Since many of your trees are just entering the period of rapid
growth (we're in the middle of it here) herewith a few pruning
tips that usually don't make the bonsai instruction manuals.

1. Look before you leap, er, snip. (Many of these tips will be
in the general area of moderation in all things -- especially
pruning.)

Put your potential victim on a turntable and look at it from all
sides -- AND from the top, looking down. Re-confirm your
decision on which side is the best front. (Do this, even on a
tree you've had in training for a few years. Presumably your
"eye" for bonsai has grown over the years just as the tree has
grown.) Things (and ideas) change.

Don't take your first snip until the plan is firmly tattooed on
your brain. If you can sketch, do it.

2. Haphazard snipping leads to butchery. Start at the top (or
bottom) and work down (or up). Don't leave an area until you
think you're done. (Later, you may return to that spot to
balance that area with what you did elsewhere on the tree, but
when you first move on to a new area, you should be happy with
what you've done.)

By "done" I don't mean DONE! "Done for now" might be a better
term. If there's ANY doubt whether a branch or part of a branch
should stay or not, LEAVE IT. It can come off tomorrow -- or
next year. But it is MUCH harder to put it back once it's
snipped!

3. Snip cautiously. If your initial plan is to remove the
entire branch, remove it by degrees. You may see something in a
shorter branch that appeals to you, or you may see the
desirability of a jin in that spot. Neither option is available
if you chop it away all at once.

4. Keep your wiring plan well in mind as you snip. Move
branches to their planned wiring position. Make the cuts while
you hold the branch in place. Some folks wire before they prune,
but I've never understood this. Maybe it's because I hate to
wire and can't stand the thought of all that work being cut away.
But it IS an option and the results may be more clearly seen.
Your choice. (I'm a clip-and-grow fan, anyway, and keep my
wiring to the absolute minimum.)

5. Use sharp tools. This is important, so I'll say it again:
USE SHARP TOOLS. It doesn't matter if you use bonsai tools, or
gardening tools, but they should be of good quality. That said,
you really ought to have a concave cutter. There's no equivalent
in Western gardening. For small branches, ARS makes a nice, very
sharp and quite indestructible, set of scissors. Most garden
catalogs carry them, but any slender garden scissors will work.

6. And again . . . TAKE YOUR TIME! Your tree isn't going
anywhere. The longer you look at it, the better your plan will
solidify in your mind. It's easy to cut too much and very hard
to grow it back.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only where
people have learned to appreciate and cherish the landscape and
its living cover will they treat it with the care and respect it
should have - Paul Bigelow Sears.

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