Hello,
I have Japanese Crabapple due to repot this spring. Buds are swelling past week so technically the time to repot is NOW. I remember hearing / reading somewhere trees that flower should be repotted after as they grow leaves after flowering. Is this what I should wait for and let it flower (surely these buds are flowers - it did last year and so does it’s mother its been airlayered from)
Hope you can advice me here, it’s my first flowering tree repot and would like to do it right 
It depends in part on your goals for the tree. If the goal is to maximize enjoyment of the flowers, then repot just as they fade cutting off the fading flowers. If the tree still needs to develop and needs lots of root work then repot now and cut off most of the flower buds so it can put that energy into growth.
1 Like
Malus tends to push out leaves together with the flowers so I wouldn’t repot after flowering (this would apply to many Prunus).
3 Likes
Thank you @Robert that’s very helpful.
I was indeed confused with this seeing some leaves last year but couldn’t recall whether they came out at the same time as flowers.
That’s a lovely Prunus you have there 
Very early development @MartyWeiser so surely will be cutting the bloom. Thanks for advising on this! I did this last year more less guessing it takes the energy.
Thanks guys, this should set me off to success with my first flowering bonsai
That is a crabapple / Malus 
As a general rule
Malus repot before flowers
Prunus repot after
1 Like