As a bonsai practitioner, it is very important that I have a good understanding of plants' energy flow and how to manage it, as well as a good feel for what they will or won't tolerate in the way of various procedures. It's not uncommon for me to start with ...... say a Japanese maple that might be 10 feet tall and reduce it to only a few inches in height, then start building toward a bonsai from there. This tree was 8-10 ft tall when I chopped the top off and lifted it from the ground and put it in the container. In a few years, after several more procedures to reduce and shape it, it will be a very attractive bonsai. Believe it or not, about the only things important to practiced bonsai enthusiasts in a tree like this is the thickness of the trunk and the root structure. As you can see the roots on this tree are ancient looking already, yet I grew the tree from a cutting and it's only about 4-5 years old. You actually employ the principle I described whenever you prune your shrubs; but you've probably never had anyone describe it quite like that - in such a way that outlines how to go about producing the greatest volume of foliage and branch ramification in the least amount of space; and how to chase the foliage back closer to the trunk. Accomplished bonsai practitioners understand pruning practices and the plant's predictable reaction to pruning intimately. Plants are reactive organisms, and they will react to pruning in the same way, whether in a bonsai pot, a 'regular' container, indoors, outdoors, or growing in the ground. We just need to be able to assess their energy levels so we have a good feel for their ability to tolerate stress, and to be able to factor in where the plant is in its growth cycle, along with other cultural factors. Al

Yeah, I don't really bother with standards because they do require extra pruning, particularly after the first flush of flowers to head back those growing laterals. Because standard roses will bloom on new wood, you can be fairly harsh with the pruning and shaping, just do it between flushes. Basically, like all pruning, you are doing it for shape and size control (which is why little and often is better than stimulating the rose into overdrive with a hard prune), control of disease and passage of air (take out tiny twigs, inward growing canes to keep the centre open). Usually, the rose trunk should be clear so you may have to pinch out developing buds along the trunk but as a rule, it is the same as pruning hybrid teas but just do an extra summer cut to shape - and with some vigorous weeping types, you might need to trim throughout the year, just to maintain a compact shape. Winter pruning is when you need to consider the whole bush since this is the time we can take off extra wood without the rose immediately breaking into new growth-you can really cut the head of the bush tight while keeping an open centre. A bit like pruning for fruiting spurs on apples, I do the pruning in dead of winter rather than spring, when I am attempting to keep a plant a bit more compact and neat. Much also depends on your climate (which I have moved the page on and cannot recall) so someone near you may well chime in with a more considered and nuanced reply.

Before you do anything find out if anybody wants to trade cuttings. If your main is too short,you could straighten the strongest side shoot and make that your new main and get rid of all the others. After that new main branch gets taller, tip of the top, this will start your scaffold branches much higher, just keep four, spread out equally if possible. This is just one way doing it.

The comments about under-watering issues when using the 5:1:1 are unfounded and misleading. Undoubtedly, plants in a 5:1:1 mix with pine bark as the primary fraction are going to meed watering more often, but that is a very good thing. Since we all know the 5:1:1 mix is very productive, and, the grower is 100% responsible for seeing the plant's water needs are met, any under-watering issues would rightly be considered grower error. It's not reasonable to think one can grow in a highly aerated, fast-draining medium without comparatively shorter watering intervals, and no matter what medium is being used, if the grower isn't watering appropriately by way of stretching watering intervals out too far, there is going to be an issue. If we give it some thought and really identify the reason growers have so much better luck with highly aerated and fast-draining media, we'll see the purpose is to rid our growing experience of the limitations imposed by perched water. As long as there is perched water in any medium, it is a limiting factor; so, from the plant's perspective it's always a good thing to eliminate as much excess water as possible. In the extreme and all else equal, media that actually NEED watering twice per day will offer much better opportunity for plants to realize a much greater of their genetic potential than even a well-made 5-1-1 mix, and far more opportunity than other media based on large fractions of fine materials. The growing experience often involves compromise. Assuming, arguendo, we agree plants that need watering twice daily have much better opportunity to realize more of their potential than plants that need watering only every 2 weeks, we'd almost all agree we're not willing to water twice daily, even if it does serve the plant better. Somewhere between twice daily and every 2 weeks is a compromise watering interval that suits our priorities. What's important isn't whether or not everyone goes all in and waters every hour on the hour, what's important is understanding there is a compromise to be made and how to make it. It's not uncommon, even within the span of 2 consecutive posts, for grower A to pooh pooh a name brand medium known to be very water-retentive and hard on plants, and grower B to pooh pooh the 5:1:1 or gritty mix because it doesn't provide at least a 2 week watering interval. No one can tell grower A or B what is better for them because we don't order their priorities, but we can say with a great deal of certainty, if all else is equal, that the grower who has to water and the medium that supports the least amount of perched water is capable of providing much better opportunity for the plant to realize more of its potential. What the grower actually decides shouldn't matter to us, no matter how much it matters to the plant. That's the view from here. Al