Hi, everybody,
2 days ago, the weather forecast predicted that last Sunday would be a day full of rain. But when I woke up that morning, it was lovely weather! So I immediately phoned my friend/student Ed van der Reek and asked if he could help me to repot my old Larch named “XL”. He made it to my house in just under half an hour! This repotting was I bit of a gamble for me, pot size wise that is. I collected this massive old tree with a large compact rootball, that way the tree has a greater chance of survival and it recovered just fine! But there is one problem with this technique and that is that you don’t know what is hidden in that rootball. It could be filled with large roots! So you can imagine that selecting a proper-sized pot was a bit of a gamble. Well, the rootball proved to be OK and not too many large roots had to be removed to fit “XL” in the smallest and best-suited one of the 3 pots that I had selected! This is a beautiful pot made by my good friend Brian Allbright. Here are some impressions of that wonderful and exciting repotting.
Above: Backside of the tree. Removing the plastic container with a power saw. This way the rootball will stay intact.
Above: Now that the rim of the container is removed, we carefully start to work our way inward.
Above: This root was a bit bigger than I thought!
Above: Almost all the old mountain soil was removed. And a lot of rocks as well!
Above: Birdseye view of “XL”. I am really happy with the way its ramification looks! Next year, I plan to show “XL” for the very first time and by then its ramification will look even better with this coming season’s new finer growth added to these almost fixed branches.
Ed and I had a lovely and exciting Bonsai day! At the end of the day I was really tired, but it was good to do some serious work again! I hope that “XL” will do well in its new home and I can’t wait to finally show it next year!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 
Thanks for posting! Looks like some nice work but were is the final pic??? I want to see that handmade pot/tree combo!!!
Newt
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Hi Eric,
I will do so in a few day’s! Because I am realy happy about the end resuld , I wanted the pictures to be good! So I am waiting for some sunlight (sigh!) to make a decent one! Hang in there! 🙂
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Karamotto my personal Bonsai website: http://www.karamotto.org/
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Fantastic tree and styling Hans, and the patience to develop in a container rather than potting up too early. Great to see you working hard but the trees are too big for your back maybe. You have a great friend in Ed. See you soon I hope.
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Thanks Will!
And yes these big trees are a killer for my back! And after a day’s work on them like this time, it takes me a few days to recover, but I would not have it any other way! 🙂
This tree has come so far in such a relative short time span, that I cant wait to show it to the world at the next Noelanders! Having a friend like Ed around to help and stimulate me to push one is priceless to me!
I will make a picture of the tree in it’s new pot as soon as the weather finally opens up here!
CU soon my friend.
Hans van Meer.
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Great looking tree. I have one about the same size etc. I am worried about re-potting as it will be its first time like yours into a bonsai pot and not a container like yours was in. The average temp in SE ENGLAND is 6 degrees shall I go for it or wait a few more weeks. I am so tempted to re-pot but do not want to stress the tree and roots more than I have to. Please help if you can.
Kind Regards
Adrian Long
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Submitted on 2014/02/07 at 4:12 pm
Great looking tree. I have one about the same size etc. I am worried about re-potting as it will be its first time like yours into a bonsai pot and not a container like yours was in. The average temp in SE ENGLAND is 6 degrees shall I go for it or wait a few more weeks. I am so tempted to re-pot but do not want to stress the tree and roots more than I have to. Please help if you can.
Kind Regards
Adrian Long
Hi Adrian,
I am glad you like it! Our weather is very similare to yours (although you probably have even more rain than we) and the weather might change to frost and even maybe heavy frost in the next copple off weeks! So I (but that is me) would wait until the change for frost is absolutly minimum! I alway’s wait until the buds start to swell and open a little because thats is a sure sign that the root are active again so they have more change to recover from the repotting and root cutting! Roots right now are still inactive and might after to early repoting rot (rain), dry out (cold) or freeze during the few more winter weeks that we have to look forward to! When you repot dont take off to much roots in one go and shorten to long thick/fleshy roots right up to were healhty side roots grow from it! Alway’s mist the roots while working on the rootball, their roots crack and break easely and might dry out during working and dry roots are dead roots on a Larch! Hope this aswers your question?! If not let me know!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
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