Classroom Corner – A bit of all sorts on a recent one-to-one!

Just over a week ago Andrew arrived for a midweek one-to-one session and it was great to see the mix of material he had brought with him.

First up were two impressive satsuki azaleas he had acquired from me last year. One of the trees needed some branch adjustment which we achieved with some basic wiring. Both trees had started growing after finishing flowering and were extensively pruned to balance the vigour and improve the shape of the foliage clouds.

Finally both trees were repotted into new pots which had been made specially by David Jones of Walsall Studio Ceramics.

Andrew had done an excellent job wiring and shaping his half-cascade Juniper Blue Carpet……all I had to do was fine tune it a little and thin it out. The Juniper Chinensis in the third picture had been recently styled and potted on the nursery. This tree is over 70 years old. We spent a bit of time selecting and placing some rocks to enhance the landscape.

The field maple had been pruned drastically on another one-to-one earlier in the year and Andrew had been told which branches to develop. Great result…..the taper in the leading branch was now good so that another drastic branch selection could be made. Drastic as this may seem it is the best way to create a well structured tree for the future.

In addition to the practical work Andrew was given advice on how to deal with each tree for the remainder of the growing season and any questions were answered. This was a really varied and interesting session….a bit of all sorts…….but I also think the outcome was “a bit of alright!”………