First attempts at styling...

[Mbpauley]

So about a month and a half ago I picked up my first bonsai and have been doing quite a bit of reading since then. Recently I bought some wire and found a Japanese boxwood and rockspray cotoneaster at a local nursery. Didn't think to take any before pics...

Anyway, the cotoneaster was found in their tiny little bonsai section and only needed some modest pruning as it was already pretty small. Lots of unnecessary branches though, and I decided to wire the branches down as an informal upright. Also, since the picture was taken I decided cut the top down to choose a new leader, being the first discernible branch from the top that's leaning to the right. About midway between where I stopped wiring and the apex.

The boxwood was just a shrub that came in a 1 gallon training pot and had a ton of new growth, very dense. Pruned it back hard and wired it into this shape. It looks a lot more 2 dimensional in the picture than it does in person.

Just looking for some feedback/advice I guess, as well as any information on these plants that I should know...

Thanks,
Michael

 

[JudyB]

Hello Michael, and welcome to the forum.
I don't know where you live so I can't tell how much the late pruning will affect your trees. When you were reading, did you see anything about when pruning can be safely done during the year? Because unless you live in a very warm climate it can be deadly to do pruning this late in the season.
The boxwood looks like you've done a good job shaping, the cotoneaster could use a bit of movement on the trunk. But I don't know that I'd do anything more to stress them out right now, as you'll be hard pressed to keep them healthy if they put out new growth before they go into dormancy this winter.
It appears that you are keeping these outside, yes? They are outdoor trees...

 

[Si Nguyen]

Welcome aboard Michael. 2 very nice starters you have. Looking good already.

 

[BonsaiPrelude]

Bonsai Prelude

Hey Michael,

Congratulations on your first trees. I think my blog may be useful to you or anyone else starting out. I haven't commented on styling yet, but I have listed a great number of sources for more information.

http://bonsaiprelude.wordpress.com/

Thanks! And best of luck!

 

[Mbpauley]

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

Judy, I live in a pretty warm climate, unfortunately not very humid though. We've had temperatures here between 90and 95 up until yesterday. I do keep them outside, although I have a 120 watt light hanging inside over a plastic container that I put cuttings in. The cotoneaster was actually pruned close to two weeks ago now, while the boxwood was done probably 4 days ago or so. I've read that these plants like full sun, but for the time being I've got them under shade cloth and mist them when possible.

Also, I noticed that the cotoneaster's soil would drain and dry out very fast, so I took the chance and repotted it into a 1 gallon training pot with fresh bonsai soil. No root pruning. I figured that if the soil held moisture a little better, it would probably benefit the plant's recovery. But I could easily be wrong. Either way, it will be a learning experience.

 

[Mbpauley]

Oh, and yes... Everywhere I read was saying to wait to prune until spring. But the plants were cheap enough that I thought I might as well try it anyway. All I can hope for at this point is a little bit of beginner's luck, haha.

 

[Vance Wood]

So about a month and a half ago I picked up my first bonsai and have been doing quite a bit of reading since then. Recently I bought some wire and found a Japanese boxwood and rockspray cotoneaster at a local nursery. Didn't think to take any before pics...

Anyway, the cotoneaster was found in their tiny little bonsai section and only needed some modest pruning as it was already pretty small. Lots of unnecessary branches though, and I decided to wire the branches down as an informal upright. Also, since the picture was taken I decided cut the top down to choose a new leader, being the first discernible branch from the top that's leaning to the right. About midway between where I stopped wiring and the apex.

The boxwood was just a shrub that came in a 1 gallon training pot and had a ton of new growth, very dense. Pruned it back hard and wired it into this shape. It looks a lot more 2 dimensional in the picture than it does in person.

Just looking for some feedback/advice I guess, as well as any information on these plants that I should know...

