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Thanks for your kind words. You've really helped me bring out the best in this material. The bark, deadwood and foliage colour and texture of spruce from that area provide a beautiful contrast. I think this recent styling has really brought that out.

This little fellow has spent its flowers and is ramifying really well. I was given a beautiful Byron Merrick pot that should pair perfectly with it. It's already leafing out though, so this new pot may have to wait until next season.

I guess it was yesterday, but we got to the wiring of the two spruce mentioned earlier.

Hopefully it recovers well and I can get it in a nice small nanban pot next spring

The tall skinny bunjin got its first real styling today with the help of my friend @HENDO and eldest son. More Shari extension and branch development to come if it recovers well.

It's been a while since I have updated this thread. The tree has continued to grow well over the past four years or so. Unfortunately, most of the big ten Jin was broken off by a deer scratching his head on it. Today my friend @HENDO and my son did its first real styling. I'm loving where it's...

Thanks for picking me up a pot too. I can think of lots of nice native species here that would pair nicely with those new little pots.

Worked on two yamado spruce with my friend @HENDO and my younger son. I couldn't be more pleased with these, and I believe we have set the up for a great future as bonsai. Fine wiring to come:

This fellow has not been updated in a while. Still continuing to bark up and mature. I have once again decided to let the apex run for a bit after a cutback. This tree is getting a nice alpine look and pads are really refining. It should look good once the growth extends.

I realize it's been awhile since I updated this thread. The tree was wired last summer with the help of my friend @HENDO. It has since ramified well and is beginning to flower coming out of dormancy.

Cool. By the way, where are you located? There doesn't seem to be a lot of western Canadian bonsai enthusiasts, other than the west coast

Good to hear. I've never really thought of them as bonsai subjects since the branching is so course and trunks are usually pretty uninteresting. These made me rethink that. I still haven't collected any, but I'll keep you posted on how it goes this spring

Grazing by wild ungulates has made the twigs very congested:

This is another from the same area: An image of the red twigging:

Here are some images: the deadwood trunk of one (live vein on the other side): The whole plant:

I've been out walking near a river where my family owns some land, and came across these very old and interesting looking osier dogwoods. This species usually grows around here as a small clumpy shrub. Its larger leaves, long internodes and thin trunks led me to discount it as bonsai material...

I've dealt with blue and other spruce in some numbers and never bare root or "balance". Keeping as much foliage as possible actually aids root recovery with picea. FYI, my experience is mostly with yamadori.

Here are a few pines that I just found particularly cool, and some nice powerful bases:

There were also lots of subalpine fir and englemann spruce. These had some interesting interplay between dead and live branches, and were often "flagging" in windswept areas:

There were definitely some interesting lodgepole pines where the soil was a bit thicker. The darker bark is a cool contrast to the deadwood, and the darker foliage is distinctive.

Clarks nutcrackers were certainly there. Some of the trees were definitely lodgepole. I didn't see any white bark cones. Most of the 5 needle pines were definitely limbers, but there may have been some exceptions

Deadwood is generally wind blasted and bleached, but can also be hollow. It contrasts less than similar junipers with the live veins, but is still beautiful

Another characteristic of a lot of these trees that might be interesting (although difficult) to explore in bonsai is the "basal thicket" of healthy branches that are protected by snow cover in the winter. These often have a much sparser crown extending above them, often looking like the trees...

A limber pine from the Alberta Rockies, fairly traditional styling by nature:

One thing I noticed that I've not seen in bonsai are trees where only the upper parts of the crown were strongly wind influenced: