The 5 to 10+ Year Progression Thread

grouper52 · Sep 28, 2018

This Chinese Elm progression actually started around 2000, though I have no photos until a number of years later. I got the tree from Brussels - who had imported it - when we were living a short distance away in Memphis briefly. Shortly thereafter my wife and I built a home on some property I owned on the plateau at the foot of the mountain in Taos, New Mexico - a very, very, VERY bad place to try to raise bonsai! At about 7000 feet elevation in a high desert climate, where, within the same 24 hour diurnal cycle, temperatures could swing from the low nineties daytimes of below zero at night, and humidity was negligible, our trees either died or struggled greatly before being forced to move elsewhere after three years (because my wife developed intractable allergies to sagebrush!). We lost many great bonsai, despite valiant efforts that included a green house and other such remedies, but among the few that survived was this Chinese elm, which - because it lost about half of its live sections - now had great deadwood features!

So the progression photos pick up in 2007 when the dramatic changes in the general outlines of the tree are already established (sorry), and then the progression ends - after a series of small, gradual, undramatic refinements - in 2015, showing an ever improving image developed merely by preserving and honouring the deadwood, while framing and thereby accentuating that deadwood using clip-and-grow techniques almost exclusively - as the Chinese of old in Lingnan Province, where these trees originate, would have done. One of my all-time favourite trees, which Dan Robinson asked to have for his Elandan Garden Collection when I moved overseas, and which he has since planted on a rock slab of some sort - an ever-increasing stylistic choice for him as he continues to mature. Enjoy!

grouper52 · Sep 28, 2018

So, here's one of the two progressions that I posted on the "What's the Difference" Thread a few days ago that gave me the idea of starting this entire 5-10+ year progression thread for all to join in on. The other one will follow next.

This is a Threadbranch False Cyoress I got at a regular garden nursery in 2007, in their landscape tree section, suspecting - rightly - that someone may have once started this out to be a bonsai and gave up on it. Dates of these photos range from 2006 - about 2015. Enjoy!

grouper52 · Sep 28, 2018

And here's the other progression from the "What Difference Does It Make" thread that got me started on this thread:

This is a collected tree/yamadori - a Mountain Hemlock from the Cascades in Washington State. I forgot how I came by it - probably not from a nursery, but I might have collected it myself or bought it from Dan after he collected it.

These are difficult trees to work with in some ways, requiring some finesse to achieve the kind of natural appearance this tree shows: 1. They never back bud, leaving long unfoliated branches in their wake as the sparse foliage moves outwards on the otherwise bare branches, and 2. They are notorious for responding to the use of wrapped wire by just suddenly - in an unpredictably capricious manner, and almost overnight - thickening their bark around the wire, making what later looks like very ugly sections of distorted-looking branches that are very conspicuous and distracting. So those were the challenges with this tree.

The progression speaks for itself, moving from a gangly long-branched thing in 2006 to a compact and very natural-looking tree about 10 years later. Since I prefer naturalistic trees, I was very pleased with this one, which also went into Dan’s Elandan Gardens Collection when I left the States as I recall. Enjoy!

grouper52 · Sep 28, 2018

So ... while everyone over across the oceans is sleeping, and I have little to do while I await my flight out of here in a few days, I've decided I'll go against my original idea to trickle these progressions over a series of days, and just finish the remaining few today, posting all the really good 5-10+ year progressions I have (and probably all I'll ever have, given my age as I return to start bonsai again with brand new trees in the US.

)

But I started this thread so that all you old timers with years of bonsai beneath your belts can add your own material to what will be a growing resource for newbies and all others who come to BNut. I've been gratified to see the progressions others have posted so far, often with much different sorts of trees, and much different approaches to styling than my progressions demonstrate. I hope others can learn a great deal in a condensed and well-organized way with this thread, and that it generates much lively discussion, and if that turns out to be the case, then I will be happy I started it.

So, one more progression before I run out of good, first-tier ones: This is a Shore Pine I found and collected on a trip to a lowland bog way up at the northern tip of Vancouver Island with Dan Robinson in 2010. It's a small tree, but ancient, and easy to style since the wood is extremely flexible because it forms poorly in the highly acidic soil conditions of the bog. The final image is from 2015. Enjoy! And thanks for appreciating the thread and contributing, if you have, or if you plan to in the future. A Dios.

Brian Van Fleet · Sep 29, 2018

grouper52 said:
This is a Threadbranch False Cypress

AWESOME!

Brian Van Fleet · Sep 29, 2018

Here is a kurume azalea I dug up from our front yard in 2000, probably planted in the 1960s when the house was built.
I flew it to a Ben Oki workshop in 2005 (2nd shot) and then a shot every couple years thereafter, until 2018.
18 years and three houses later.

grouper52 · Sep 29, 2018

Brian Van Fleet said:
Here is a kurume azalea I dug up from our front yard in 2000, probably planted in the 1960s when the house was built.
I flew it to a Ben Oki workshop in 2005 (2nd shot) and then a shot every couple years thereafter, until 2018.
18 years and three houses later.
/QUOTE]

Spectacular transformation, Brian, and a spectacular tree! What a beauty from such humble beginnings! Kudos!

grouper52 · Sep 29, 2018

Well ... maybe I'll post some second tier ( - due merely to being less than five years in duration - ) progressions before calling this project quits ...

