Hi everyone Nigel Saunders here it is a Beautiful sunny spring-like day today Is going to be all about updates I'm Going to go through the glass greenhouse And show you updates of all the trees It may feel like spring-like weather Outside but there's still snow on the Ground here Spring comes much earlier here in the Glass Greenhouse so a lot of the trees Are leafing out earlier than they would If the trees were outside so today I'm Going to put each tree one at a time on My bench here and we'll take a look at It I'm starting today with the Katoniaster I removed almost all the roots off of it And almost all the branches hoping it Would flush out regrow a root system and It seems to be doing that I have lost I Think this Branch here This part of it's alive but the this Part seems to have died off I've got some new shoots coming off the Trunk here and I have some flower buds Developing Here's a close-up look at the flower bud And there's Lots more developing over here too And some on the end of this branch I'm going to do some pruning to this Tree while I have it out on the bench I Have these two long branches at the back Here which I don't really want to
Develop I've got to Branch out the back Which is a nicer branch I left these on so it would have Something to grow some branches that Weren't pruned so I'm going to prune Them back today just shorten them so I'll take this one off here And the other one off maybe here Hoping you know Balance the Vigor more so the Vigor Doesn't go in these branches and it goes More into developing the other branches On the tree The next tree is the willow that Josh Gave me at the last Toronto Bonsai show You can see it's leafed out really Nicely I did a trunk Chop on it here And sealed it with glue in the winter Time and it seems to have done really Really well all the branches came out I didn't get any die back from this cut The branches right near the cut Point Survived so it's done really really well With the winter pruning I'm not sure what kind of Willow this is If it's a a white willow or a hybrid More like a weeping willow I'm not sure But uh I'll try and develop it into something Exciting Next up is my Northern bog Forest you've Seen this recently in a video It's doing really really well the spruce Are turning green for the summer
You can see all the buds just Bursting on them Very exciting So I'll keep up the maintenance on this Forest As the shoots extend I'll pinch them Back you can see there's one extending On the Larch here that needs pinching Like that This one too Let's pinch the tips off the branches to Keep them nice and compact Yeah so the forest is looking really Really good A fun for us to develop into the future The next tree is my witch's tree it's a Very similar planting to my little Cedar Spirit tree a gnarly old tree that looks Contorted And a bit spooky looking This tree was also pruned up midwinter And it's Greening up really nicely the Tips are starting to uh change color and It should be growing very very soon so I Gave it quite a severe pruning to keep It compact Keep those branches kind of going in Contorted directions And I think it's looking really good Behind this tree I carved out A quite a strip of living tissue off the Trunk I'll rotate it around and we'll See how that's doing All right I'll rotate the tree around
So here's the back and you can see all The dead wood So My plan was to have this dead wood strip Eventually heal itself and you can see That happening up top here That the living tissue is closing the Wound up And eventually it should heal this Entire trunk it'll close up and just Leave Scar Tissue behind and I think That'll look really good and I'm going To be doing this uh over and over on This tree to the front side too Stripping off tiny living slices of bark Letting it heal over and creating a real Kind of contorted look to the trunk This tree is planted over top of quite a Large Rock So eventually it'll be Exposed the rock so it'll just be a root Over Rock composition I'll be very selective with my roots Which ones I keep and which ones I prune Away so it makes a A really nice composition You can see the Sedum in this Composition is gone wild it's just Growing like crazy it needs to be Plucked out I've got a lot of this liverwort growing In here lots of weed so I was hoping to Actually repot this this year Checking out the position of the roots On the stone
But I didn't get time it's uh It's hard I uh I have a narrow window For repotting here in the greenhouse and I was sick with the cold and spring and It really it basically took a week Out of my repotting time and you know There's nothing you can do you just have To accept it Some of these trees I may be doing a Mid-season repot others I'll just leave For the next year The next tree is my ash tree I got this From David in Toronto It was a very very tall tree and I cut It down Twice I cut it down quite severely the First time and then I thought no I Should go lower so this winter I cut it Down even further you can see the cut at The back of the tree here And you can see Several places on the trunk where new Branches are forming I'm hoping I get something out the top Here If I don't I'll work with what happens On the tree with what branches I get And I'll kind of carve the Apex around Those branches to make Kind of a a nice looking tree out of This uh Basically uh it's a stump right now The next trees are my box trees My plan is to arrange these trees into a
