3 days @ Shady Side Bonsai

[Tachigi]

Hi all,

Thought you all might enjoy a fews pictures from the Shady Side Bonsai study and work group. We were lucky to have Colin Lewis join us and get his thoughts and give us a good critique of the trees. A lot was accomplished and fun was had by all.

This yew was collected last year. See http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123 for the pictures of the collection. Well this week end this monster had the first styling/ reduction based on a concept that the owner and the group game up with which is represented in the final picture. Foliage that was not part of the image was eliminated and the selection of future deadwood was made. This is one impressive trunk!

 

[Tachigi]

The rest of the pictures are only a few of the trees that were gone over during the 3 days. The Ponderosa in my opinion is a show stopper. The material was obtained from Andy Smith back 2004 and has gone through a long intensive training. The other tree shown is also from Andy Smith and is a Black Hills Spruce. Of course it wasn't all work there was a bit of relaxation as well.

All in all it was a great weekend. I even got some input on my Colo. Blue Spruce and Uber Juniper. Both got a good spring pinching and tweaking.

 

[Smoke]

Some beautiful work there Tom. I especially like the spruce. Bunjin is the bomb when done right and this is right as rain!

Smoke

 

[Tachigi]

Thanks Al,
That means alot coming from you. The inspiration for the spruce was the pines of the Yellow Mountains in China. Hopefully they were done justice.

 

[John Hill]

Hey Tom,
Nice work indeed! Wish I could of been there with you all. Love the ponderosa. You will have to come over and work on mine ;-)

A Friend in bonsai
John

 

[Tachigi]

Hi John,
Would of been nice if you could of been here. However, I wonder if you could make the drive out east more than once in a month I'm sure with your skill that you need no assistance. I would though love to see your trees up close someday. Thanks for the kind words.

 

[agraham]

Tom,

Is there anyway to get a close up of the top portion of the literati?I'm a bit confused on what you did up there.I don't know anything about pines...it's more of a design question.

andy

 

[Tachigi]

Andy,
This is an earlier picture of when the tree was being matched to the pot. It should give you and idea of the apex

 

[agraham]

Thanks Tom.For what it's worth...I like the trunk line and lower branch in the "done" pic.The apex seems more organised in the "matching a pot" pic.

Looks like y'all had a good time.Beautiful setting,nice trees,good company.

andy

 

[Tachigi]

I like the trunk line and lower branch in the "done" pic. The apex seems more organised in the "matching a pot" pic.

Andy, I agree with you. The recent pic the top of the tree wasn't touched so to speak, so that those rare and few buds they throw wouldn't be disturbed. Later on in the year the top will be tidied up and prep made for next years flush.

We did have a good time, and if you ever can pry yourself away from south Texas and those dam fine tropicals your always welcome

 

[JasonG]

Hey Tom,

Nice job on a nice tree!! I like it! Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun, and we do stuff like this from time to time here as well. Nothing better than working on trees with a group of friends on a nice day with no pressure or time crunch.

Thanks for sharing....

Jason