Mirai Holiday Tree Nursery Stock

[canoeguide]

I'm inspired by what was accomplished with this black hills spruce holiday tree. It starts with an admittedly interesting base, but above that is pretty uninspiring and poor. Worth the watch IMO.

 

[BobbyLane]

not inspired enough to go out and buy 5 to practice on?

 

[Njyamadori]

It inspired me

 

[Bonsaidoorguy]

Inspired me too. I've been good and haven't purchased any end of season plants this year, but I might just give in.

 

[Gustavo Martins]

I didn’t like the outcome much but I did get inspired to style trees. I tried spruce before, also bought as x-mas tree, but this has been the only species so far that has died on me. I believe my climate is way off for these.

 

[canoeguide]

not inspired enough to go out and buy 5 to practice on?

Personally, I've got enough material to keep me busy at the moment.

But what this video did inspire me to do is to think more creatively and aggressively about working with nursery material. Getting started as a relative noob in the last couple years, I've deliberately focused on care and horticulture and repotting and aftercare. We see a lot of people dive in with poor material, hack it to bits in the wrong season, and wire it sloppily like a waving inflatable arm flailing tube man. I even added, "Dead trees don't make good bonsai" as my signature. This video makes me want to add "... but neither do boring ones."

I still think that people should begin by focusing on keeping trees alive, but diving in and pushing cheap, replaceable material has value too. It would be a good learning exercise to buy 5 of something and go nuts.

 

[James W.]

Watched it. Looks like fun if you can get your hands on cheap trees.
A couple of things I noticed: (Not perfect quotes, just the essence of what Ryan said)
"The best time to do this would be early spring, just before bud break" and "do not do this now without a greenhouse and great aftercare"
"It is almost always best to repot nursery stock before you do major styling"
"I am pushing this to its absolute limits because it was cheap and I have nothing to lose, don't do this to a tree you value."
I would be interested to see what this looks like in a year or two or ten. But when he was asked about a similar job done on a Dwarf Alberta Spruce last year he replied "I don't know, I sold that one."

 

[leatherback]

aggressively

Maybe good to keep in mind: Aggressive? Or deliberately invasive? I did not think of the word aggressive in his work there? It was invasive, but in a gentle thought-out manner?

 

[Harcusha]

Nice and informative video, thx for that!

 

[Warlock]

Never seem trunk splitter used before.. Nice

 

[HorseloverFat]

I thought it was enjoyable... an interesting procedure that I have never seen carried out QUITE in this manner.

I was, somewhat jokingly, chant/yelling “First branch! First branch!” ..for a while!

My sons looked concerned.

 

[AshleyMammal]

I'd love to know what this looks like now!

Or, for that matter, any split branches on anyone's trees - they ever end up looking anything more than split branches?

 

[BobbyLane]

I'd love to know what this looks like now!

Or, for that matter, any split branches on anyone's trees - they ever end up looking anything more than split branches?

Either dead or just fuller and more refined

 

[leatherback]

fuller and more refined

would be my guess. I mean, the guy talks a lot but he is also an able bonsai professional.
Unless he sold it. Might not survive the first 3-6 months in the hands of an inexperienced bonsaianer.

 

[Bonsai Forest]

Personally, I've got enough material to keep me busy at the moment.

But what this video did inspire me to do is to think more creatively and aggressively about working with nursery material. Getting started as a relative noob in the last couple years, I've deliberately focused on care and horticulture and repotting and aftercare. We see a lot of people dive in with poor material, hack it to bits in the wrong season, and wire it sloppily like a waving inflatable arm flailing tube man. I even added, "Dead trees don't make good bonsai" as my signature. This video makes me want to add "... but neither do boring ones."

I still think that people should begin by focusing on keeping trees alive, but diving in and pushing cheap, replaceable material has value too. It would be a good learning exercise to buy 5 of something and go nuts.

“Wacky, wavy, inflatable arm flailing tube man!”

 

[AshleyMammal]

Either dead or just fuller and more refined

True, I meant more the split branches themselves but I didn't specify.

In my limited experience, a split trunk/branch like this and others (Peter Chan comes to mind) is done to not only create movement but to appear like two distinct branches instead of just 'a split branch'. When new I think they always looks ugly and obvious, however, I've not been able to find detailed pictures of anything like this three, four, ten years down the line.