Search results

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:

I went up for a hike to the limber pines near the tree line in the Alberta Rockies. Some old stunted specimens with lots of character and some implications that I want to apply to future collected pines. Firstly, there were lots of interesting windswept trees. These usually had multiple...

Serviceberry and bench with larch at centre. Sorry for the background noise:

Nice colour coming on my mame hedge cotoneasters:

I live on the border of zone 3-4, and my lodgepoles have done fine over winter just dug into the ground up to the rim. I even do this with small pots. Just make sure surrounding soil does not get waterlogged

Impressive bases on these

I love spruce, but at least in my ( decidedly harsher) climate, you do need to be careful about the timing for work. When in doubt do less, spruce bonsai are not for the impatient. Best of luck with this one.

In my experience, put a Colorado spruce in full sun and it is usually blue, part shade and it is usually green. Although not as blue, the same rules apply to englemann and white spruce