Ilex crenata My first tree 2019 (part I)

Two years ago I fell in love with Bonsai. Like every Bonsaika I bought my first tree at a local nursery because you always want to do it yourself.

So I bought a Ilex crenata (Japanese holy), I began to work on the tree without any knowledge on how to do bonsai the proper way. I did have horticultural knowledge so I managed to keep the tree alive and healthy.

You can see that the first styling looks like it was done by a Bonsaika that has no knowledge at all. However you have to learn, so this is a good start I guess. I bought this tree in 2017 and managed to keep it alive.

This is the tree after two years of nursing. I did some styling to it, the cascading branche is pruned away.

I repotted the tree during the spring of 2019.

The tree was potted into a plactic trainingpot so I can manage the rootsystem much better.

I've learned that Ilex crenata loves a light acidic soil, so I used akadama and kanuma. On the bottom of the pot, as always, I've used a course layer of lava for good draining. For this tree I used 70% akadama and 30% kanuma.

It looks like the tree is thriving well in this soilmix.

In Autumn 2019, I've styled the tree again. Since I like Literati very much, the top was chopped off. I did leave a branche as next leader because if you chop above the brache you want to lead, it can die from dieback. The branche at the top will be used as sacrifice brache and will be pruned after a year. The left branche I want to train is wired and pulled downwards. Its the last thing which was done on the tree right now, I will let the tree grow and let it become strong again for further training.

More updates on this tree will follow next year. I wish my readers all the best for 2020 and may your wishes come true.