u/BeautifulDifferent17

I've been meaning to really focus on one species a bit instead of always looking for new species and after really enjoying working my first Deshojo last season I decided get five new ones for this year to grow each differently as a bit of a study/experiment and to get really focused in on JM care.

These are the 5 trees as I received them, and the 5 directions I decided to try with them.

Tree 1: There wasn't anything super interesting about this one, so it became my candidate to ground grow. I dug a hole, put in a large nursery pot with holes for the roots to escape, and planted the tree in there in my bonsai soil mix. The plan is to just let this one grow in the ground for a couple seasons to try and thicken the trunk as much as I can, and potentially take a bunch of air layers from it to start new trees.

Tree 2: This one I just wanted to put in a larger training pot with a false bottom to try and help with the development of the nebari. Then plan relativity similar in that I just want to let it thicken and develop roots and I will repot on a couple years to work on roots.

Tree 3: This one I gave to my wife to take care of (With my help) to learn on, so they are making all the decisions. I figure helping teach them about how to care for Deshojo would help deepen my knowledge of the species. They picked out a nice oval pot they liked that we had laying around, and added some moss and a figurine for a more "Instant Bonsai" approach.

Tree 4: I wanted to try a cascade maple. I planned this tree on an angle in a cascade pot I had, and used 3mm gauge wire to bend the top down below the rim of the pot. I then went through with lower gauge wire (anchoring to the 3mm wire) to start positioning the branches. I know it's not going to thicken as well in the smaller pot, but once the basic cascade shape is set a bit I might move it back to a training pot in a couple seasons to thicken closer to where I want the end product to be.

Tree 5: I wanted to try some more creative planting techniques, and I found and old birdbath that I wanted to repurpose for bonsai. I drilled holes in the middle for drainage, but was worried about water pooling on the outer rim so decided to wire in some mesh and create a muck wall (mud and sphagnum moss) to attempt an "Island with water around it" look. The pot tests went really well with the walls holding and excess water draining from the bottom still, so I thought I would put my last deshojo in there and moss over the muck walls completely. I am keeping a very close eye on this one as I'm not sure how the unconventional planting will affect how I have to water/care. But as of right now, I am pretty happy with how it looks and am hopeful I could get an interesting result from this one!

Any feedback, comments, or ideas about either the species or any of the trees in particular would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Really liking the look of this new larch. Just giving it a year largely untouched on the bench to get use to it and make sure it's growing well.

Tucked inside for the day under the skylight while my other trees enjoy the cold and rain. My understanding is these are pretty temperature sensitive.

I'm in my 3rd years of maintaining a decent feeling practice, so I decided to get a tree closer to the refinement stage this year for me to practice more refinement techniques than I can on my younger material.

I decided upon a Princess Persimmon (with a smaller male plant in order to be able to get fruit) and am really happy with how they are looking in person on the bench!

I have just slip potted them into similar sized pots I had laying around for the season, and will focus on getting them get established this year; potentially looking to do root work and repotting early next year.

Really excited to start start working on them and seeing where they go! Any advice/input for the species or these plants in particular would be great!

I've been busy the last couple weeks finishing all my repots for the season, doing the Bonsai Shuffle in/out of the garage to protect from frost when needed, and receiving ~15 new trees by mail and slip potting the ones in cracked containers into similar sized pots for the growing season.

Finally, the weather forecast for the next while is looking good and most of my trees can be setup on the bench for the growing season permenantly. (Still doing the bonsai shuffle for some newly acquired Chinese quince [Chojubai], Dwarf Pomegranate [Punica granatum], and Hong Kong Kumquat [Fortunella hindsii] that are very cold sensitive)

Really happy with how the bench is looking this year, and am really excited for the growth to start taking off for the year!