It’s only February but the weather has been that good that some of my trees are starting to wake up. Specially the maples can’t wait to grow some new leaves it seems. So I started repotting early this year.

The first tree I repotted was the one I bought last week. A big Acer Campestre or field maple that I called “Bertha”. It arrived in a big black plastic tub all the way from Denmark. It had been in there for 3 years, so it’s time to move it to a smaller container. I decided to use a wooden growbox that I build last year.

Acer Campestre “Bertha”

The tree as I bought it.



First I let my minions clean the trunk.

Good job minions!

A little pruning was in place.

The wooden growbox.

Adding a drainage layer from clay pebbles.

Taking the tree out of its container is not a 1 man job. Hard lesson learned.

After removing the soil and some roots

Fits like a (tight) glove!

Took me almost 3 hours to get to this.

Acer Buergerianum

One of the first “real” trees that I bought was this Trident Maple. During the year I noticed it wasn’t growing that well. After some soil inspection I discovered that there was still a big clump of clayish field soil in the pot. So a repot was in place. I put it in a big flat wooden growbox to build some nebari.

The tree checking out it’s future home

That should do for the next 2-3 years

Acer Palmatum

This one is a trouble child. That’s probably why I like it so much. It has big scares, a nebari that needs a lot of work, a not so perfect branch structure, etc…



So after I did some some approach grafts last month it’s now time to start the nebari work. I repotted the tree in in a big flat wooden growbox, trimmed and spread the roots so over the next years it can start developping some better roots/nebari.

The tree sitting on it’s future growbox

When the work was done. Room enough for the roots and nebari to grow.

Acer Buergerianum

This little Trident Maple I got for free from one of the members of my bonsai club. Thanks Dirk!



I only know it was an air-layer project of the previous owner but other than that I know nothing about it. So just to be sure I repotted it and I used a real bonsai pot for it.

Before the repotting.

After the repot. With the new pot.

I have a few more trees that will get some rootwork and new soil but those can wait for a few more weeks.