree is planted on it's All kind of hidden for now Yeah there's kind of the Front of the tree I think it'll look really good someday I This is an intermediate step Soil is piled high with all kinds of Rocks holding the tree in place So I think You know it's just going to take time A year or two of growing And then we'll see what's happening with The tree my little Cedar Spirit tree is Now planted it's a big step for it for a Little treat hi everyone Nigel Saunders Here it has been just over a year since I planted my little Cedar Spirit tree
Over top of this Limestone Rock I placed All kinds of rocks around the roots to Hold the roots tight against the Limestone Rock So today we're going to Be removing all these rocks because this Planting Weighs a lot I'm looking forward to the Next year where where I can remove even More of this soil and Moss from around The roots that'll be exciting I'm hoping to achieve two objectives With today's repotting one is to raise The rock out of the soil surface more Exposing more of the roots and The Rock And I'm hoping to prune off a lot of these Roots that don't kind of grip the rock Ones that are kind of flowing from the Tree into the soil not kind of around The shape of the rock so it'll be a Refinement uh A refinement repotting for the roots and A compositional repotting for the Overall Stone and tree itself I'll put my tray underneath the pot here Like that And then I can pull the stone and the Tree out of the pot Alright here I go My plan is to grab the Rock and pull it Out Uh I can't wrap the tree or my detach From The Rock So this will be fairly tricky to do I
Think Uh let me turn it around So I can grab the Rock And then give a bit of a pull There we go Like that Good looking roots on the tree It's certainly filled the pot with roots That's a good sign The tree is looking really healthy it's Growing well When I compared to those early pictures I think wow has it ever come a long way I'm going to start combing out the the Soil and The Roots Kind of exposing The Rock So my original intention is to have this Sort of like a land water pending Just like the real little Cedar Spirit Tree up on the North shore of Lake Superior So this would be the land side and this Would be the water side Now if the tree does detach from The Rock it's easy enough to position it Back on all the roots are they've grown And conformed to the shape of The Rock So you can see on this planting all the Roots How many there is and on the final Composition I don't want that many I Don't want The whole Rock covered with roots I want
To be able to see individual Roots so They will get thinned out Over the years so you know I just have a Few surface roots not hundreds of Surface roots And you can also see that some of the Roots have kind of conformed to the Rock Others are growing out in the middle of Nowhere So they'll have to get pruned off So I left soil underneath the Rock So Roots could wrap around the rock if They wanted to Oh how many have but I think I'll find out as I Kind of work away here Okay so I'm going to clean up the soil And then we'll come back and have a Closer look at the whole root of a rock Design I'm going to try out The Rock in this pot that Sophie made Just to see if it's in The right ballpark Well I think it certainly is I've got my water site here my land side Here I think it's a good depth I could Bring the rock up a little bit more But I think it's A pretty good size for the tree I'm just Going to get my root rake under here To hold the rock up and then step back And have a look at it Okay
There's a look at the tree in the pot With the rock kind of raised up to where I would probably have it in the final Composition I think the pot looks quite nice with it I could try out some other pots but I Think I think this is a pretty good pot for This tree It'll certainly hold the stone in there Nicely I'm worried if I had a shallower Pot The Stone May slide around and it may You know try and slide off a tray type Pot whereas this I can pile of soil Around the Rock and it's held in there Firmly in this pot because it has a good Wall depth Yeah I'm seeking this as a nice pot for This tree So that will be the pot it's a new home For the future So my next step I've got to get the pot Prepared Get some a base layer of soil on here And then position The Rock Uh before I do anything else and then I'll start working on the roots But I have to know kind of How High I'm Going to have The Rock in the pot its Position Before I you know start working on roots And getting those positioned gripping The Rock
Thinning them out maybe Yeah okay so yeah I think that's a good Match this pot and composition So I will get my drainage screens in the Pot There's two large holes in the bottom And a bunch of wire holes but I won't Need those I've got my drainage screen in the pot So I'll fill it up with a base layer of Soil Okay I think I'll try the rock out I've got you know A little bit of soil on the bottom we'll Try the rock out see what height it's at I don't want the rock these Ledges on The Rock I want those parallel with the Edge of the pot So the stone fits in in this pot quite Nicely It's a good good match I'm just moving it back a bit Maybe over just a little more I think that's quite nice now the height Of the Rock Well could I go up higher I could go a little higher but not too Much more I think if I go too high again The rock won't be held in the pot by the Soil it'll want to slide around so I Think this is a pretty good height The Rock is in the pot enough that it Once I fill it with soil it's not going To shift around
