To listen or ignore?

[paul smedley]

Hi all
Through the years of these pages I have always seen the comment being “listen to your trees”. However, some of mine are screaming with new buds coming out. I know that winter is a good time to prune and consider repot, but should I hang off a while or start the winter work now?
Some Maples are not dropping leaves, fruiting ate swelling buds in places, hazels are pushing up and the pomegranate is holding on to all green leaves. For an amateur this is a very confusing time so looking for some advice from you Sage’s. I am in Melbourne inner west and plants are in different parts of the garden. It most are acting the same way. Good grief! Thanks in advance. Paul

[rodm]

Hi Paul
Had similar problem a few years ago. A trident maple wanted to hang onto leaves and produce new shoots at the beginning of winter. Pinched out the new shoots semi defoliate the rest of the leaves then put it out in open and little water. Lets the cold and frosts do the work, abit risky. Towards the end of winter gave it a good feed power feed and seasol plus some slow release boom one re-educated trident maple. Now it behaves itself. Hope this helps
Cheers RodM

[Paulneill]

It’s a bit early in my opinion anything repotted now with have to sit dormant thru winter with more chance of wet rotting roots that are not taking up any water.

My Lilly pilly has finally decided to grow like mad. I repot some trees and tidy them up end of winter others a bit later.

I’m going to dig 2 trees from a yard tomorrow. And my main concern will be to keep the roots from staying too wet thru winter here in Perth.
Ideally I would do this late winter. I will use an extra free draining mix and hopefully that helps the tree recover.

[Paulneill]

Not much u can do about trees not dropping leaves just leave them be. Unless there’s a reason to remove them.

[shibui]

It is a lot colder up here and many maples here are just dropping leaves now. I would suggest leaving them a little longer to see what happens.
I have also had maples sprout new leaves and then keep those all through winter. Did not seem to do them any harm and returned to normal cycles after winter.
Pruning can be done any time of year. It is just a bit easier when there's no leaves in the way. Most trident maple bonsai in pots have had the winter prune in my garden. Still a few to go. I prefer to do them earlier than later as I get less sap leaking but any time through winter is OK for pruning.

Some fruiting trees actually flower from mid Winter. We've already seen some photos of Prunus mume flowering and some others flower toward the end of Winter. Flowering dies not stop repotting. There's usually a brief window between flowers and leaves where we can repot but if leaves are opening while flowers are blooming then repot then with flowers.

Repot is probably safer before new leaves open fully but there's still a wide window of opportunity. Your trees may decide it is still too cold and stop buds opening but if they keep moving it's still quite safe to repot and root prune with first leaves part open.

Chinese elm is another that is semi deciduous. If we don't get cold winter they retain leaves right through. That does not mean we cannot root prune. The trees will be dormant enough to repot at the end of winter whenever you feel comfortable to do it. Growers in even warmer climates tell me their elms never stop so they repot Chinese elm any time of year with no problems.

[TimS]

Generally it's listen for me, but shibui makes excellent points as well.

Most of my maples are dormant now (Southeast Melbourne) but one is only just now turning colour. It had a rough summer and pushed a very late flush of foliage in response so that doesn't concern me greatly.

My Chinese Elm is halfway between; it's doing some bright yellow, some purple autumn leaves and still hanging on to some green leaves too. It's previously been fully deciduous for me so perhaps it will again, or maybe it won't do it this year. Wait and see.

Also can confirm my umes (from garden trees, young stock and bonsai) are all showing bud swell or even starting to open flower now. I would consider this to be early for my area as the garden trees are often around July time, but it is what it is.

Basically, as long as the buds look to be in good condition and there aren't signs of die back or other fundamental issues then carry on with it, and if you need to bring forward your repotting to adjust to the tree then that's the best way to handle it in my experience.

[paul smedley]

And this is why you are all here! Such great advice and it is great to see the answers by experience.
I guess for me it really is “listen” then. To sum up I think it is repot if needed, prune no problem and watch for results. I could wait another month I guess but as I have a lot of sticks-in-pots instead of big person bonsai I just go carefully. I can expect failures but have enough around if it doesn’t go all my way and that is ok. Gaining the experience is what this is for I think too.
Thanks again everyone.
Paul