Thanks,
Michael

Congratulations on starting your first bonsai. There are a couple of things you should consider. Obtain some books and pay particular attention to the finished or completed trees. You indicated that the trees you have were small to begin with. This is OK, but in order for you to get these trees to look like the trees you see in the books will take twenty to thirty years of constant work.

The real secret in bonsai production is to first understand the fundamental design of what it is you desire to produce as a bonsai. This includes an idea of basic branch placement and foliage refinement. Then, and here is the tricky part, you find larger material and cut it down into a bonsai. This takes a bit of an artistic eye that enables you to recognize some of the more desirable aspects we look for in bonsai material.

A lot of people just getting into bonsai think that a bonsai is grown up into a bonsai when the truth is most, not all, great bonsai are cut down into a bonsai starting with much larger trees.

 

[Mbpauley]

Vance,

Thank you for the advice. Luckily I have a habit of buying and reading tons of books on whatever hobbies/interests I may have. Bonsai happens to be the newest, so I've picked up several already. I've been trying to study the structure of trees (both finished bonsai as well as trees in their natural environment) to begin to understand the processes and conditions that influence their development. You are right, initially I assumed that bonsai were grown from seed or trained from a small plant and meticulously cared for over and indeterminate period of time. This is actually what drew me to it at first. I understand that the trees I've styled will take quite a while to mature and fill out, but that's alright with me. I just didn't want to wait until spring to get started.

 

[jkd2572]

Update we're your at in your profile. It means a lot.

 

[Mbpauley]

Update we're your at in your profile. It means a lot.

I imagine it would... Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Vance Wood]

I imagine it would... Thanks for the heads up.

California is a great place to grow bonsai. You don't have to worry about severe winters; only summer heat and possible drought.

 

[bonsai barry]

You should be complimented on your wiring. Very neatly done.

 

[Mbpauley]

Thank you Barry, I really appreciate your comment. I'm kind of a perfectionist so the wiring took me a few hours to get right.

By the way (and I know this is probably a question that has been asked plenty of times), what should I do if I bend a young branch just a bit too far and it it splits a little at the base? I read online somewhere that superglue will work fine... I happen to have wound sealant so I applied a teeny bit of that and the branch seems to be perfectly fine so far.

 

[Vance Wood]

Thank you Barry, I really appreciate your comment. I'm kind of a perfectionist so the wiring took me a few hours to get right.

By the way (and I know this is probably a question that has been asked plenty of times), what should I do if I bend a young branch just a bit too far and it it splits a little at the base? I read online somewhere that superglue will work fine... I happen to have wound sealant so I applied a teeny bit of that and the branch seems to be perfectly fine so far.

I've never used super glue but to my thinking that would mean bending the branch to where it broke in the first place. In my experience this is a bad thing to do. You run the risk of totally destroying the cambium on the surviving portion of the branch.

 

[bonsaibp]

If it's just a little split I'd just leave it alone. Certainly don't move it back and forth. Just let the wire provide support and scar tisue will most likely form.

 

[KennedyMarx]

Nice wiring. It looks like you've got a pretty good eye for styling already. Seeing through all the foliage and figuring out where to take the initial styling of the branches has proved to be much more difficult for myself than I thought it would.

 

[Mbpauley]

I will leave that branch alone then and wait and see what comes of it.

Thanks, Kennedy. I admit it was pretty difficult to decide on what should go where. It went pretty slow at first, just pruning away things that I knew for sure that I wouldn't need. Then I stared at it for two days. Most of the decisions were made as I started wiring.

I'll attach another picture when I get a chance that shows a top view of the boxwood.

 

[Mbpauley]

So, originally I styled the boxwood as a twin trunk, but after looking at it for a while, the second (thinner) trunk has absolutely no taper. I probably will just remove that entire branch in the spring and use some other branch to fill out the right side of the tree. There is a small branch coming forwards from the main trunk that I will probably use to do that.

 

[Mbpauley]

Something like this... maybe even with it tilted a bit over to the right? Although I would probably need to ground layer it if I did that.