Okay So I either need to build this side up With soil or put a stone underneath it I'm going to try and build it up with Soil I prefer soil in here if I can Because Roots can grow in soil they Can't grow in rocks Foreign So I've got to mix up some more soil I'm Running short and I don't want to run Out when I'm in the middle of potting so I'm going to mix up some more soil And then finish the planting so I'll Make sure it's well watered here I'll put A damp cloth over the roots Like that kind of protect them from the Sun while I'm mixing up a fresh batch of Soil I've mixed up a fresh batch of soil so It's uh perlite safety Zorb and some fur Bark All right Looks like a good mix All right let's get back to work here So I want to tilt my rock up more So get some soil worked in here Underneath the Rock That's getting better That's too high now Settle that rock in a bit Now my rock is kind of protruding over The edge of the pot here I don't really like that
So I'm going to Move it a little more Like that that looks better looks more Balanced in the pot Yeah Okay Now I'm going to step back and just have a Look at it Uh you know I'm looking at the Composition I'm going to move my tray away put it on The turntable and just have a good look At this Before I commit To this overall look I'm stepping back now having a look at The tree it looks like the tree is Tilted Too much towards the left so I'm going To have to straighten that out and I'll Also rotate it around and check it from The side view to make sure it's pointing Up straight in that view also so here I Go As the tree grows in the future it may Need a little tweaking the front view And The planting angle on that but I think For now it's looking quite nice So let's start working on the landscape Now here is a look at the roots and The Rock So as I mentioned I don't want you know
Thousands of roots coming down over the Rock I only want you know a select few Maybe I would say 20 at the most not like a Thousand like it is now so I'll have to Do some selective thinning in the future Another thing I'd like about root over Rocks is I like the roots to divide you Can see this root comes down it divides Into two Comes down and then I like it dividing Again and dividing again I don't like a Single root going from the trunk all the Way down to the soil level I would rather the root divide on the Rock I think it looks more miniature And it's it's a bit harder to do because You know you've got to prune The Roots Fill it back up let them recover and Slowly expose it but Hopefully I have enough roots that Divide that I can kind of just prune Away the ones I don't want If not you know I may have to Mound the Soil up and Continue the root development So I've got a few roots on this side Like I said this one was floating in Midair I'm going to prune that away even Though it's you know a fairly thick root It's just not Not going in the right direction Now there is a few root hairs on it I Could prune this part off
And I think it grows underneath the Planting here And pull it out There Made a bit of a mess but There's another route here hanging in Midair I'll get rid of that Another one here Part of it's dead here get rid of that So here's one of those roots that comes From up here All the way almost down to the ground Level as a single root no taper no Movement so I'm going to get rid of that One I'm sure there's better Roots underneath There Another one's sticking up here I don't Like Rid of that one I think even this one's sticking up too Much Too So the trunk on this tree is rather Unusual uh it's been folded over on Itself so There's a mixture of dead and light Veins in here you can see that where the Trunk was cracked Like I said it was in the pathway and it Being stepped on and driven over and So it somehow lived and healed the live Veins going up each side of the Dead Wood
And it's a bit of a funny trunk because It has a bit of inverse taper in some Views It's not as noticeable in some other Views but uh definitely you know when You look at it here there's inverse Taper but It'll sort itself out it'll add to the Interest of the tree This is a little Cedar Spirit tree after All That has survived Everything Mother Nature can throw at it And Same with this tree it's been It's had a hard life until it became a Bonsai and now It's a little more pampered Doesn't get stepped on or driven over Anymore It gets watered regularly and fed and It's having quite a nice life I think Now Okay so uh I think all is going well I Need to Start arranging these roots against The Rock And then back filling it with soil I think that'll Be my next step So the danger with a lot of root over Rock plantings is You have to ask yourself Is the tree going to outgrow The Rock
