For the advanced seasoned bonsaist...

[Vance Wood]

Thank You, I just started doing what I liked to do and over the years my likes have not changed. Of course the observation of sticks in pots is quite accurate. Almost everyone I knew at the time belonged to the SIP (sticks in pots) club. Most of us didn't have a clue how to develop a piece of raw material into a bonsai. Most of us didn't have the resourses to get the kind of training some today have been blessed to acquire thus eliminating at least a decade in the learning curve. I am not bemoaning my history; it is what it is, I am just happy that no matter how long I do this thing called bonsai there is always something new to learn. Remember before you rule out some individual because you think you know more than he/she, a stopped clock is right at least twice a day.

 

[PaulH]

Vance, we were apparently neighbors. I grew up just north of Marin in Sonoma County. I think living among the Redwood forest had a big part in inspiring my love of bonsai. I have friends in the Marin Bonsai Club who are very good bonsai artists as are you.
Love that Oak, by the way!

 

[Vance Wood]

When I first moved to California is when really got the bonsai bug. A genterlman from the Marin County Bonsai Club took me under his wing and taught me as much as he could that he knew. His name was Roy Wendelkin. I don't know if anyone out that way remembers him but he was one of the moving forces in bonsai at the time in that part of California. He died while I was in Viet Nam, I miss him to this day. The Oak is in Marinwood Hills on Pinewood drive if you are interested in seeing it---if it is still alive. It covered five houses.

Northern California is a beautiful place and I miss it as well.

 

[PaulH]

The Oak is in Marinwood Hills on Pinewood drive if you are interested in seeing it---if it is still alive.

I'm going to look for it next time I'm over there. If its still there I'll post a pic.

 

[barrosinc]

Wow Vance! Those are a lot of years of dedication!

 

[Vance Wood]

I'm going to look for it next time I'm over there. If its still there I'll post a pic.

Please do. I am afraid for it.

 

[PaulH]

Please do. I am afraid for it.

Is this it?
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.031...4!1sWuZsE00QO4aWiJgSNSgUJw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

[Cadillactaste]

I was going through some old pictures and I ran accross these two from 1962.
Three years to the day I was inducted into the Army and everything changed for ever. All of these trees died.

View attachment 94185 View attachment 94186

Very cool...very cool indeed! Thanks for sharing...and thank you for serving.

 

[Vance Wood]

Is this it?
https://www.google.com/maps/@38.031...4!1sWuZsE00QO4aWiJgSNSgUJw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Thank You that's not it my address was 480 Pinewood Drive. It looks like the tree is still there but it may have been pruned back.

 

[Boscology]

Wow Vance I knew you were a font of knowledge but those pictures proved far beyond what I expected.

Polite bow to you sir.

 

[Vance Wood]

Wow Vance I knew you were a font of knowledge but those pictures proved far beyond what I expected.

Polite bow to you sir.

Some would say I have been a beginner for fifty years. They may be right, but I stuck with it. I have seen some really significant talent come along and produce some really nice trees and walk away never to be seen again. They boast great things and beat those they think are below them about the head for not acknowledging them as great masters. After a couple of years they go and find something else to do. Thank You for your kind words.

 

[Chuah]

Started in 1994, my oldest early day tree that still survive is a cascade Juniperus procumbens nana, ~21 years. Have several trees in training for 15-20 years. One of them was ficus microcarpa Tiger Bark, started as a pre-bonsai, now in its 19th year training. It won a 2013 World Bonsai Friendship Federation photo contest, as one of the 25 exceptional trees. It subsequently won the Lone Star State Best of Show in 2014.
This is the photo submitted for the WBFF contest.


This is the sketch I drew how the pre-bonsai would look like in 1997.

The envisioned finished height of ~10" was totally wrong, the tree is now about twice as tall with a 30" spread.

Tree in 2001:

In 2009:


Defoliated in May 2012:


Chopped off large back branch in 2012, and brought down a branch above it .

 

[Vance Wood]

Very nice Ficus. Do you have more?

