Another one for bonsai. This time I cut in half almost all of the leaves.

Love the firm of this one Kadie

Thanks, Gigi!
By the way, her name is Gigi.

Awwww what a beautiful name

And then there's "Chubbs." Some of his branches had been pruned back and some leaves cut three months ago, but he has not grown very much since.















Lotsa work here...all those outer leaves must be cut so as to expose the gazillion tiny branches growing inside the outer foliage. The tiny branches need sunshine to be able to grow.

Wow! And these were from your seedlings? What do you do with the branches that you cut, do you try to grow them?

I tried to grow the pruned branches from this one three months ago but they were not woody enough so didn't make it.

Here's Chubbs all spruced up. I think I might have taken off too much. I kept trying to get a symmetrical balance to him so would cut here, turn, cut here, turn...oh not enough, cut... Oh well, they will grow out. But I think I didn't take enough off the top.

I see, I have not trimmed any of mine. They are now reblooming.

The new trimmed look of your bonsai look great to me!

I love the look KD. I think you have done a great job.

I think this is an exquisite specimen and you are making it one that will be an outstanding feature in you garden.
You trimmed out leaves so nicely.
I need to find out more about whether they do any selective pruning of inner branches. I have seen at this stage where they will take some of the outermost branches and hold them down with wires to the side of pot. I believe this forms the "mushroom/tabletop" form we see and open it up so light gets inside.
Beautiful,
Rick

Thanks guys!

Thanks Rick, for advising on nipping leaves 1/4" from the stem instead of forcing dormancy to make the leaves drop off. I couldn't do the nipping all the way in because the baby branches had formed right above the leaves and didn't want to damage them...virtually no leaf nodes as the leaves never dropped. I did more shaping than focusing on individual leaves (there are hundreds of them). I was kind of nervous during the trimming process as I didn't want to stress Chubbs too much. After he is settled in his new media I will nip some more. Should I prune some more at the top?

Here is a picture I found awhile ago on the internet...not one of mine...looks almost like Chubbs.

This will be the last one I bump up. The bumps were posts with the most recent activity, but if anyone has one they've started or replied to they can find it faster on their page and post a reply or info and it will move the post in front of the spam posts until Dave gets around to removing them. I hope he removes my bump posts as well since they will have lost all relevance when the spam posts are removed.

Showed this one earlier as a bonsai candidate and had repotted to a bonsai mix on Sep. 10


Since then I had cut her leaves close to the branches and have kept her in shade getting only filtered sun for a couple of hours each morning.


Here she is today, Sep. 23, and she still continues to produce blooms.

Kadie, great form and blooms.

Kadie, how did you get the plant to branch?

Very spectacular, Kadie. I love seeing the blooms all come out in a truss like that. So beautiful.
Is it not amazing how long the blooms last.
I know with Ken raising Orchids can contest to their bloom longevity. My Phalaenopsis orchid bloomed from April until June.
Rick

Yep. I had two varieties of Vanda that were basically in bloom from March through August, and another variety of Dendrobium that were in bloom for two months. All my Phalaenopsis stay in bloom for 2-3 months. I sure wish my Cattleya alliance orchids bloomed so well and so long.