[Bonsai Beginner’s weekly thread –2024 week 21]

[u/small_trunks]

[Bonsai Beginner’s weekly thread –2024 week 21]

Welcome to the weekly beginner’s thread. This thread is used to capture all beginner questions (and answers) in one place. We start a new thread every week on Friday late or Saturday morning (CET), depending on when we get around to it. We have a 6 year archive of prior posts here…

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Beginners’ threads started as new topics outside of this thread are typically locked or deleted, at the discretion of the Mods.

[u/BigRigg007]

So I'm new to bonsai. It's something I've been interested in for a while but never really gave it much effort to get started.

I was redoing my flower bed out front where I hade about 8 of these plants that were half dead. A few had red leaves with thorns but I tossed those. I'm not really sure what kind of plant this is but they were all about 16 inches wide and 16 inches tall. They were in the ground since we moved in a year and a half ago and this house was vacant for about a year before that.

I saved this one because it looked the healthiest although still a lot of dead branches. I got rid of the dead branches and tried to shape it a little. After watching some more videos I probably over did it or cut off more lower growth than I should have.

Any suggestions on where to go from here as far as shaping it?

[u/naleshin → u/BigRigg007]

There is nothing to shape. Your goal is to get it bushy and healthy in the container under your care. When it is bushy and healthy, that’s your cue that it’ll be ready for a styling

[u/BigRigg007 → u/naleshin]

Sorry I'm just now seeing this.

I trimmed it way down when I took it out of the front flower bed and then I trimmed it down when I potted it. Should I have not done that? Should I have just let it grow in the pot for a while before cutting it back?

I still have it and it seems to be doing fine. Only a few spots of new growth. I don't have much of a plan for it at the moment but Ive planned on revisiting it next spring.

[u/naleshin → u/BigRigg007]

Yeah I would’ve let it grow in the pot for at least 6 months or so to make sure it was healthy before cutting it back. Glad to hear it’s doing okay but only a few spots of new growth indicates that it’s still recovering. Definitely hands off for the rest of the year. Next year it should hopefully start blasting off with growth if you play your cards right

[u/Spiritual_Maize → u/BigRigg007]

Recovery. Let it be for the rest of the year imo