 

[Chuah]

Continue for the above post:

I chopped off a large back branch, about 1 3/4" thick, and brought down the one above it to fill the gap. The large branch was too overwhelming in the design.



Brought down the primary and secondary branches with guy wires in 2013, and to give more curves to these branches:



Defoliated and wired the tree. Photo in September about 6 weeks after defoliation. Tree is about 20" tall and 30" from left to right.


I am writing a blog on the 19-year journey of this Tiger Bark Ficus; what I had learned, the good and the bad, what I wish I would have done etc., and plan for future development. Perhaps the next 10-year journey.

 

[Chuah]

Very nice Ficus. Do you have more?

Do your mean more ficus? I do have another two very large ficus, trained for at least 15 years, and a bunch of shohin.
Someone asked me to put a soda can next to the tree for comparison as it was hard to envisioned without a scale.

The other two large ficus still in training, both are in 24" round and rectangular pots.

 

[Vance Wood]

I have found that I usually don't care much for Ficus bonsai but these are quite nice and make be want to grow them again. You have learned a lot about the tree, probably through doing it, not taking classes necessarily. Your work show a love for what you are doing not just a simple repetition of patterns and things to do when to do them.

Yes my request was about Ficus, but I like your work do you have other kinds of trees?

 

[Chuah]

I have found that I usually don't care much for Ficus bonsai but these are quite nice and make be want to grow them again. You have learned a lot about the tree, probably through doing it, not taking classes necessarily. Your work show a love for what you are doing not just a simple repetition of patterns and things to do when to do them.

Yes my request was about Ficus, but I like your work do you have other kinds of trees?

Vance,
Yes, I do work on other species, conifers, flowering, satsuki azalea, maples, broadleaves etc., all sizes. Like other bonsai people, probably too much. I do both Lingnan style by clip and grow on some broadleaves, Japanese style with wiring some conifers and some broadleaves depending on the species. I will post some photos.
This a large JBP with very nice nebari, photo June 2014, needles have grown substantially before heading for summer decandling:

A shohin pyracantha, air-layered from a nursery plant, cultivar "San Jose":


Here are two shohin Chinese elms I air-layered from one mallsai. I wrote about the air-layering in my first post on this forum about two years ago. These two are photos are recent. One by clip-and-grow Lingnan penjing style, one wired as a sumo shohin.




Mame Chinse elm from root cutting.

 

[Chuah]

Yes my request was about Ficus, but I like your work do you have other kinds of trees?

Vance, I also like satsuki azaleas. Many people said they have problem growing them in our zone 9 weather, they just died. I am fortunate, have grown quite a number of cultivars. A bonsai friend said it must be my backyard.
Here are some satsuki azaleas:


Two mid-size satsuki grown from gallon nursery stocks:



Same "wakaebisu" satsuki not in flowers:

My wife also does a lot of kusamono:

 

[leatherback]

Nice idea for a thread. And although not a seasoned bonsaiist, certainly not complared to the impressive career that Vance has.. Some images.

I decided to pick up bonsai in 2011. This was the first plant (Acer pseudoplatanus) I started with, I still have it. Since then I have learned the species is not suited for bnsai culltivation, unless you have a serious trunk; Leaves do not reduce much below 2 inches.. It sits ina growing bed, and I have fund with it, trying to get as fine a ramnification I can, while trying to grow out the trunk a little. We'll see whether in a decade this makes a pleasing winter silhouette!


In Feb 2012 I bought my first tree, which was an overgrown J communis. The person I bought it from aadmitted to treating it as a hedge, which was showing in the foliage. Now, after about 4 years, the height is reduced to half (ne third?) of the original height, the soil has been fully replaced and I am considering grafting J Chinensis foliage to replace the spiky stuff this plant calls foliage. Oh, yes.. My collection has grown to some 100 plants in pots, and a similar number of plants in growing beds.

 

[petegreg]

... and I am considering grafting J Chinensis foliage to replace the spiky stuff this plant calls foliage. Oh, yes..

I love common junipers and their needles, please, do not do it... The species is problematic enough to risk it. Careful when reducing foliage... I would rather dig or buy some chinese juniper.