Shimpaku – Off with it’s head!

April 10, 2026 in Styling | Tags: , , | 1 comment

THIS shimpaku is one I have had kicking around the benches for years. It’s been through numerous styling’s but has never really found its feet.

After a fair bit of growth post last time it was styled.

This tree has always been caught between an interesting trunk, shari and deadwood and an overpowering foliage mass. As you can see from the image above a lot of the great elements in the trunk are lost amongst the mass of green.

The easiest way to solve this issue was essentially to remove some foliage. After much staring and pondering while watering it on the benches I finally decided to make a drastic change.

I cut the top half of the foliage off. You can already see the difference it makes and how the best features of the tree (being the trunk and shari) are now much more prominent.

I set about stripping the bark from the upper areas and and set it back on the bench for the dead wood to dry.

After a month or so it got a high pressure wash via one of my favorite tools and a coat of lime sulphur which has really made everything pop.

Next steps from here is a re-pot and a re-styling to put all the foliage into its new places. I will likely do this over winter in the coming months. While it does need a wire, you can get a sense of the new style already in its roughly pruned state.

Pots are the next challenge, with the rectangle now being very much the wrong dimensions. I have a few options with a couple below (they both look a little big due to foreshortening in the picture but i think both could work). I am leaning toward the square as it is a little smaller but I also like the hexagonal pot.

I will make the final decision after i have fully wired things out in case that changes my thoughts.

All in all i am pretty happy with the change and finally feel this tree has found itself. Until the next post………..

White Pine Re-style.

April 4, 2026 in Styling | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wow, looks like almost a year since the last post. Time flys!

I’ve been doing bits an pieces since the last post, in the shed, teaching at clubs and doing the odd demo but for the most part have not been documenting much of it. Life has been pretty busy and typing up blog post is often down the to do list.

That said, i did remember to take a few (bad) phone pics of the below tree.

The tree in question was one i was gifted and had owned for a while. It was then was passed onto another friend, and then several years later it found it’s way back into my yard.

It started life as a garden nursery tree complete with pretty lumpy graft, leggy growth and circling roots. It was originally given to me as the original owner lived by the ocean and the salt spray was leading to it suffering. I nursed it back to health and cut most of it off, leaving two branches essentially. One became the main branch and the other the head. I tipped it on an angle to make better use of the swollen lower root base and gave it a first styling.

It was shortly after this first styling that i gave it to a friend who grew it here in Ballarat for probably close to 4 or 5 years.

Cut to a few weeks ago when i was visiting him and his collection and the tree ended up coming home with me once more. It had really filled in well and provided a heap of new options to explore so i decided to give it it’s second re-styling.

The basic steps i took are shown above, I removed a number of un-needed branches and thinned old needles, then made the major adjustment by pulling the main branch down with the help of a branch bending jack. From there it was just a matter of wiring out the foliage to fit the new style.

The tree sat on the back deck for a couple of days where i made a few adjustments as i got used to the tree. It had a weak first branch on the right hand side so those shoots got minimal wire but they all got mostly into place.

There is now some filling out to go but i have been feeding to build up the energy over autumn to set up next springs buds and i am expecting i will get much of the filling out i need next season.

All in all i really like this tree, and given it original owner has since passed away i am glad to have this tree back in the yard as a little memento of some good times we spent styling bonsai together. It’s also nice it spend some time with my other friend in between, it’s one of the unique things with bonsai that a tree can travel between many hands, each leaving its mark.

Red Pine Re-think

April 19, 2025 in Styling | Tags: , , , | 3 comments

I’ve had this red pine a while now and first worked on it back in 2016. In the 9 years I’ve been growing it it’s been through a few phases and has been displayed, grown out, brough back in, maintained and generally been in and out of the workshop a few times each of the years I’ve owned it.

It’s even had a couple of post about it POST 1, POST 2

More recently it has really outgrown its previous style.

It’s pretty clear from the above image that the foliage has well out grown the trunk size. It feels heavy and makes the trunk seem thin and essentially out of scale.

I’d been thinking a lot about this tree, staring at it each day i was watering, pondering options and playing out scenarios in my head.

I’d always wanted a decent bunjin tree and this tree always seemed half way there, so after much thinking and with a whole lot of needle plucking on the horizon i decided to make the jump. With branch cutters in hand, i began to cut.

I took off the first, second, third, fourth and a bunch more branches as i worked my way up from bottom to top.

After more cutting and some wire i got the tree into its new shape.

I’m pretty happy with the new style. Looking back to the original styling in 2016, i think that this revision fits the tree even more than that first styling. Back in 2016 i didn’t have the growth i would have needed to make the above image so I don’t think it was something i had even considered back then. It really was a case of having to go on a bit of a journey to end up at this style. It highlights how Bonsai change over time and evolve and you have to be open to that to maintain, reshape and move bonsai through time.