Nice Forest style planting I was going to do it this spring and Then I thought no I don't need to Disturb the roots at this point in time They've recently been potted up in this Sea tray with this Bonsai soil I'm going To let them grow for another year and Then maybe next spring I'll arrange them Into a a forest type planting so this is Kind of their recovery and year to grow I also have another pot full of box Trees that I'm developing I may use these in that same forest or I May give them away if I have too many Boxwood trees on the go I have a pot full of cuttings uh these Trees are my Jerusalem thorn trees And I've always kept them really warm Over the winter and they've never done Very well This year I Sort of thought well I'm not too enthusiastic about these Trees so I left them out here in the Cold greenhouse and they've frozen over A couple of times lightly Frozen And you can see the main tree is still Green which amazes me and I think it's Beginning to grow on the top now So I was very surprised that they could Withstand the cold weather So maybe it's going to be good for the Tree and it'll grow strongly this year I
Don't know so in this planting because I'd given up on the Jerusalem thorns I stuck a whole bunch of cuttings in Here not really caring if they rooted or Not And a lot of them are growing this Japanese maple cuttings I think Trident maple cutting back here Ah what else is there there's Juniper Cuttings And Just because they're growing leaves does Not mean they've rooted it just means The energy that was in that branch in The sap has made the least push out You won't know until kind of mid-summer If they can survive the heat in the Sunlight if they've rooted or not if They have rooted that's fantastic I'll Have lots of cuttings to give away if They haven't rooted they'll just die off And I'll be left with my Jerusalem Thorn Tree I've got a pot that I planted a lot of Seeds in and the only thing that came up Was this one oak tree and this is kind Of a special Oak because it's the parent Tree had really really rough bark on it For the age of the tree so I'm very Happy to get one of these Oaks survive In the winter time I stuck a jade Cutting in the soil Because the pot wasn't being used Somehow it also survived freezing a
Couple of times here in the greenhouse And it's growing so I have a jade Cutting Not that I need another one but it was a Very thick cutting and I thought oh I didn't have the heart to throw it away So I'll be able to give this away to Someone in the future Next up is my Japanese Gray Bark Elm This was grown from a seed by Michael in The KW club and he gave it to me when it Was a very young seedling and I've been Developing it ever since And so far it's doing really really well It has fairly large leaves on this tree But I think as I get more and more Branches I think the leaf size will come Down There's a close-up look at the growing Tips Yeah a beautiful tree Next up is a small elm tree that I found Growing in the backyard In the backyard the main leader of the Tree had died and then a new kind of Leader had grown up kind of growing Around the Dead part of the tree which Is now decayed and it's just kind of Left an interesting feature on the trunk This tree was quite tall I pruned it off Short it's developing new branches I Prune those off short so I'm hoping to Kind of get some form of a canopy on
This tree Yeah I think it'll be a really Interesting tree in the future Next up is my Royal Oaks these were Going from a seed and they're my oldest Royal oak trees uh I prune all the Branches off the trunks to try and get This beautiful scarfy trunk for the Future so they're very early in the Stages of development as a bonsai but They've got a good start and uh I'm Looking forward to developing them into Beautiful trees in the future Next up is my cascading fuja the one I Call the Wild Thing Kind of a wild natural Cascade Looking very very interesting Getting quite the trunk on it with dead Wood Yeah a very interesting tree I never thought I'd like this tree but I I really do Next up is my American elm bonsai It's starting to Leaf out quite nicely Now [Music] So I was hoping to repot this this year But I didn't get time And last year I moved it from a smaller Tub to a larger tub so I added a ring of Soil around it it was more of a slip pot So there's plenty of room in this pot For the roots to grow so it's not going To hurt
Growing another year and a lot of these Shoots I've left long on the tree you Know this will all have to get pruned Back eventually because I want to grow The thickness of the trunk and the upper Branch structure here so it's kind of Um in the development stages tree for Sure it's a young tree it was started From a seed in the front garden And dug up many years ago and I've been Developing it ever since So it has a long way to go it had This much of the trunk was buried in the Soil and it had inverse taper so I've Been trying to get a nice radial root System to get that flare to thicken up The lower part of the trunk and it's Getting there It's uh certainly improved a lot from When I first dug the tree up and pruned The root system with the loppers Yeah it's uh An exciting treat Next up is a fuja oxidantalus that I got From Connor I cut the top off the tree making this The new leader and it seems to be Growing quite well I left a stub that I'll eventually carve back Yeah a beautiful little tree this was One I was also hoping to repot but There's no wash it's in a mesh pot with Good bone-sized soil Connor said it had A good root system so it certainly won't
