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Today’s post is a quick update on a tree that has been in the works for a number of years. I am not sure when I dug this originally but it was certainly a while ago, five years ago perhaps?
The juniper was originally a Sabina Juniper that came from a local school that was removing the garden bed in which it was planted. A good friend put me onto it and we both dug this and a couple of other similar trunks.
Once I had brought it back to some health from the original dig I set about grafting the foliage over to Itoigawa. While Sabina foliage is fine, after many years persevering and working on trees with sub par foliage i now look to grown trees with the best characteristics. With the amount of time you put into your bonsai i don’t want to be investing that time into a foliage characteristic that will always have down sides. Hence the grafting.
I ended up with two grafts that took and have been growing them out and strengthening them over the last couple of seasons prior to thinking about styling.
I finally got around to doing a rough first styling last night.
Obviously the tree has a long way to go, judging by the timelines with THIS tree, it will be another 2-3 years before this bonsai starts to properly take shape.
That said, it was good to get into this styling and set some structure that the future of the tree will grow upon.
As I worked my way through the basic pruning of the tree i decided to move the direction of the tree back towards the right hand side. As part of this re-directing of the movement of the trunk over to the right, i also began modifying the deadwood to reinforce this movement. I will also need to grow the top of the tree further over toward the right as the tree progresses.
The dead wood still needs a lot of work, i need to spend a bit more time going over the bark and finding the live veins and cleaning dead bark from the deadwood sections as well as continuing to carve the shari and jins.
For carving I very much prefer hand tools for this carving. Chisels, large slip-joint pliers, branch splitters and various other tools all get a good work out. It’s a much slower way of carving but I think it creates a much more natural end result.
The one electric tool I do use is a wire brush on either an angle grinder or drill to strip hard to remove bark and smooth out the fibers from the hand carving………. But carving techniques are probably a topic for another post.
I am looking forward to finishing stripping the old bark so I can get some lime sulphur onto the wood and begin to get the contrast between all the colours to develop. This winter i plan on spending some more time on the dead wood so will post an update when it is further refined.
I also need to start thinking about what pot to put it in. I have a trip to Japan later this year to visit family and will keep an eye out while I am there but I’m still not entirely sure what style to use. If you have any ideas or good examples I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
Just a quick update on how this tree is developing. It was in the workshop recently for a cleanup (mainly as an excuse to play with THIS).
It is proving to be both a really useful and fun tool to use around the collection. It’s an amazingly quick way to clean up deadwood, remove built up muck, staining and compact dirt from trunks and roots and even stones. Ive had trident maples with dark staining on their lower trunks for years, this is the first season they are clean!! Its a tool that is well worth the investment if you have similar tasks in your own trees.
The above comparison shows what 2 minutes can do with one of these tools. You can probably also see that it has removed a lot of the rotten, punky deadwood in the process leaving behind the harder heartwood which has saved another task. All i will need to do is a final hand clean and we are ready for a new coat of lime sulphur.
I am going to also give this ‘Alchohol & Resin’ wood hardener a go this year and see how that works in some of the more prone to rot areas.
As for the tree itself, it is building momentum and developing quickly now and i am contemplating on displaying it at a local show mid next year if it continues to go from strength to strength and i can get all the foliage as developed as the lower first branches pads are.
Its an interesting tree to look at over time as per the images below:
So back to the work, after a good cleaning the shari and deadwood was re-limesulphured and the bark somewhat cleaned up. Its growing into a nice tree.
While I had the tree on the bench i also thinned and shaped the live veins a little on the rear of the tree to further define them and ideally encourage them to ‘plump up’. Afterwards I gave the shari areas and jins a good fresh coat of lime sulphur and added some moss while I waited for things to dry. As I was applying the moss i also pulled and tied down the root on the left side that was hovering above the soil surface which I think was an easy improvement to make.
