Almost repotting time!

      It's technically too early for repotting. But sitting doing nothing is no fun, and with the weather giving hints of Springtime to come I started to wonder what needed doing-or what plants could use some attention.
      I got together some supplies and a few possible pots to choose from. The large black vessel that all the stuff got carried around in is a plastic oil drain pan from the dollar store. I bought several thinking they could make good training containers. I will test and see if the plastic can take freezing and ultraviolet, but in the mean time they make great totes!
     I have several Rosemary that are spending the winter in a south window in the spare bedroom. They used to have a window in an unheated garage-ideal winter quarters for Rosemary, but when I moved to my current house the garage having no windows called for a change of plans. The Rosemary have done well in a spare bedroom that was very bright and with the door closed and vents closed too, stayed under 60 degrees.
     That situation changed not long ago when my daughter got to teen aged years, and took over the bathroom attached to the bathroom-young women need space to spread out their implements and products. She complained about the chill, and forgets to close the door, so the plants have a warmer environment. They seem to get along alright.
     This particular plant was started as a cutting and has an really unusual crook in the trunk, along with some wide arm hug sort branches. It has been in a clay pot for training and I have been waiting for the right time to put it in a nicer pot and concentrate on developing foliage pads.
     With the plant pulled from the training pot you can see that using two different soil mixes in the same pot is not always a good idea. They separate and that resulted in an air bubble between top and bottom layers. There are a good deal of dead roots, since this plant, like all the rosemary I have sits in a place that gets full sun all summer. The plants like it, but the also dont like wet feet, so the mix they grow in is heavy on Turface and sand. Meaning that it can dry out quickly. The plants take it all in stride, but part of this repotting will be cleaning up the root mass rather thoroughly.
    Once the plant was yanked ( gently) from the training pot, a few "real" bonsai pots were considered.

     A plain unglazed container seems to be best, to compliment t the tone and texture of the trunk. The Trunk shape is very eccentric and feels rustic.


     But I had one pot that was the right size and shape, but glazed in two tones of white.  Round pots with the 'nail head' trim like this are called drum pots, because of their resemblance to additional Japanese Kodo drums. I like the style and this one was produced by my friend Tom Holcomb and could be called a limited edition I guess-Tom is out of the potting game, so many of us who know his work are a bit sad there will be no more "Tom pots".



Any way, sometimes, in art as in life, some times the wrong choice is so wrong it's right.

     With the root ball reduced, there will be lots of space for good fresh soil.






 Im using a mix of bark, Turface, Floor Dry ( a product from the NAPA auto parts store-just as good as Turace but 1/3 the price) as well as some large sand and some crushed limestone. Rosemary prefer soil on the base side, and the limestone helps with that.






    Time to prepare the pot, and here's were that roll of what looks like tape comes into play. It actually fibreglass mesh used to cover the joins in drywall before they are 'mudded' to make a smooth wall surface. It cuts with scissors and is self adhesive.

    Time fore the seat belt-the safety strap that will keep the tree in the pot. I often use plain cotton cord, such a butcher's twine for this, although wire is fine too. A good mound of soil is placed in the pot for the plant to sit on top of. It's a good rule to avoid mound that are too big, since that mound can dry out quickly. So although I'm avoiding a big hill above the rim of the pot, the root pace will "sit proud" as the carpenters say-base of the trunk just above pot rim. This will create a nice gentle slop of soil down into the pot. I may be able to get some dry climate moss to take hold, and this bad boy will look really sweet in a few months

   The finished process-so far. On the left, as potted, on the right after some trimming-eliminating some verticals and cutting back to encourage denser pads. This will be quite presentable by mid summer.