TreeBay

Time for us all to come clean. Post your hit list, and any amazing (to you) discoveries you've made.

I'll go first

1992

Sagerettia mallsai - about 5 years old
The third bonsai I owned, left outside in a CA winter for two years. The second year it did not pull through

1993

Small cotoneaster
I am not sure what exactly killed it, but I believe it was probably overwatering.

1994

shohin azalea - 3 years
Planted in a stone. Stone dried out. ex bonsai

1995

New Zealand tea tree - overwatered. Actually it had a saucer underneath it and that spelled its doom. Lesson 1) Tea trees need great drainage! 2) Don't put a saucer under your bonsai.

1996

Collected Oak
Did not refoliate after repotting. Lesson learned - Oaks need good drainage, but absolutely do not repot them (esp if they are weak) after the buds have begun to swell in spring. That's worse

1997

Large Bougainvillea
I mean big. This one hurt. Lesson learned. Guess what? Bougies are tropical! The ones growing around the various chimneys and stonework are attached to nice heat sinks. In your backyard, they won't do as well unprotected. Because they are deciduous in cool weather, you may not see the damage until spring.

1/2 of a large ficus
See above. Ahem. Top half died back in frost. Luckily you can better tell a dying Ficus because they are evergreen!

Imported red Stewartia did not bud out. Looked a little sickly first winter. I think the soil held too much water, but I really can't be sure.

1998

Japanese White Pine - Imported
Causes unknown. Maybe rootrot.

1999

Japanese Beech - Age unknown
Defoliated that sucker, and guess what. It didn't refoliate in spring. Lesson: Beech are weak little guys.

2000

A few colleced Japanese Black Pines. Probably too aggressive with the pruning and lifting. I had about 85% success, but that put another half dozen trees in the bonepile.

I had to lift 100 trees in July from the field because the area had been sold. I thought the losses would be huge, but in actuality, only 12 of 24 Japanese Maples died. Everything else was OK. Actually the maples all looked great the first year. I think the problem was a soil borne fungus in the new planting area, because the problems occurred 2 years later. Lessons learned - Maples can be difficult to move because of fungus induced dieback. Extreme heat (100deg+ F) shuts trees down and allowed an out of season repotting, but I would not count on it again.

2001

container grown Japanese Black Pine in training (aggressive pruning)

Bald Cypress (underwatering) Now I have the Bald Cypress spending the summer with a nice big saucer of water under them as bonsaial suggested - Lesson learned. Some trees like water & saucers can be good for Wisteria & Bald Cypress ( See New Zealand Tea Tree above)

2002

No losses of note, really... Yet!

One holly keeps dying back. I think it is probably diseased as it has been repotted without improvement.

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