Japanese Maple Bonsai Pruning Video – New!

Weather-wise 2023 started off well here at KB world headquarters before rapidly turning into a shit-show once spring dawned upon us. On the east coast the month of May was significantly colder than January as a northeasterly wind cut us deep for many weeks. Cultivating bonsai here in troubled Britain is all about the weather which is only marginally more reliable than the incompetence and duplicity of politicians and the ruling class. A good weather year makes all the difference to exactly what can be achieved with our bonsai

After thirty five years I have noticed that, in a typical British growing season our plants normally do okay. However unlike other warmer places I have been lucky enough to visit there are no guarantees and, by and large, our trees fight tooth and nail to achieve barely what’s required each season. The weather here is always going to restrain our bonsai ambitions and limit the level to which we can rise in comparison with those lucky enough to live under a sunny blue sky rather than a leaden grey one.

Once again this year, despite the weather, most of my own trees did about what I expected. Scots pine, always reliable performers did great, junipers were distinctly average, elms I found piss-poor alongside hawthorns. But, much to my surprise considering single figure temperatures in June our maples of all varieties did great. I have a little deshojo here and it had the best year I have ever seen with bright red colour right into autumn before making a spectacular display of colour before leaf drop. Every year there seem to be winners and losers in our crap-shoot climate, note the emphasis!

So, that being the case I thought it was high time I put together some information on the aforementioned in video form and so here is YET another video, i’m really on a roll at the moment. This poor old Japanese maple arrived here in a right 2 & 8 having suffered almost criminal neglect over a good number of years. It’s sad to me that some folk have so little respect for the work of those who came before but I Guess those are the times in which we live.

Japanese Maple Bonsai Pruning Video – New!

This one runs on a bit and as usual i’m pretty good at repeating myself but only because those points need …… pointing out. Sadly not all bonsai is dramatic or exciting, in fact I would say 99% is repetition of mundane techniques. If you need a bit of excitement, a head rush or an adrenaline shot go purchase an MV Agusta. I already own one and recon they should be illegal, just like juggling live hand grenades naked in public. That’s infinitely preferable to feckin’ up good trees in an attempt to spice up your life but I digress.

The video is now live and I hope ya’ll enjoy it and hopefully pick up a few tips which is exactly what i’m going to go and do now, sweep up all those leaves. Remember to like, share and subscribe so you don’t miss even more ol’ bollocks in the future lovely folk.

Graham Potter