Hurt to grow it another year in this Pond basket The next tree is My Rosemary bonsai It's still flowering it basically Flowered all winter Some of the needles have gone a bit Brown but I can see buds forming all Over it so there'll be new shoots coming Out soon I'm just going to let this tree grow and Gain Vigor over the summer and then Probably in Fall I'll prune it back Again or winter and get it ready for the Next growing season Next up are my Douglas Firs these are The Douglas Firs that lushek bought from Out west Wonderful trees I did some big chops I Cut the top off the tree this winter I cut back the long one also And I took some off the top of this one So quite a reduction So I'm just waiting they'll uh grow and Recover and hopefully I'll get some back Butting for next year And continue improving them as bonsai So the main tree here is getting quite Old looking It's getting nice bark on it It's getting a little more compact now So that's all good things these were Very very tall trees when I first got Them Next up is a recent addition an Arizona
Cypress grown from seeds that Derek Collected the next tree is my Trident Maple ceiling this was given to me by Ray It's leafed out really really nicely Should grow quite strongly this year The next tree is also a Douglas fir that Leshek gave to me he brought this down With them last time he visited it's a Very interesting tree and it's a very Small one so it'll be interesting to Develop it from you know a young tree Watching it grow over the years trying To shape it into a nice Douglas fur The next tree is also a new addition It's a cork bark Oak and the seeds were Sent to us by Philippe from Portugal And it's doing really really nicely These were germinated by Jay from Blue Jay bonsai Next up is the Juniper that Joey gave me Uh it's coming along really really Nicely it's developing nicely I've done a lot of work to this tree Since I first got it it was uh kind of Had a lot of branches growing up from One spot and I kind of simplified it And got it down to a I guess it'd be Called a semi Cascade at the moment and Maybe it'll slowly turn into a full Cascade As the branches grow longer Next up is my Norway maple I did winter Pruning on this tree I took off the main
Leader here It looks like this lower branches died Off the upper one is fine It's got some new buds coming out off of That trunk Uh I pruned this leader too This side of the tree seems really Really strong it's already leafed out Got a new shoot at the back that I may Or may not keep I've got a lot of dead wood that needs To heal here So I'm hoping you know this leader takes Off in Vigor again this summer and Starts to heal some of that Deadwood Um you know starts to Grow around it closing in that cut Yeah this tree's being uh it's seen a Lot of hardship it was developed from a Seed in the front garden dug up made Into a bull's eye and it's been Struggling I had those Problems with the roots where I had the Grubs in The Roots eating the root System which really weakened the tree And then I repotted it last year Last year it had a really strong summer Growth I'm hoping I get the same this Year I didn't repot it this year I think It'll be fine for another year in this Pot and then we'll repot it next spring Next up is an elm tree that just grew in This pot all by itself
I didn't plant it or anything I can see there's a little spruce tree Growing in this pot also and I'm not Sure if these are cuttings or if they're Just dead I'm not sure But anyway this tree doesn't need to be In a big pot like this I probably should Have repotted it this spring but I Didn't get time so I guess it'll stay in this pot for a Another year or I may do a mid-summer Repotting once these leaves have come Out and they've hardened off And the temperature starts to go up it's Quite safe to repot these trees as long As you don't do you know really extreme Root work if you just take a light Trimming to the roots they seem to Recover just fine The next tree is outside I just put it Outside today because it looks like the Weather is going to be a little better Now and that's my birthday Pine my Scots Pine So I've done you know a bit of pruning To it now It's in the pot I'm doing that top down Potting method Where I've bare rooted the top half of The root system Put in good Bonsai soil So I'm hoping to grow a good root system In the top half now of the soil on the Pot
Which is you know above here and then The bottom half Because it's in that field soil it Shouldn't encourage strong growth of Roots in the bottom half so the Bonsai Soil should encourage your roots to grow In the upper half so then I can Eventually get rid of the bottom half of The root system and put it in a bonsai Pot that's the theory anyway So we'll see if that happens you can see The candles are just starting to push Out on this tree now So It's outside today If it's starting to get cold at night I'll put it back in the greenhouse but Uh I thought if I can keep it outside I Will because it takes up a lot of space In the greenhouse I have to keep it on The floor I can't lift it up on the bench it's too Heavy So here it is it's in its you know where It sits for the summer and Hopefully it'll stay there But I'll certainly keep an eye on the Weather The next tree is a Scots pine in that Pot that Shanny made I've I'm not happy with the styling of this Tree I
