Cedar Bonsai (Cedrus Deodara)

This tree has had a disastrous few years having deteriorated from what was a tree with some potential in Spring 2012 to a near dead specimen that dropped most of its needles and lost quite a few branches following a re-pot. Cedars apparently do not like re-pots I am told and this one was no exception. When re-potted in 2012 I did disturb the roots quite a bit (lesson learned) and subsequently watched the tree go into decline through the full growing season. It then appeared to hover at the edge of death for most of the growing season in 2013 in Ian Y’s polytunnel before recovering slightly toward the back end of that season. In 2014 it put on some fresh growth and gained in strength this year. So much so that I have now been able to prune back most of the leggy extensions and give the tree a bit of a restyle this past weekend.

I have given the tree a top dressing of bone meal that can be seen in the pics. This is to help further root development. Frankly I don’t know what to expect next year but can only hope for more of the same growth to fill out into what I may be able to loosely describe in the future as a bonsai. It has been a long wait but I am kinda pleased that the tree seems to have responded well to my patience. There’s a long but undoubtedly interesting way to go.