I have had another Bonsai night when John R and Tony W came over for some help and advice. Tony was first with a bare rooted Hawthorn that had just been collected, he thought he had not got enough root with it, but I have seen Hawthorn with a lot less survive quite well.
It was potted into a fairly deep pot with some good compost and will be kept out of any frost that we may still get.
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Then John arrived with a Crab Apple that he had air layered about a year ago, which he thought had failed and died.
As you can see, in the photo above, the bottom of the trunk was very straight and John wanted to layer the three branches that were left. But after I suggested layering about two inches below the first branch, so it had a thicker base to start with , he liked the idea better.
So that is what we did.
Before removing the section that was originally layered I scraped a little bark, which was still green and so was still alive. we cut the plastic and found quite a lot of roots on the bottom. This was then placed into a small pot with a lot of sphagnum moss added then watered in. On closer examination the buds near where it was removed were starting to swell, fingers crossed it will be ok.
I thought I had retired last year, but it seems to be turning into a full time { unpaid } job.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