It's kind of strange with this Branch Out front here I've thought about tying The branch down getting it kind of out Of the way I've thought about doing a lot of things To this tree I just haven't done Anything to it yet but I'm sure I will In the future it may get redesigned to Be more of a conventional Pine with a Kind of a twisty trunk I'll have to see I'll uh It'll be one of those trees that I'll Look at it one day and go okay let's do It let's redesign it The next tree is a Canadian hemlock tree And it's planted in a naturalistic type Planting To look like the tree is growing over Top of a rotted log So this summer I'll let it grow I'll Manage the growth to kind of keep the Tree shaped And that'll be about it Next up is my Bird's Nest Spruce I just Recently potted it up in this pot by Sophie And it really changed the tree it's uh Quite a dramatic transition Yeah I'm really happy with it the new Shoots are just opening up now you're Starting to see the green on them So that should look a little more Fuller Once those shoots grow in Next is my three tree planting root over
Rock fuja occidentalis I repotted this this spring gave it Quite a severe pruning in the winter and I can see all kinds of back buds on the Trunks So I think it'll green up quite nicely And I think this will look really good by Kind of mid-summer I think it'll really Fill out and uh look very miniature I Hope Next up is my Austrian pine I have a Couple of sacrifice leaders on this Pine That I'm letting grow to thicken up the Whole trunk on the tree To also try and even out the trunk a bit It's a bit lumpy looking the trunk So that's what's going to be happening This year I'll let those leaders grow Unrestricted all the rest of the Branches I'll be pinching the candles on It the new growth to even out the Vigor On the rest of the tree And hopefully those leaders will take Off thicken up the tree even out the Lumpiness on the trunk and make it Better tree for the long-term future Next up is my Fern accent plant So I defoliated this in the winter took Off all the old fronds Now I can see These I guess folded up prawns are starting to Turn green
And I'm sure they'll be popping out soon So that'll be exciting seeing all these Ferns kind of uncurl from this lump here It'll be very exciting And that's in a pot by Wayne Next up is my pomegranate that I just Repotted recently Into one of raised pots That has the bluish purple highlights on The feet Yeah I think it's going to going to look Quite nice I can see the leaf here at The top there is starting to Leaf out so That's exciting looks like one up top There too So yeah I'm hoping this grows really Well over the summer Recovers from the repotting nicely And I eventually end up with a really Cool pomegranate tree Next up is my elephant pending with the Thuja occidentalis trees Quite a a cool planting I I was hoping to get this repotted this Year but I didn't get time So It may have to live in this pot for Another year this broken up seed tray Hiya I thought about making this into More of a Canadian type landscape Saving the elephants maybe for my uh Acacia trees So that may still happen I uh that's the Plan anyway when it'll happen is another
Question it might happen next spring The next tree is my little Cedar Spirit Tree I repotted it this spring into a Pot that Sophie made Quite a change for the tree And the tree seems to be growing quite Nicely There's a lot of new green growth on the Leaves here Yeah so quite a transformation for this Tree this year I was hoping to do that With my witch's tree down here Do a similar kind of repotting but I Just didn't get time so that can wait For another year The next tree is my black locust tree It got quite a pruning in the winter but Now you can see it budding out Several places leafing out is even a Back butt on the trunk in here So it's looking really good it's Starting to get old you can see it's had One Two three Maybe four big cuts on the tree in its Life And it's developing you know some nice Subtle movement and taper to the trunk It's coming along quite nicely I'm very Happy with my black locust Next is my Korean maple So this is one of the first trees I Repotted this spring gave it quite a Root pruning and it seems to have
Recovered quite nicely It's leafed out it's starting to grow It's starting to gain Vigor there's more Buds popping out on the trunk here and Down here So it seems to survived the repotting Quite nicely Which is always a good thing that first Repotting is always the toughest one Kind of reducing the Tap Root and Getting a radial root system underway Next up is my Japanese black pine this Was another tree that was started by Michael in the KW Club from a seed In the winter I prune these two strong Branches off each side leaving a stub That I'll remove later on I'm hoping by taking that Vigor out of Here that some of these branches start To grow down lower And then eventually I'll cut the top of The tree off and create Kind of a nice Little bonsai So it's doing very very well Next I have a pair of cryptomerias Cryptomeria japonica's uh I gave them Quite a severe pruning over the winter And they haven't started growing yet but They will I can see buds coming out on Them So I think they've made it through the Pruning quite easily and I expect some Pretty strong growth this summer on them