You know is this tree going to grow so Much in the future that this rock will Get swallowed up by the roots and it'll Look insignificant and I don't think It'll happen with this tree because I'm Keeping the top pruned Very tight and very carefully Uh Keep that canopy sparse It's not ever going to have a big You know umbrella style canopy that has Lots gives the tree lots of vigor it's Always going to be Sparse and look look like it's just Barely hanging in for survival so I Don't think you know in at least in my Lifetime I don't think the tree will Outgrow this rock Foreign and if it were to outgrow the Rock the plan would be to then stack This rock on top of another rock and Just you know raise the whole planting Up so you have a bigger rock below I'm wondering do I need to bring the Whole tree over so this side of the Planting is closer to the edge of the Pot I'm wondering if I'm giving it too Much room on this side and not enough on The land side I'm going to try Shifting The Rock more See what it looks like I think that's better It kind of places the trunk of the tree About a third into the pot two-thirds
Land one-third water I'll show you that from the distance Here's a look at the tree now With it repositioned in the pot closer To the left hand side and I don't know Initially I really liked it Standing back here I'm not so sure And it's hard to tell because you know I'll be filling this in with moss and Soil So it may change the balance a bit of The tree But I think the overall tree is maybe a Little too far to the left I'm going to move it back a bit how is That now I think that looks more balanced in the Pot for sure You know I I think I think that's Better than having it too far to the Left I think it looks good in this position I'm going to start filling in the soil Around the root You'll notice I took a lot of time Positioning the tree and that's because The tree will be in this position for Many many years And if you don't like the position of it Well You're kind of stuck looking at it for Many many years thinking off only I had
Spent a little more time positioning the Tree a little more accurately and you Don't want to do that you want to Take the time and position the tree The best it can In its current state Okay I should be using my new Stainless steel Chopstick So this side will kind of get be built Up with moss To look like land The rocky shore of Lake Superior Probably one of the harshest Environments a tree will ever see So this side will be water So I might want to put sand on this side And then this side will be Moss So I'll build this site up a bit with Soil Like that and then I'll try and get some Moss on Play On Top To kind of hold that soil in place Yeah Before I do that I better step back and Have a look at the planting once again Make sure Nothing's gone wrong nothing's shifted And it's still looking Here's a look at the planting now Yeah I like that I like the land being Built up on this site and I can see that Being sand
It'll look really good I think okay I'm Going to water the planting and then I'll start applying Moss Here I go with the water Looks like that soil is draining really Really nicely I've got my tray of moss so I can begin Applying the Moss to the planting here Extending that land section Out so it looks like This is the shore I'm sure that Moss is firmly pushed down Into the Bonsai soil Here's a great big chunk of it That'll be good for the back here I think Okay I think that's looking good Now I want to put sand on this side so I'll have to I think I'm a little deep With my soil So I'll take part of the soil away I just have a little bit too much on Here I think All right here it goes The sand Okay I'll give that a water and I'll see How it looks then All right here I go with the water Why are all that Moss I'm going to try sprinkling some Chunks of Not sure what it is stones or something Just to make kind of a shoreline and see If it
Looks a little better I don't know what it'll look like when I Water it if it'll These stones will probably turn dark But they look nice dry I like that I think that's a Crates kind of a nice Shore Yeah that's much better All right let's water them and see what Color they change I'm pretty sure they go dark I think I Use these in my Chinese village pending Yeah But they still look good Yeah that still looks good I like it I'll clean up the landscape I'll pick Out the perlite pieces and then we'll Fly in and have a final look at the tree Before we do the flying I'm just Stepping back having a look at the Overall composition once again So my feelings uh the pot is A little Massive looking for the tree for sure It's definitely Well planted the tree it doesn't look Like it's going to tip over in a storm Or anything Uh And I I think That's probably a good thing because This tree will grow and I'm sure it'll Grow into this pot quite nicely It's just a little heavy looking
Maybe it's just the wall thickness I Don't think it's necessarily the size of The pot it's maybe just a little high Maybe the feet need to be a little more Delicate But I think it's pretty good I think it's uh 95 percent of the way there I think the Planting is looking good So let's fly in now and have a final Look at the tree [Music] [Music] [Music] Thank you [Music] I'm really happy with the progress of The tree today it went from kind of Being half buried in a training pot to Something that's looking a little more Showable a little more finished and a Little more polished I think it still Has a way to go I'll keep developing the Tree to look as gnarly and weather Beaten as I can in the future keeping it Kind of sparse And trying to really uh get dead wood And that interaction between the dead And the light veins to uh kind of really Tell the story of this tree that it's Barely struggling for survival on the Edge of Lake Superior that is all for Today I'm Nigel Saunders thanks for Joining me in the Bonsai Zone foreign
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