Tag: bonsai from scratch.

Bonsai in Fall, 2025

November 12, 2025

Dear Liza,

Well, it’s November, so it must be time for the annual Hundred Acre Wood Check-in.

This is what my bonsai forest of three looked like last year at this time.

The juniper, being evergreen doesn’t change much. But the larch’s thin needles go yellow and drop, and the Japanese maple goes bright red.

It’s a wonderful study in contrasts.

During the year, of course, everything is green. I did some weight-training (I know that’s not the proper term) on the Larch to get it out of its straight habit. It was mildly successful.

And after a year’s growth, the Japanese maple (whom I call Mr. Toranaga-sama) has gained quite a bit of height. See him there? As tall as the larch!

And now fall has rolled around again, and the colors play out as they should.

I plan on scissor-training the maple this winter, cutting it short at a growth node to encourage sideways branching. This should help fill out the understory nicely.

And over the winter, I can look back at these lovely colors and be inspired.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Fall in the Hundred Acre Wood

Dear Liza,

My little bonsai forest, which I call The Hundred Acre Wood, is always changing. This last spring I removed my first transplant, Mr. Naito, after I realized he was not a Japanese Maple. I found a seedling that IS, named it Toranaga-sama, and planted it.

Here is the Wood on October 6, 2024.

Toranaga’s three layers of leaves show good health, and come spring, I will begin what is called Scissor Training. This involves lopping the top third of the tiny tree off, so as to encourage the growth of side branches and give it a more horizontal growth habit. This also encourages a thicker trunk, which gives the pleasantly aged effect of a bonsai.

The juniper, an evergreen, is getting taller all the time. I trim it often, dividing and shaping it into two uneven crowns.

I’m not sure what to do with the larch. Its natural habit is tall and straight, which is not what I am wanting for this forest. Two springs ago I wired it into a curvy shape, and now I have hung a weight (several coins in a mesh bag) from the top to give it a real bend, and we will see how it develops over the next few years.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Hundred Acre Wood Progress

Dear Liza,

We got some rain this weekend, so we had a mostly indoor time, and not much to tell about. I thought I’d share the progress of my new-baby bonsai, The Hundred Acre Wood.

The Hundred Acre Wood in March

This is what it looked like back in early March, when Auntie Bridgett and I found these tiny plants at the Portland Nursery. Left to right, they are a bushy little cypress, a tall larch, and a wonky cotoneaster. In their new home, they looked a little frail.

…. and now! Looking good!

But a month and a half in, with nice shade and plenty of water, they are thriving. The cypress is bushier, the larch has sent out fabulous fern-like leaves, and the cotoneaster has gotten even wonkier. This winter, once it’s in dormancy, I will prune it so it has even more lean over the edge of the pot.

I love having the time to focus on these long term projects that don’t HAVE to be done ‘right now’, but need consistent care to progress. They are good for my brain.

Love,
Grandma Judy