Next up is my European Buckthorn that I Grew from a seed in the front garden for Many years it was in the ground then I Dug it up Put it in a bonsai pot And we'll see how it does I've had bad Luck growing this in the front garden Every time I try and grow branches they Die off but Maybe in the pot here I'll be more Successful because I can water and Fertilize it more than I did in the Front garden so I'm hoping for good Things with this European Buckthorn it's Certainly got an interesting trunk on it So it can only get better I hope Next up are my siberian Elms I gave them Quite a severe pruning over the winter I may have lost some trees There's a couple this one This one That has no leaves coming out on it Maybe even this one So it looks like three trees I've lost At least this one seems to be growing So we'll have to see maybe the maybe uh It'll Leaf out later on maybe it's just Struggling a bit But yeah a severe reduction of these Trees I was hoping to get these repotted And I may have to do an out of season Repot on these I just think this pot is Going to be jammed full of roots Yeah
So yeah we'll see what happens with this Planting uh it may be a out of season Repot for these trees Next up is my Osage orange Forest these Trees were all grown from seeds Starting to look good I think it's a Nice Forest planting They seem to be leafing out quite nicely There's a few that don't have leaves on Them That one But that one has buds so maybe some of These smaller ones they may take a Little while before they Leaf out but I Think they'll survive I kind of pampered them over the winter Uh so some of the ones that I cut back a Little more severely may take a little Longer to Leaf out but I'm very happy with this planting I think it'll look quite nice when it All kind of greens up in early summer The next tree is the Russian olive tree This was a tree that Derek Grew From Seeds gave me one I gave it quite a Reduction in the winter it was like Three or four times this height It seems to have leafed out very very Nicely It's another one that I can maybe just Uh pot out of season maybe a slip pot Into a larger pot maybe with a little Bit of root pruning But yeah a really nice tree
The next tree is my Crimson Hawthorne I Repotted this tree this spring and it Seems to have recovered quite nicely It's leafing out and growing with lots Of good Vigor so that's good that it Survived its first root pruning And I think it'll be a beautiful tree in The far future Next up is my lavender tree that uh Zin Gave me this was uh he pulled it out of His front yard and I've been growing it Ever since I did a lot of reduction to It this winter Kind of simplifying it and It's growing again uh I don't know if I'll get any back butting on the trunk Or not but we'll see I noticed there's Lots of growth coming up from the roots So yeah I don't know what this will end Up looking like in the future but I'll Just keep growing it and try and keep it Alive every winter And see what it turns into I have one more Tree on the left side of The greenhouse so I've done the top Shelf here underneath so this is the Last tree from the corner back there and It is my small Leaf linden tree Here it is So you can see it's butting out quite Nicely You can see all the green buds My leader here looks like it's Developing nicely I've got some buds on
That So that's exciting around the back side Is the more of the Deadwood side of it So again I have lots of buds lots of Choices if I ever wanted to make this The front of the tree I could do that also so yeah a very Interesting tree Very unusual I think I do like the Deadwood side Better I think it looks more natural But both sides are nice In part one of this series I've showed You all the trees on the left hand side Of the greenhouse both the ones on the Floor and the bench And in part two of this series I'll show You the right side of the greenhouse Again all the trees on the Shelf up There and the ones on the ground down Here All of the trees on my channel have Their own playlists so you can click on The playlist and follow all the steps I Took to get the tree from where it was How it started to where it currently Sits now a lot of trees on this channel Are fairly new trees so there's not it Might go back a year or two or three or Four but some of the trees I've had for Many many years and the playlist goes Back 10 years so you can click on the Playlist you can always search on the
Channel for the playlist go to the Little search bar type in the species of Tree you want to find and it'll bring up A playlist Or you can just look in the description On each video of that tree and it'll be There'll be a link to the playlist in There So tomorrow I'll be doing the right hand Side of the greenhouse a tour of all the Trees on that side and that is all for Today I'm Nigel Saunders thanks for Joining me in the Bonsai Zone [Music]
Creativity in writing is becoming a scarcity.
Between the constant temptation to dance for the algorithm and the staggering advance of artificial intelligence, our world is spiraling into what I believe to be a creative crisis.
For us to remain an emotionally-aware race, while at the same time pushing humanity forward, we must cultivate and champion creativity both in ourselves and in the generations to come and write as we feel.
This is why I’m dedicating the next decade of my life to exploring the subject of creativity as both an artist and teacher.
I hope you enjoy my content
Best
James
My Bonsai Journey