Before
After

It’s really worth actively reassessing your trees and always looking for new ideas and solutions. It can be really rewarding and provide some refreshing change, and in the case of this tree i think that approach has resulted in a better tree!

Of course, now the hunt for an appropriate pot begins………..

Leaves on, Leaves off.

December 5, 2024 in Defoliation | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

With the first days of summer now under our belts and some solid early spring growth it was time to begin this seasons tasks around the garden. First cab off the rank was this trident which found its way onto my benches recently.

It had been fully wired in winter, most of which had begun to bite in with shoots extending aggressively with an early warmth to spring.

I defoliated the tree and removed the old wire setting it up for its next flush, some new buds and further ramification. Its a very nice tree and I think will develop into something that will always have a space on my benches.

While there is a long way to go with this tree, I think the bones are all in place and you can already get a sense of what the tree might look like in the next 5 years once it has a lot more ramification.

Now I have a sense of where it is heading, I will likely leave a few shoots to run on the lower branches to increase their size a little given how quickly the upper regions are thickening.

Onto the next one!

Nice time of the year

October 17, 2024 in Bonsai Maintenence | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

There’s something satisfying about pinching Maples. I only really do this to trees in a refinement phase as it slows growth of the extending shoot and as a result keeps inter-node length short. Its a good technique to add that final tight twiggy-ness to the canopy. As it slows growth you probably dont want to use it on developing trees as it will slow down the rate of growth across the tree.

It’s also not really something that you can do in one hit, rather pinching a number of tips a day as they slowly open giving you a good reason to closely monitor and spend time with a tree over a number of days or even weeks. You have to wait until the first set of leaves opens and the next set just begin to unfold. Then you get in there and remove that shoot tip. The extension of that shoot will slow or stop and hopefully you will get much tighter bud spacing.

If you have a refined Maple, give it a go as the growth flushes out and see how you like the results.

New black pine. Part 2 – Re-styling.

October 14, 2024 in Styling | Tags: , , , | 2 comments

Below is a pictorial post explaining the steps i went through when styling this tree. I had previously adjusted the planting angle in the last post and now had to adjust the foliage mass in reaction to this. I’ve done my best to explain the thinking process for each of the steps for each of the below images to give some insight into my thoughts and process. I hope it’s interesting.

Above: Where we got to in the last post. The trunk was tilted to the left but the foliage wasn’t pruned or adjusted to the new angle. From a balance perspective, i feel that there is too heavy a visual weight in proportion to the trunk.

Above: the tree’s branching was pruned a little and thinned with a major branch on the lower right removed to begin lightening the canopy. I fully wired the remaining branches and began to think about the styling. I felt that the foliage was too large and removed the focus from the trunk. Its mass dominated and reinforced a feeling that the trunk was thin.

I also didn’t like the direction the tree lead the eye and felt that combined with the trunk movement it drew the eye away from the tree. I decided that i wanted the tree to move back toward the base of the trunk creating kind of a circular composition. This decision kicked off the below responses.

Above: to facilitate the lower branch moving rightwards, i had to remove a couple of branches to create space for this key branch to occupy. I also began to compact the apex region slightly with the overall aim of creating a smaller and more compact foliage mass.

Above: As i moved the lower branch across i removed another branch to ease the congestion the shifting branch created. Having began to move this key low branch, I felt that the foliage was feeling a little stretched out again taking the eye away from the trunk-line.

Above: I pulled the lower branch across further and brought it upward to further compact the foliage mass and bring it all in closer to the trunk. This also helped fill in the gaps left by the removed branches from the previous image. This is essentially where i will leave this round of work. I will let it fill in this season and perhaps revisit the wiring in autumn.

Above: a quick scribble to give a sense of what a more fully filled in canopy might look like.

Above: A quick couple of images to give comparison of where the tree was when i started working on it and where it is now. I am very happy with where the tree is at now and look forward to continuing to develop it over the next few years.

First foliage thin for 2024 spring.

October 8, 2024 in Defoliation | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s been a funny start to spring with some trees leafing out early and with gusto while others are only just budding out. I put it down to a warm start and a later cold snap which has set a number of trees behind their bench mates.

The below Crabapple is new to my benches and was re-potted a month or so ago and falls firmly into the early leafing category

Since re-potting, It had continued to grow strongly and had leafed out to a point where the inner growth was already being shaded out and the inner buds looked sluggish.

So i brought it into the workshop and cut back extending shoots and also leaf pruned or partially defoliated the canopy.

Above: Before and after.

