March Madness--Repotting Bonsai

Yup, it's that time of year--juniper pollen, warm days, chill nights, and the bonsai starting to break bud. The Ginkgo are showing the faintest hint of green as their bud scales crack open. Looks like everyone survived: the old 18-incher and its two slender buddies. The seedling that cracked its stem in the wind two years ago may turn into an elegant literati.

This morning the Albuquerque Bonsai Club met at Roger and Judy Case's house for soil processing. Roger had a couple cubic yards of red lava rock trucked in and for $1/gallon you could screen all you wanted.

I came away with 5 gal. plus 5 new Ginkgo seedlings. John's thought was to plant the larger #18 in the middle of a forest of smaller ones. Using all but my literati candidate, I placed them in a "Journey" arrangement--large focal point forward and smaller groups of three behind in an oval pot.

Here's the before:

The trick is to make sure that no 3 trees for a straight line, which is harder than it looks. The result is not particularly striking right now, but when they leaf out in the next month, I'll have an isosceles triangle of leaves formed by the groups canopy. Let's hope they all survive the transplant shock.