Bonsai is an art of patience. Sometime around four years ago I found a Japanese holly growing wild in area where I knew I was able to collect. It was overgrown, but I saw potential for not just one, but at least two trees. I waited until the following growing season to take an air layer (which you can read about here), and then until the spring after that to dig the parent plant (which you can read about here). It has been recovering in a planting box for the last couple of years, so we are four years in and we aren’t even to the fun part yet!
These trees have been growing strong and it is time to begin some work. The “parent” plant, above, needs to have some large roots reduced to get it into a smaller container. The air layer is ready for a major pruning to establish a design, and there are bonus plants too! When the parent plant was collected, a couple of smaller “offspring” growing at its base were also collected and potted separately.
The smallest of these is this oddly structured bit that seems to have formed as two parallel roots extended downward from a branch. We will see how it develops over time.
You can probably tell from the image above that I made some preliminary decisions on this second “bonus” plant. I had decided to move it toward another small, shohin size tree like the first, but left the long sacrifice branch… until now!
With this little guy in a pot and the sacrifice branch removed, I hope to be able to develop the branching fairly quickly.
The air layer is pretty well established in a pot now and some big cuts have happened to get it to where we see it below from last season.
The plastic pot broke when it fell in a wind storm last fall and the plant was slip potted into the pot you see below.
This spring I went with a much harder cut back and expect a burst of new growth that will lead to the early stages of a nice tree with a leaning, if not wind-swept design.
Getting the parent plant into a smaller pot was much more involved.
I removed some screws from the box so I could start teasing out the roots and reducing the weight of the root ball before I tried to move it.
I had to make some hard cuts, especially in places where over-large roots had smaller branching roots that could take over their work load.
At times, I just kept stepping it back, hoping I hadn’t gone too far. I am reassured, though, by the vigor this plant showed last year and after its original collection. I am confident the tree will recover, and I’m excited that I was able to get it into this pot.
I pulled a couple of primary branches down, but a full initial styling will wait until the tree has recovered.
That’s the whole family of Japanese holly… all from the same source, and all in early stages. I look forward to sharing them again as they progress.
Bonsai Iterate 
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