The repotting of this landscape planting was done last Thursday. Prior to that the primary tree, Chinese Quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis), and understory shrubs, an unknown variety of spirea (Spiraea sp.) I brought home from Japan many years ago, were completely pruned. Now the planting is ready for the new growing season, and not a moment too soon:

Here is a look at the ground plane in its current configuration:

There had previously been 3 stones, but one has been removed. The large mass of non-moss ground cover, visible on the right hand side of the planting in the previously posted photograph from last autumn, is Creeping Thyme (Thymus praecox). It has been broken into several smaller pieces for the replanting, with the understanding that in the course of the growing season it will once again multiply and spread itself out.

The Chinese Quince in this planting was given to the Arboretum in 1995 by the late Felton Jones. At that time it was one of many 1-year seedlings growing in a gang pot, and I took them apart and potted them individually shortly after they arrived. As a frame of reference, this is what a 1-year Chinese Quince seedling looks like (this is not the same individual that became the focal point in the landscape planting in question, but most 1-year quince seedlings look pretty much the same):

Over the years I used many of the other seedlings for workshops and demonstrations, but I kept one and planted it in the ground for a period of 4 or 5 years to build up a significant trunk. When it was eventually dug up, I took it to Columbia, SC for a demonstration at a meeting of the Bonsai Club of South Carolina. Here are a couple of impossibly grainy images showing the tree before and after the work done that day:

You might think, judging by the look of the photographs, this demonstration took place in the 1970's but it was actually done in spring of 2001. These images are photographs taken of pictures printed in an old black & white club newsletter; the originals were lost.

This planting served as the logo tree for the 2012 Carolina Bonsai Expo: