Crabapple Bonsai Update

Crabapple Bonsai, Ficus Bonsai

The apex died back on the crab so this is my attempt at wiring up a new one. Maybe it was the hard winter. I can't be sure but it never died back before this year. I also currently have it growing in a larger plastic pot as opposed to a smaller, ceramic bonsai pot. The plant seems to grow the same amount either way, however, it has only been one year in the larger pot.

This little ficus was rooted from a cutting taken about two years ago. It grows very slowly in this tiny pot so I might look for something a bit larger. I grow this one indoors. It never goes outside ever.

pear bonsai and elm bonsai

It looks like spring has sprung. Most of my trees are pushing leaves like crazy. The first one I believe is an American Elm. The second one I believe to be a Callery Pear. The pear was just repotted into this shallow rectangular tray.

winter crabapple bonsai tree

I keep thinking this one needs a change. Maybe even a trunk chop. I had put it into a much deeper pot after someone on a popular bonsai forum advised me that the plant had probably become stressed after being repotted every year. It's true the plant had a slow start last spring but I had moved from where I was living in the middle of last winter and left all my deciduous trees with a relative. Right near the end of winter all the trees either dried out enough to kill them or, in the case of this crabapple, all of its developing buds died and fell off. It had a slow start because it wasted most of its energy producing a second batch of buds. Anyway, that's what I believe is the case. I can see the buds developing on it already and there are about three times as many as previous years so I hope some of them are flower buds. I collected this one from the side of a road about six years ago and it has come a long way.

Here is an earlier photo of the same tree. As you can see it has been shortened quite a bit over the years. I wonder what it could look like down the road if I trunk chop to the third or second branch.