I have left the tree with two leaves per shoot, having also removed the small inner leaves at the base of shoots that tend not to form buds at their base. I find this goes a long way to increasing the sunlight that reaches the interior without really effecting the budding / ramification. I will see what happens from here but if the leaves keep growing in size and shade the interior too much i may cut them in half to further encourage light to the interior.

There was a lot of growth in the upper regions of the tree so by carrying out this first leave prune i hope that the energy of each branch is much more evenly balanced and has a more even access to light. We will have to see what happens with the second flush to test that thought.

A new Shimpaku and a plan ahead.

September 30, 2024 in Bonsai Techniques, Styling | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

This is a bit of a different post covering a tree that has found its way back into my collection lately.

I originally grew this as stock from a cutting and put some early bends into the trunk line. Soon after the wiring of the cutting i gave it to a friend who did the bulk of the work in forming it into a tree and growing it on.

As luck would have it, the tree recently found its way back into my collection.

Stupidly, i didn’t take any before pics, but when i received the tree i re-potted it, changing the angle a bit and fully wired the tree removing a branch or two in the process. All in all, building on my friends work, its forming into an interesting little tree!

Above: The tree post re-pot and styling.

But…….. it still has a while to go.

Normally a shimpaku of this thickness i would keep as stock and grow hard and fast to thicken the trunk and develop the shari’s and live veins. Luckily we cut shari’s into the trunk last year but i still need to focus on developing trunk thickness and continue to develop the sharis as things thicken.

This is somewhat difficult in a tree that i don’t really want to grow out of shape or get too much larger. What i want is to thicken the trunks and keep the tree’s foliage well managed.

The solution is………. Sacrifice branches.

Above: The two main trunk/branch lines.

The tree is built off two main trunk lines as per the diagram above and ideally i would like to thicken both of these lines. To do this i will likely grow two sacrifice branches.

Above: likely locations of sacrifice branching (shown in pink).

I will locate two sacrifice branches (one per trunk line) but in slightly different locations. The sacrifice branch in the apex will be toward the top of the trunk line as i want the entire upright trunk to thicken.

The second sacrifice will be on the first branches trunk line, It will be located back from the first branch tip though, to avoid the branch holding the foliage from thickening too much, keeping it in scale with the other branches.

Above: the image in my head i am aiming for.

I will likely also wire the sacrifice branches into interesting shapes reinforcing the tree’s movement so i can use them as future jins.

To further facilitate this thickening i will be making a shari on the opposite side of the trunk to the shari’s we have already made. I’ve covered this a bit more in THIS post. I am hoping this speeds up the whole process quite a bit. Also keeping the majority of the foliage trimmed and compact should direct a lot of energy into the sacrifice branches which will be left un-pruned. Hopefully allowing them to grow quickly and do their work.

That said however, i do expect this process to take a number of years to get to the thickness level i am after.

Small Zelkova Broom.

September 23, 2024 in Pruning, Re-potting | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

This is one of my trees that was partly neglected over the last couple of years. It’s pruning only really focused on cutting back to the silhouette (due to lack of time), so while the canopy out of leaf looked twiggy and dense, the structure was not great and the beginnings of lumps and bumps were forming where too many shoots emerged from one place.

The time came recently to do some work on this tree and it was pruned back and re-potted.

Above: Pre-work. The tree looks dense and ramified but the beginnings of lumps were forming within the canopy. It was time to cut out some problems.

Above: After a cut back. I think about 50% of the fine twigs were removed. While this is a bit of a set back, with a year of strong growth i think i can probably get 3 or 4 flushes out of it and mostly replace what has been lost, but this time upon better structure.

Above: ….. and a re-pot. Not a dramatic change as its the exact same size, style and make of pot, just in a different colour.

This little tree stands 12cm from the rim of the pot which doesn’t really come across in the pics but it is a tree that really fits in the palm of your hand.

During this growing season i will be working towards rounding out the top of the canopy and increasing the ramification. I will do this via:

  • Heavy feeding
  • Outer canopy defoliation and cut back
  • Selective pruning of twig structure to avoid growing more issues into the tree and;
  • Possibly some limited wiring.

I will update again if the above is successful.

Slow improvement.

September 19, 2024 in Styling | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A very quick update post of THIS pine.

From where we last left off, the pine had been un-wired during the previous season and had grown out quite a bit, hence needing a little tidy up. Recently toward the end of this last winter, it made it into the work shop for a quick wiring before the candles got too fragile.

Above: de-wired and grown out of shape.

Above: The first step was bending the lower branch down further to try and separate the foliage masses a little more into individual zones.

Above: Post wiring.

I only wired what was needed which essentially meant only the main branches and sub branches were wired. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out and think it is evolving nicely.

For comparisons sake, below is how it was in 2021 vs. after the styling today.

2021
2024

the combination of a narrower apex area and a more separated lower branch all work together towards a solid slow improvement over the years.

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