... here's another Cryptomeria, which are real no-brainer trees for even the newest newbie. It's only a three-to-four year progression, because I then gave it - as seen in the last photo - to some dear neighbours and friends of ours for their 25th anniversary, with instructions ... and with promises of willingness to instruct, inspect, or care for the tree, or whatever - which were never heeded - such. that it died within a few months in a climate where even significant neglect should have kept it alive much, much longer. Enjoy ... or weep!

bonhe · Sep 29, 2018

Thanks Grouper52 to create this educational post and welcome back to the States.
I like to share progression of this crepe myrtle.
I acquired it on 10/30/10. Sorry, the picture's quality was not good at all because I was so excited to take pictures as soon as it come to my garden at dusk!

on 4/14/18

Thụ Thoại

bonhe · Sep 29, 2018

This crepe myrtle was dug up for free in March 2013

on 1/21/18

on 4/14 18

Thụ Thoại

bonhe · Sep 29, 2018

I bought this cork elm from SG nursery on 9/1/2006.
It was on 12/13/2009

on 3/1/18

Thụ Thoại

grouper52 · Sep 29, 2018

Here's my last worthwhile Progression, though one that ends less than ideally.

It's a Shore Pine that I got in 2007 from Dan Robinson, who collected it in a lowland bog at the northeren tip[ of Vancouver Island. My call to come talk to him at Elandan Gardens about purchasing this tree, was the start of my writing/photographing/publishing in 2009 my book about him, Gnarly Branches.

The progression only goes from my purchase of the tree in 2007, to 2008, because sometime after that - several years at least, as I recall - it lost a key segment of it's structure, and never looked as great again after that. Anyway, in it's prime it was world class, - if only briefly - which is a key lesson to learn if you go down this road with trees. Enjoy! And Fine' for this thread

Hartinez · Sep 29, 2018

grouper52 said:
And here's the other progression from the "What Difference Does It Make" thread that got me started on this thread:

This is a collected tree/yamadori - a Mountain Hemlock from the Cascades in Washington State. I forgot how I came by it - probably not from a nursery, but I might have collected it myself or bought it from Dan after he collected it.

These are difficult trees to work with in some ways, requiring some finesse to achieve the kind of natural appearance this tree shows: 1. They never back bud, leaving long unfoliated branches in their wake as the sparse foliage moves outwards on the otherwise bare branches, and 2. They are notorious for responding to the use of wrapped wire by just suddenly - in an unpredictably capricious manner, and almost overnight - thickening their bark around the wire, making what later looks like very ugly sections of distorted-looking branches that are very conspicuous and distracting. So those were the challenges with this tree.

The progression speaks for itself, moving from a gangly long-branched thing in 2006 to a compact and very natural-looking tree about 10 years later. Since I prefer naturalistic trees, I was very pleased with this one, which also went into Dan’s Elandan Gardens Collection when I left the States as I recall. Enjoy!

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This hemlock is wonderful.

bonhe · Sep 29, 2018

I got this California juniper from the Kofu Kai's auction on 6/21/2008. This tree was dug by Mr. Harry Hirao years before.
The tree in on 6/22/08 with the name tag was still on the pot.

on 11/8/2008

on 10/21/2017

Thụ Thoại

Hartinez · Sep 29, 2018

I’m not even at the 5 year mark on my quality trees. But I’ll be back ...?

Adair M · Sep 29, 2018

Here is a little shohin Olive I purchased from Sam Adina.

The time period spans from May, 2015 for the first picture to June, 2018 for the last one with the yellow pot. Sorry, it’s not 5 or more years, but olives develop quickly!

The progression shows how I develop deciduous and broadleaf trees: NO pinching! I let’s them grow out, and cut them back. I will wire young, flexible tender growth (very carefully) and remove wire after it sets. Only once the primary, secondary and tertiary branches are in place is pinching appropriate to increase ramification.

bonhe · Sep 29, 2018

I bought this pomegranate from local regular nursery in 2008.
It was on 4/10/2011

On 12/10/2017

On 2/25/18

Thụ Thoại

bonhe · Sep 29, 2018

I bought this pomegranate on 9/1/2007, just few months after I started involving into this hobby.
Tree was on 3/3/2010

on 7/30/17

On 2/9/2018

Thụ Thoại

JudyB · Sep 29, 2018

grouper52 said:
I'm, returning to the States - probably permanently - in about two weeks, so I'll see it and the others again.

yay!

JudyB · Sep 29, 2018

grouper52 said:
I'll keep drip, drip, dripping these old progressions until they're all done. I certainly hope others will do so as well, and that newbies and such who might benefit from studying these progressions will be drawn or directed here over time.

A Japanese Larch, which I believe originally from John Hinds as part a half dozen or so he had raised and then sold to Dan Robinson to sell at Elandan Gardens, where I acquired it. The progression goes from 2007 to 2015. One of my all-time favourite trees to work with and look at, BTW - enjoy!

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The one that got away! Love this one.

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