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Today I popped the cork on spring work. Among other garden and bonsai work, I repotted a couple of trees. It has begun.

Bonsai folks — especially bonsai professionals — will talk about the work that can be done in winter. As a hobbyist, I appreciate the down time I have in winter when my 9-5 can be very demanding. I do a fair amount of work in late fall, but eventually get to a point where I can “close shop” until it’s time to start the spring rush of repotting.

An Amur maple I started from seed a number of years ago started taunting me in early February, pushing shoots and having the audacity to start growing when it was clearly still winter! I’m in Northern Virginia, USA, where the average low in February is 24 Fahrenheit (-4 to -5 C). We had some upper teens this month (-8 C), and we run the risk of frost until mid May. But this maple kept pushing and I just wasn’t ready to start repotting operations quite so soon. Here’s what the top of that plant looks like today, February 27.

Amur maple that woke up early.

I was considering a repot for this plant this year but changed my mind just because I didn’t want to figure out how to protect it from freezing for over a month. So it will grow on this year. No problem. It is in early stages of development and should do fine until next spring.

Now that we are into the last part of the month (a much more reasonable time frame), other plants are chiming in so I decided to break the seal on this, the last weekend of February (not bad), and get started.

This little Elaeagnus umbellata started pushing so it got it repotted into this sweet little round pot…

Shohin Elaeagnus umbellata after repot, February 2022.

And a “sibling” planting to the problem Amur maple referenced above was the other that was repotted today. This forest is made up of plants from the same batch of seeds, but thankfully none of these were quite so eager.

Amur maple forest after repot, February 2022

I was really pleased with the root mat on this one. These trees have been together for a few years and the roots have meshed really well. The tray is quite shallow, but the roots were strong, healthy, and densely matted — just what I expect to find when it’s time to repot a deciduous planting such as this one.

Amur maple root pad free of the pot but holding fast

This is only the beginning, of course. From this point on, I expect to have several trees to repot each weekend well into April. Thank goodness all tree species don’t start at exactly the same time!

It’s a fun and exciting time of year for bonsai enthusiasts, and I wish you the best of it. Now, I think it’s time to pop an actual cork and pour a glass of wine to celebrate. Here’s to Spring!

Cheers!