Hinoki - Starting Out

grouper52

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Here's the initial styling on this guy: very much a first approximation. I'm posting it somewhat to illustrate the pruning and fine wiring I explained in RogueF's thread, but partly also to start a long term progression.

This has the bulbous base of the usual dwarf Hinoki grafted years ago onto more rapidly growing species stock. I put it in the ground maybe about 6 years ago from a nursery pot. It went into this colander last year, and this year was doing fine.

The tree has a number of problems, especially the three straight, long, bare stove pipes that form the main skeleton. They will never back bud onto old wood, so I have to work solely with what's left out further, and work over time to bring the distal foliage in closer to the trunk with extensive bending.

I will likely chop and jin the main trunk above those two lateral branches coming off together about half way up, as well as much/most of the other six inch stove pipe coming up near its base. I may also shorten the huge straight lateral branch that I'm trying to slowly bend in closer, losing the foliage at it's tip in favor of the two thick, but still bendable, branches coming off in closer.

Those changes would result in a simpler tree, and more sparse if kept trimmed properly, and by creating several tops at different heights surrounding what's left of a dying original top, augmented with extensive further carving, it may one day look like a credible old survivor. :)
 

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october

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Hello grouper... You are right.. no easy task here... This is a tough project... I find that when dealing with Hinoki, even when you get an incredibly healthy one, it still can be difficult. Also, after you make the cuts you designated, when winter comes and the tree starts shedding some foliage, it could leave you with next to nothing. What's funny about this species is not only does it not bud back on old wood, but I noticed that even still green, but older foliage sometimes doesn't do much either. The tree will just keep the old foliage alive, but not do much with it at all.

I am training a new Hinoki right now as well. However, the folaige is in so so health. There are other problems as well. When winter comes, I will probably give it great protection so I don't loose what little and important foliage that is already on there.

Rob
 

grouper52

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Here's this guy after some work the last several evenings. Some small branches died over the winter, but not many. It's a great climate for these here. Enjoy.
 

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grouper52

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Bonsai Master:

Grouper52 was one of the most outstanding tree lovers this country's ever produced. He was brilliant. He was outstanding in every way. And he was a good man, too. A humanitarian man. A man of wit and humor. Then he joined the hobby of bonsai, and after that, his ideas, methods, became...unsound. Unsound.


BonsaiNut Newbie:

I don't follow sir.


Bonsai Master:

Well, you see, newbie, in this hobby, things get confused out there. Power, ideals, the old morality, and practical horticultural necessity. But out there with these little trees in pots, it must be a temptation to be God. Because there’s a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Naka called the better angels of our nature. Every man has got a breaking point. You have and I have. Grouper52 has reached his. And, very obviously, he has gone insane.


BonsaiNut Newbie:
[thoughtfully, staring at the hinoki]

Yes, sir. Very much so, sir. Obviously insane.


[My apologies to John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola for stealing from their wonderful script for Apocalypse Now]
 

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crust

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I really appreciate the Grouper notes and trees. The are inspirational to me. One thing that strikes me, is a not often talked about thing, that is your climate in the PNW , and how it is so much more nurturing and kind to bonsai culture. I often wonder how much bonsai failure and suffering and crappiness my locale (north central MN zone 3) has caused for me--not my lack of attention or technique--not my lack of efforts, but just simply trying to grow exquisite things in a harsh non-horticultural place--Baaah.
 

grouper52

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I really appreciate the Grouper notes and trees. The are inspirational to me. One thing that strikes me, is a not often talked about thing, that is your climate in the PNW , and how it is so much more nurturing and kind to bonsai culture. I often wonder how much bonsai failure and suffering and crappiness my locale (north central MN zone 3) has caused for me--not my lack of attention or technique--not my lack of efforts, but just simply trying to grow exquisite things in a harsh non-horticultural place--Baaah.

Hi Crust, and thanks for your kind words. What you say is true: This is bonsai heaven here, a climate just very, very conducive to most trees, the kind of climate where I have often found myself thinking that if I were a tree then this is the sort of place I would want to live.

My style is to just not worry much about my trees, with the benign neglect giving them a chance to grow the way they want until I see something that inspires me to intervene. That type of style works very well here. 100% inorganic soil is a natural here, and I just recycle it if I need some. I have gone entire winters without watering. I only bring one or two trees inside each winter, and the rest are just thrown each winter against the retaining wall they sit on, and a few winters I haven't even bothered to bury their bases in mulch.

There are certainly a few types of tree that don't grow well here, and we do need to send junipers and such down to California for grafting, but besides those few exceptions it is bonsai heaven here. There are a few reasons I don't like living here, but bonsai certainly isn't one of them.

G52
 

grouper52

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After the S&M bondage session over the winter (and about half the guy wires removed and much of the remaining ones Photoshopped out - :) ) this guy looks a bit more self-satisfied. IMMHO. there's still at least a shred of hope that this Impossible Dream project may yet produce an appealing transformation. Time will tell.
 

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