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If you had asked me early in the day, yesterday, “What’s one thing you have gained with experience in bonsai?” I would have said the confidence to take dramatic action without the fear and hesitancy I had as a newb.

I remember how scary it once was just to repot a tree, and I have watched new members of my local club struggle with the same hesitation. With experience, I have become more confident in a number of bonsai operations, including some bold ones I did yesterday. Then, whether he knew it or not, an experienced artist helped me see that I still have some hesitancy to overcome.

I had the pleasure of spending the day with a study group working with Sergio Cuan of M5 Bonsai Works. I brought the Azalea, pictured above, and a few other trees (which, shamefully, I did not photograph before work started). Among them was the Elaeagnus umbellata shown below in a photo from a couple years ago.

I started the day with an operation I would have once thought very scary – a complete defoliation. To be fair, defoliation should be scary unless you are absolutely certain the tree is healthy and the variety can handle such a procedure. I have defoliated Elaeagnus in the past, including one just a couple of weeks ago, and I know they do well.

As is my habit with these (and some Ficus varieties) I left a tiny triangle of the base of the leaf at the end of each petiole. After defoliating, I wired the tree completely (a task that would have been impossible with a tree full of leaves) and Sergio helped me set the branches.

I’m excited about the future of this tree and looking forward to working with Sergio to develop the apex which is yet to really exist. The apex will be down around the first three branches you see coming off the upper trunk line, and the branch extending up past the top of the photo will be removed after the top part of the trunk thickens up a bit.

If you didn’t think that one was all that scary. Check out this “after” photo.

That’s what I did to the azalea I showed you at the beginning! Do you like it?! (I left three tiny leaves at the top just for you.)

Seriously though, an azalea at this stage of development — the stage where it goes from being an azalea bush to taking its first steps toward becoming bonsai — requires bold action. This little Satzuki specimen (Kahoku-No-Tsuki) had some nice features to offer.

It has nice surface roots (nebari) and a gently curving trunk line. Both have great potential, but for a much smaller bonsai – so, choppa-choppa! No fear!

I am confident that this little… hm, what can we call it at this point… this little stick-with-roots is going to push out a bunch of new branches. In fact, my guess is I will get more than I need. Sounds like a tree I should follow up on. Let’s call that a plan.

The Elaeagnus defoliation and the dramatic cut back of the azalea had me feeling confident, but I also had a willow-leaf oak with me. At the start of the day, I shared that I was just looking for some long-term guidance. I had collected the tree a couple of years ago. It had a nice curve right at the base and was developing some rough bark. I thought it could be something sweet one day, but I just hadn’t figured out what that would be yet.

I would have been perfectly content to go home without making a cut on that thing, especially if I had a plan for moving forward, but Sergio surprised me. He made a sweet little drawing of the tree he could envision in the mess of branches. I guess I had been too hesitant!

Totally stoked to move forward, we wired the main branches, set the structure, and removed the branches we didn’t need — big moves that I had been too scared to do.

I can’t wait to see how it responds, and I look forward to sharing that tree with you in a future post.

A big thank you to Sergio Cuan. It was a pleasure, and I look forward to seeing you next time.