Next time this tree is on the bench I need to remove and likely re-wire the foliage and branching, but I am going to wait for things to fill in a little more before I do that, maybe next month’s task.
With some down time over the Christmas holidays, I finally got around to re-styling THIS TREE. It had been growing mostly untouched for a couple of years and had well and truly outgrown its former style.
As it had been left to grow a lot of the growth had become leggy and a lack of routine thinning had left fewer amounts of interior growth than i would have liked.
To get started, I began by pruning. I thinned and removed heavy and unneeded branching, upward and downward growing sub branches, thinned the foliage and generally cleaned up the structure.
As I worked I also started to play around with new front angles and didn’t mind it from a slightly counter clockwise rotated position.
I began to wire as I pruned so i could get a better sense of what branches I needed and what could be cut off. All was going well until i made an error. I wasn’t paying enough attention and when I cut off one of the branches in the top of the tree it was difficult to see from my angle that there were two branches in the branch cutters jaws…….. and as a result, i cut the key branch on the right side off.
Well, what was done was done so I continued wiring and worked a front that was much closer to the original. I was pretty annoyed with myself but there wasn’t a whole lot I could do. All in all everything was not lost but i was kicking myself for making such an avoidable mistake.
The ‘finished’ result is a good place to be for now. The styling is pretty sparse due to how much foliage and branching i removed but the trunk and deadwood are now very much more prominent.
You can probably see that the wiring I applied is only on major branches and sub branches. As this is a restyling, I will need to develop the foliage over the next 12 months or so to fill in and tighten up to this new style, so I didn’t bother fine wiring and hence the slightly scrappy appearance.
As the canopy fills in i think i will further fine tune the front. As you can see from the above image that original front is not bad but i still think i prefer the one i ended up with that is slightly rotated anticlockwise. We will see if this changes as i grow some of the branches and get some more width to things (something that i wouldn’t have to wait for if i hadn’t cut off that key branch!)
It is interesting comparing this and my other small Kishu to the itoigawa i have. It is certainly more difficult keeping these kishu small and compact compared to the itoigawa. That said, the branching stays much finer on these so i guess you have to take the good with the bad.
Next post might be an update on one of my itoigawa trees…. we will see.
Just a quick post today tracking a task I do on the semi regular to develop the junipers that have deadwood and shari features.
Above is yet another of my trees in desperate need of a wire. While I didn’t wire it today, iI did do a little thinning of the foliage in preparation for summer growth and a future styling. The main task i completed however, was the widening of the shari’s on the tree.
If you’re interested in seeing the tree 10 years ago, HERE’S it’s first post.
I do this task every couple of years to slowly reduce the sizes of the live veins which speeds up trunk thickening (or more like widening) and develops the shari’s texture.
The technique it’s self is fairly straight forward and involves removing a couple of mm of bark along the edges of the shari. It is a fairly safe process as you have to be pretty unlucky for the branches above to be reliant on the narrow strip of bark but it does pay to make sure that you are not removing all of the bark from directly below branches.
You can see the freshly exposed shari in the images above.
By reducing the size of the live vein you direct the same amount of sap (to supply the foliage above) through a thinner section of bark and as a result it tends to thicken in this area much more quickly compared to a larger area of bark supporting a similar amount of foliage. If you then have live veins on each side of the trunk they will grow outwards and appear to thicken the trunk much more quickly (if only in one side to side dimension.)
The other benefit of doing this technique over time is that you get a great texture on the shari areas. As you expose these new areas of shari, you are exposing younger heart wood and as a result you get lines appearing between the younger and older area of shari. You can see this quite clearly in the images above where there is a year or two age difference between each line. You can end up with an almost finger print like pattern on the shari with no need for carving and its a fairly effortless way to achieve a nice texture.
This is a tree i have been working on for a couple of years.
