Magnolia in Flower

This is a pretty little magnolia. The pot is lackluster and the trunk/branches are in total disarray. This year I will work on the trunk and branches, but it was repotted last year and I let it rest. As usual, I can't resist the flowers!
They are so beautiful. Don't leave them out in the rain though. I bring this one in every night and keep it out of the rain, and still I am lucky if the flowers last for a full week.

Satsuki Azalea (Korin)

Every Blog needs a little sex appeal. On a bonsai blog, that definately means an azalea in bloom. This one needs initial styling, but could not resist taking a few photos if the blooms. Yes, that are that vivid!
The pot is a Richard Robertson. It is a Very dark greyish, blue/black. You can see the difference between the pot and the jet black on the top of the turntable.
This azalea is orginally from Telperion Farms in Oregon. If you are looking for a great azalea from nice people, contact them!
The second photo shows, what I expect will be the front, who knows until it is done.

Oriental Sweetgum (Liquidamber)

Nice Hefty sweetgum tree. Just repotted it into the very lovely Richard Robertson pot. The underside just still full of gunky field soil which had to be washed out and the remains of the old tap root. It must have take 1.5 to 2 hours just to get rid of the tap root. (Note, make sure you have a nice LARGE pair of root pruners. When you need them, nothing else will do).
I think I will rotate it a bit more in the future. I know it looks like the base has some reverse taper, the that is an illusion of the photo. The crown is WAY too full and needs to be trimmed. This year it gets a lot of pruing and maybe some wire.
This is the first sweetgum I have ever worked on. I noticed a very pungent and odd smell while cutting the roots. It also oozed and secreted fluid as it was cut. Anybody else experience this? The smell was not altogether unpleasant, but odd none the less.
The fall color of this is outstanding.

Rough Bark Japanese Maple

So this one has been sitting on the bench. It grew OK last year, but not great. The chief attraction is the bark (of course). It is nice an corky. I don't think it is an Arakawa though as the bark is very finely textured. I have an Arakawa and the bark is MUCH more fissured (like a black pine type of bark).
The pot is a beautiful pot by Sara Rayner. I may change it out though as I think it competes with the dark bark a little too much. It might be nice if a tree with lighter bark was in this pot. Anyway, no time to repot it this year, so I refreshed some of the soil and started to prune it. I left the lowest branch in an effort to thicken the trunk some more. The taper is not great and needs work.
The final photo shows where I think the new front may be in the future.

Ugliest Trident Ever?

So this came from Guy Guidry who called it the "Ugliest Trident Ever"! I think that might have been a little melodramatic, what do you think.
It needs all new branches, of course. I hope to experiment on it and give it a little more of a naturalistic image. I nice rounded canopy and in the future a much nicer pot. The round is really more of a training pot for this tree.
You can see in the first photo why you should not put your plastic training pots on the ground. It obviously grew quite vigorously... right out of it's pot!
The roots were trimmed without mercy, most everything was pruned and then some very basic wire was put on.
With a great deal of time, this could turn into a very nice tree.

Japanese Quince

Repotted the Japanese Quince. Not sure, but could be a Toyo-nishiki. It had horribly compacted roots. Whoever had it just, kept putting it in larger pots and NEVER root pruned. I found several different drainage screens embedded in the rootball at various levels. I really had to take away a large chunk of roots, but they were so tangled and there were some rotted ones, so hopefully it will push some good new growth. I have read that it is better to transplant in the fall (because of root gall), but I really did not think the plant could make it till then. Not a ton of blossoms, but I will fertilize well this year, clean out some of the suckers, and prune to encourage better blossoms next year.