My blue oak, which was nearly dead when I bought it three years ago, is now strong and healthy! It’s been a rewarding experience to bring it back to life. I’ve noticed there’s very little information online about blue oak care, especially regarding specific techniques for bonsai development.
I’m particularly interested in advice on pruning and wiring for shaping. This year, several new shoots are growing, which presents a great opportunity to start guiding its future form. I’m planning to repot it this winter, and I want to ensure I’m setting it up for continued success as a bonsai.
If you have any experience with blue oaks for bonsai, particularly concerning their development and how to best approach shaping them, I’d love to hear your insights. Practical tips, success stories, or even challenges you’ve faced would be incredibly helpful.
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I dont have any experience with blue oak in NH, but what a lovely specimen! It looks like you are doing so well with it so far. Best of luck!!
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Hi,
Great looking tree and excited to see others trying out blue oaks! They are an amazing species with a really unique leaf color that is smaller than most other deciduous oaks. I have 4 myself at various stages and have found them to be a little tricky to work with. They seem to like root work even less than other oaks from my experience and usually take a year to bounce back after repotting, which is not unusual. I have tried doing hard cut backs/truck chop in late fall and have found them to back bud in even the thickest bark, which is another great and unique feature of blue oaks. They have amazing flakey bark that develops sooner than other oaks. I have tried wiring which they don’t seem to mind and are fairly flexible and not as brittle as cork oaks maybe. And since they grown slower than others, wire bite is not as big of concern unless it is put on really vigorous growth like you have showing. I assume this is the second push? If so depending on your goal you can either cut back those runners or let the go to thicken the branch they come from or add length. As far as shaping they tend to have broad wide canopies in the wild, so letting those lower branches thicken and elongate might help add to the image. Hope that helps and please share the progress!
Here are two of mine, first is after initial styling and repotting, second is just growing out for branch selection.
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Nice looking 
How has your branch die back been cutting it back?
Wow. Both lovely blue oaks. I threw a couple acorns in some dirt and a few sprouted. I also have a couple seedlings growing. Are these collected?
I bought mine at a show in Santa Nella a few years ago for $80. It was very weak and under potted. Has taken about three years to get strong. It has been a large grow out pot since.
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