In cherry season, quietly plant a cherry to make a bonsai

Strictly speaking, this is a flowering cherry, not a fruiting cherry. In 1997 its owner bought it for two pounds. It bloomed every year, and the owner was very happy, feeling it was being grown well. At that time its owner did not yet know how to make bonsai. Later, after the owner became obsessed with bonsai, this tall, slender flowering cherry tree no longer looked pleasing no matter how he looked at it. Moreover, its bark was tender green and looked young, while the owner wanted it to look old and weathered, so he always wanted to dig it out and work on it.

One day 6 years later, its owner finally made up his mind to work on it. The owner had always been bothered by its height, so he cut off all the upper branches.

After cutting, he found it was still very tall. What could be done? Cutting it off at the waist again would be a bit of a waste. So he decided to do air layering, which would give two trees.

The air layering was very successful. After 4 months it had grown many roots and could be sawn off to grow separately.

He found a beautiful pot and put it in. For this kind of flowering tree species, a colored glazed pot is a very fitting match.

Compare it with the owner's hand to see how small this little cherry is. It is about 2.5 cm in diameter and about 9 cm tall, very miniature.

Over the next 6 years, it was allowed to grow wildly every year, but after the leaves fell in autumn the branches were cut off to let it regrow the following year. This can thicken the trunk.

In the blink of an eye it was already 2010. At this point the roots of this tree, which had been air layered for 6 years, were already very thick and strong, and their distribution was also fairly ideal.

This square pot is only 2 cm deep and 11 cm wide, but it grew very well in it. By then the trunk base had grown to 4 cm. It already had a bit of the feel of a small old stump.

It blooms beautiful flowers every year.

But later this tree did not grow well, because after being kept in this pot for many years, it needed repotting. In order to help it recover as quickly as possible, its owner planted it in the ground.

In another blink of an eye it was 2016. By this time the tree already had a strong sense of age and weathering. After several years in the ground it had recovered its vigor. So the owner replanted it into that flower pot again.

Just like that, a miniature flowering cherry bonsai had taken shape.