So it looks like spring is on it’s way early this year with Trident Maples and Chinese Elms in my garden already swelling their buds. This might not seem all that strange depending on when you are reading this post from but ‘down under’ we are still in July (at time of writing) and I don’t normally even consider repotting until mid to late August and often run into September and beyond.

NOTE: (for those in the northern hemisphere, the months of June, July and August are our winter. For the Americans who don’t have metric winters; a short summary of the above might be that we are 64 ⁄ 79 ths of the way through winter and trees are budding out.)

I was lucky this year that I had a YouTube celebrity come over and help me out.

For those interested, his YouTube channel “Jeff’s Bonsai” can be found HERE.

I couldn’t afford the royalties his manager was demanding to have his likeness on my page, so to see him unobscured, you will have to check out his YouTube channel.

Jeff is a great guy and we had a great day together and it only cost me a bowl of reheated left overs for his lunch!

I had forgotten how nice it was to have company when doing bonsai. So much of my work is done on my own down the back of the garden in my little shed. I suppose that social isolation generally has only increased with Covid so it was a really nice change to have someone else around lending a hand.

I think together we repotted 12 or 13 trees in half a day or so. I don’t think I could have done half as many in that timeframe, so thankyou Jeff.

The other thing you might notice from the above image is the black mesh screen on top of my green waste bin. This was another idea I got from Jeff (noticed in one of his videos). The night before he arrived I welded up the screen to easily and cleanly get all the old soil into the compost bin without risking the tree or tools falling in. It worked a treat!

As for the trees we re-potted, eventually many of them may make it to the blog but in the mean time a couple you might recognise from older posts are below.

A trident that was beginning to open

The Japanese Maple from a previous post. And yes I broke the 4th trunk shoot off by mistake…….. DOH!

I use the first trident’s original pot for this Chinese elm

A another Trident that I am looking forward to wiring and working this year. (another with 4 trunks straight from the dark-side!!!!)

Thanks again to Jeff. With his help we have broken the back of what can often be an overwhelming and desperate race against swelling buds. Hopefully I can trick him into helping again!