Don’t make this mistake! Due to this second part of the repotting video, I felt compelled to share with you some extremely significant thoughts I’ve had since 2008. As of right now, only a small number of my long-term students really understand and are aware of it.  I frequently see that in the bonsai scene, particularly in Europe, other artists, instructors, experts, and stars make mistakes. As is often the case in life, everything has a purpose, and the universe is built in such a way that you cannot build a house’s roof without first building its base or create a car’s bodywork without first completing the car’s chassis. And simply, a jam sandwich cannot be made without bread! What am I getting at? There must be a certain order followed in which to grow a bonsai, aiming for a near-perfect tree in the future (nothing in life will achieve perfection but we can always work towards it!) The bonsai I am mainly talking about here is raw material like yamadori trees and trees that have been recovered from gardens or fields. Trees that students bring to workshops in big dark plastic pots and where little is known about what is inside regarding the base and roots. A different subject would be if they were grown from seedlings or cuttings or prepared by someone before as pre-bonsai. You’ll see why now:  The very first thing we must do with these trees is to repot them in the correct/desired position and angle, discovering and highlighting the best base and working on root placement and planting them in the smallest possible pot the roots allow. After the tree recovers, it should be styled according to the angle and placement of how it was repotted.  Please make sure you don’t work on the green mass before knowing what is in the big, wide, deep pot as you will never be able to plant it later in your desired position. Haven’t you ever wondered about how trees that have had their angle drastically changed in quick demonstrations will later be planted in a small bonsai pot? Would it be possible? Remember: First roots = the foundation, trunk = walls, and lastly the greenery = the roof.  You will lose time to complete these steps out of order.  Mario