It was given to me by a good friend (thanks Kris) who was clearing out in preparation for a house move. At the time, it was a mass of foliage and while having some good movement, had been grown as a stock plant with many whips being grown long then later wired and then finally air-layered off as separate trees. It worked really well as a method of producing stock and also did a great job of thickening the trunk on this tree but it was in need of some direction.
I used it as a demo tree at Bonsai Society Victoria in October 2022 for it’s first styling. Unfortunately i don’t have any pics from that time but it underwent a basic program of branch and trunk line selection, reducing it from a huge mass of foliage down to its base structure.
It (and myself) were invited back in June this year (2023) to give it a second pass where i was able to massage things into a much more considered form.
The tree came up pretty well and was a good example to discuss changing the flow or direction of branches as i worked. Towards the end of the demo there was a lot of concern about the chances of ever getting it into a bonsai container as it was in a large growing pot………
Cut to a couple of weeks ago when i finally got around to re-potting it.
Another good friend gave me a pot that he thought would suit it (thanks Ken) and I went about reducing the root mass to a point where they would fit.
I also cut a shari on either side of the trunk to begin forming two live veins that will hopefully make the trunk much more interesting as it continues to develop. I will enlarge these each year until i am happy with them.
It’s a bit of a strange tree but i really like it. The only problem is it hangs down so far below the base of the pot that i will have to weld up a stand for it so it can fit comfortably on my benches.
A quick post to show this little juniper. This re-potting I have stood it up to reveal more of the fantastic trunk-line and will fully re-style it once it settles into the new pot and shows positive signs of growth.
Its a nice little tree that has been with me for a long time. Its not the ideal foliage for shohin as it is much more course than some others and gets ‘shaggy’ quickly. That said with the right amount of work it will be a nice tree.
Its new pot, is one i picked up last time i was in japan and i think suits the tree well. I love its grey tones and always think these colours go well with junipers.
Hopefully in a few months I will share the re-styling with you all. Until then……
It seems a consistent theme is me not updating my blog. Well, it’s been a long time between posts again so figured I should make an update…..
I’ve been fairly active doing various things within the garden and have recently been involved in a local bonsai gathering with some bonsai mates which has spurred my passion for bonsai along again.
During one of these catch up’s I brought along and worked on the tree features in this post. It has featured on the blog before (2012) as per the post below. That said, it has changed quite dramatically since then.
I was never entirely happy with the procumbens foliage on this tree. It could be made to look good but it grew quickly and needed a lot of up-keep to maintain at its best. So I decided to graft it with Itoigawa.
It turns out that this was a long process from which I’ve learnt a few things.
Probably the biggest take away was the size of the scions to use. I had originally used small pieces of scion foliage on the belief they would perspire less and therefore have a higher chance of success. This was the case and they were successful, but they took forever to build up enough strength to grow into something I could think about styling and or cutting the original foliage back to (think several years post graft success).
The next round of grafting I used much larger whips as scions. (probably in the 150-200mm long range.) I found that the extra foliage, almost immediately, built up strength and vigor and as a result could be utilised in much shorter time frames post grafting.
It took me a few years to learn these lessons so the ‘changing of clothes’ process took a lot longer than it might have otherwise. That said, I am now using these learnings on other trees and benefiting from the previous errors. You will see from the image below, I am growing out some whips on this tree to be used as grafts on other stock.
To cut a long story short, I finally got around to doing a structural styling on the new foliage on this tree and I am pretty happy with where it stands. It has a lot of growing to do to fill out and develop secondary and tertiary structure but its now on a good path.
The questions remains though, is this a procumbens juniper (sonare) or an itoigawa?
Both my bonsai and personal life have been busy of late. I am fortunate that this year I have been invited to demonstrate and run workshops across Australia for local club, groups and the AABC National Convention. On top of this travel I just begun winter styling of clients trees. It looks like I will have a fairly full book of client trees, workshops and demonstrations that combined with a young child, a house half way through renovations and a full-time job doesn’t leave a lot of time to work my own collections.
