Bonsai social media always seems to target the dramatic, the big restyles and the rapid changes, but for most of what we do in bonsai happens slowly over long time frames. Step by step making small adjustments and building on what was built prior to slowly but surely move toward a refined goal.

I have recently been doing such tasks and the below shimpaku is one such tree that ended up on my bench to be thinned in preparation for this season’s new growth.

It was styled in a demonstration back in 2021, taking rough stock and turning it into something that could easily be imagined as a bonsai. Here’s the last time it was on the blog.

The other day i brought the tree into the workshop and gave it another round of work to set it up for another year of development. Images below outline the recent work.

Above: The tree in 2023 after being re-potted from a nursery container into its first Bonsai container. Note the density of the foliage and the width of the live veins.

Above: The tree in 2024 prior to beginning the work. Since the 2023 photo, i have reduced the live vein width a little (5mm?) showing more of the shari. The tree has begun to fill out but the foliage is in need of a thin, reinforcing the branch structure by removing foliage and branches i don’t need and leaving that which i do.

Above: the tree after the work. All that was done was some weeding and a thinning of the foliage. I am trying to get the branches to have an up turned profile showing some of the branch structure below the foliage clouds which i think is starting to develop. I did also adjust some of the wire and branches to help with this but for the most part only thinned. I had left a lot of extra branches on in 2023 so that that the foliage mass would recover and strengthen more quickly. Now that the tips i wanted to keep had grown strongly i was able to remove the excess. This will also leave some room for more growth and some light and air to get to the inner shoots.

There is still some juvenile shoots toward the rear of the tree so this season i will work on growing them out into adult scale foliage. I will also keep an eye on the live vein with the idea to reduce its width further.

You cannot see from these images but there are two live veins. One on each side of the trunk. This should setup the trunk to grow in only one axis and begin to flatten out like a board. Ideally i would like these live veins half their current width. I will slowly narrow them over a couple of years as the tree develops. Its a longer term process but something i will be managing over the coming years. I go into the process a bit more here if you’re interested.

All in all i am pretty happy with how this tree is progressing, it has a way to go but seems to be heading in the right direction.