Seasonal notes from Alex
Alex is a qualified Horticulturist, Arborist and a bonsai teacher having spent 2 years learning at the pre eminent bonsai nursery and the bonsai master the late Mr. Sabaru Kato.
Pruning
If your trees have received good watering and you have a consistent fertilising regime, you may need to continue to prune the trees during summer.
The idea s to trim any leaves that have overextended the outline of the tree. If you are not sure count the internodes on the branch. If it has more than five or six, it is too long. Cut back to the second internode. If still uncertain or you lack the confidence yet, just cut any too long a branch in half to keep it to the outline. Leave longer the weaker branches.
If you are working on a conifer, pluck about the top one third of the foliage mass. Envisage the shape shape of a fan then pluck the foliage into a fan shape.