Successfully grow a bonsai tree

“Five years ago I bought a “finished” Bonsai. Shantung Maple. Approx 15 yo The tree was thriving the first summer. The second summer the leaves started to die back. Looking back I realize the tree was getting too much sun and not enough water. I made the decision to plant it in my flower bed. The tree recovered and was looking great Then my dog decided to chew three limbs off of it. (She actually picked three good limbs to chew/prune) So I had to leave it in the ground for another year to recover. Then life got in the way and I missed my repotting window last year. This spring I was finally able to repot the tree. It’s doing great now but is need of pruning. But I’m not going to repot and prune in the same year. So next year the tree should be looking spectacular. So a location and watering mistake took me about four years to recover from. Again, I’m no expert and this situation probably could have been handled differently but without patience the tree certainly would have died.”

“My initial attempts at pruning were, to put it mildly, disastrous. I was too aggressive, too eager to shape the tree to my liking, and I ended up removing far too much foliage. The tree looked sparse and unnatural, and I feared that I had done irreparable damage. It was a humbling experience, but it taught me a valuable lesson: less is often more.”

“My initial approach to watering was haphazard, to say the least. I would water the tree whenever I remembered, which was often too little and too late. As a result, the tree suffered from dehydration, and its leaves began to turn yellow and droop. I realized that I needed to be more consistent and more attentive to the tree’s needs.”