Cotoneaster Maintenance

Today I woke up extra early to get some work done in my bonsai garden before I went to work. I'm training to take part in a half marathon on the first of May so every hour in my day needs to be planned to make time for training, bonsai upkeep, blogging and be on time for a full day of work. At this point in time I feel like a juggler keeping all the balls in the air. If one ball drops I need to sacrifice something else to make time to catch up on the lost task. I like being busy as I like a bit of organized ciaos.

I worked on a number of trees this morning but I felt that sharing this trees maintenance with you was the best choice out of the lot. The Cotoneastor is a flowering scrub that is used in bonsai. Its has little white flowers and after the flowers die off there are these bright orange colored berries all over the tree at least that's what mine looks like. I have seen trees with red, orange and other color berries so I guest there are different varieties of cotoneastor trees. They grow out very quickly and if left to grow they shoot out long branches in no time. They also have this tendency to form long thorns on their branches.

When pruning these type of tree make sure you prune back hard as they shoots out new growth from every part of the branch in all directions. I also saw that the tree's trunk does not fatten up by growing in a bonsai pot or seedling tray so make sure the trees trunk is the desired thickness before you start working on the tree and training it to become a bonsai.

I recently started to lift the shading net on the sides of my bonsai garden as the temperature are dropping and the amount of sunlight per day is steadily decreasing. The Cotoneastor that I worked on this morning was right up against the net and grew up in between the net and the fence. It grew one long branch close to the apex of the tree. I normally leave the tree to grow out in the growing season as I love the flowers and fruit that the tree has. If I cut the tree before the end of the growing season I do not get to many flowers. So I wait till all the flowers and fruit are done blooming then I cut the tree back into shape.

Here is a photo of the tree before I started to work on the tree. You will see that the long branch extends over the edge of the photo. I did not want to capture the full length of the branch cause then I would have struggled to get the right ratio between the before and after photos.

Here is the tree after I worked on it. I water the tree well after I trimmed it. The trimming also helps the tree get more rain water as the canopy of the tree extends over the edge of the pot the water falls on the canopy and rolls of over the edge of the pot. The trees roots and soil does not get any water when it rains. I need to water the tree by hand.

I uploaded a short video on youtube on this trees trimming. I also took this opportunity to remove the wire from the tree. The tree is now set in position and can be repotted in September this year.

Here is the link to the video.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Please feel free to leave your comments below.

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