Today’s post is actually about a tree I worked on a year ago whilst in japan.
It was a small shimpaku juniper that Oyakata asked me to wire and style prior to taking it to auction the following day to be sold.
Prior to the work
I initially wanted to tilt the tree to the right so that the first bend would come in contact with the soil giving the appearance of a much larger trunk but Oyakata didn’t want to re-pot as the auction was so close and as a result we utilised the existing angle and front.
It turned out to be a fairly straight forward re-style and Oyakata told me it sold well at the auction.
Post work.
Looking back on trees like this it really gives me the incentive to start growing my own material to this standard. I now have a backyard big enough to experiment with a whole lot more stock so I am looking forward to starting this process off this year. Who knows, in ten years time I might have a whole lot of these ready for display………..
As you may or may not be aware, I have recently undergone surgery on my right wrist. Being right-handed, this has put a fair dent in my bonsai plans of late.
A few nights ago after work I decided to do something about it and tried wiring up a small juniper.
Before the work
I have been working on this tree for a few years now, slowly chasing the foliage in closer to the trunk and replacing leggy growth with tighter growth. I decided that it was about due for its first styling so that I could create the bones to grow and fill in the foliage upon.
Considering that my right arm was in a cast I think the wiring went ok. It’s not show ready but it never was going to be. It has a few more years before it is going to be anywhere near presentable.
I really wanted to get some fine sand paper into the bark to reveal the orange / red texture below the outer layers but the cast proved too clumsy. Something to look forward to once the pins from the wrist are removed after the next operation.
The little shimpaku from the front.
I find that when wiring junipers and particularly shimpaku, that preparation is key to a good result. Pruning unwanted growth and thinning what remains so that you end up with an evenly dense canopy not only makes the end result look better but it also makes for more balanced growth and an easier job while wiring.
As seen from the right
and from the back side
All in all I am pretty happy with the results considering that most of the wiring was done one-handed. I guess it just goes to show that interesting trunk movement is half the battle. That being said, the tree is only just beginning its journey as bonsai and should see many future wirings to come.
Following on from yesterdays post I thought it would be good to include some examples of approach grafts that were at Taisho en while I was studying. The two examples below are using approach grafting for two different reasons. The first is grafting roots onto an upper section of a trunk to shorten a bonsai. The other is using the technique to both replace foliage and graft on new roots.
What do you do when you want to shorten the trunk of a species such as Tsuga that doesn't aerial layer well? Approach graft!
Here you can see some new roots being grafted to a Tsuga trunk. The roots have been wrapped in cloth and are both watered and fed as if in a standard pot.
The taxus tsuga above was an interesting bonsai with an un-interesting lower trunk. The image of the bonsai could be greatly improved by shortening the trunk and hence roots were approach grafted onto the trunk.
The below juniper was undergoing a major change too. It was a tosho or japanese needle juniper (Juniperus rigida). It was very large stock extending about 2-2.5 meters in length. It had some great movement and excellent jin/shari. The future for this tree was to break it up into sections. By grafting new roots and new foliage along the live vein at key points the large piece of stock would be able to be broken down into 3 or 4 bonsai, all with nice movement and good foliage. Shimpaku juniper was grafted onto the tree instead of more tosho as it is a more popular species and therefore easier to sell once the separation is complete.
As you can see this is a large piece of stock that is both too big to become an exhibitable bonsai (by Japanese standards) and the foliage is that of needle juniper which is not popular in Japan at the moment. How would you improve this material? Approach grafting.
In this case roots are being grafted onto a section of live vein in order to allow the entire trunk to be split up into smaller individual bonsai.
Hopefully from these two posts you can see the possibilities that this technique can provide. The ability to manipulate your stock and bonsai is a powerful tool in the bonsai artists arsenal. Shortening trunks, adding branches and changing foliage types can be controversial in some bonsai circles but I think that when push comes to shove the results speak for themselves.
Nichigo Bonsai 