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Recently imported from Japan, I was particularly attracted to this tree as a classic example of a Japanese Trident Maple Bonsai.
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New pot. Recently returned from the Ginkgo exhibition. Sold and off to live in the I.O.M!
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Sadly not all bonsai tales have a happy ending. After exhibiting this tree at the legendary Ginkgo Awards and having it’s picture feature as a full page in the glossy book I sold it because I had to, it’s my job. It came back to me about 10 years later, a bit worse for wear but okay. I sold it again before buying it back again around 2020, this time in a very weak and poorly state with most of the ramification gone and a few other important branches too. My only option was to start over so it went into a bucket for a while to recover and by spring 2023 it was growing a bit better.
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Spring time 2023 and time to really get to grips with the issues here. First up a very hard prune removing dead and overly long material. Literally everything I didn’t need was removed.
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The value of a deep growing vessel, roots form in the zone that is optimum for their needs. If this tree had been in a shallow pot there would have been very little root growth by comparison. The old bonsai pot soil is still in there however.
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In order to facilitate it’s recovery old soil was totally removed along with 98% of the fibrous root mass. This was then put into a massive 180 litre pot and placed in the back yard and allowed to grow entirely uninterrupted.
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Spring 2026. Having been untouched for 2 seasons I cut back the massive long shoots that grew from the top in order to direct vigour to the lower parts. The coming season i expect to see over 2m of growth. Whilst it’s still in it’s massive bucket it also has it’s roots down into the ground. Recovery is going well for now and the story continues.
