Shibui
Imperial Masterpiece
I originally grew this mugho from a cutting I took home from a club meeting. That was a few years ago.............
It is now just over 30 cm (1') tall.
You can see that a few large branches were killed off a few years ago and converted to jin. There were already a couple of dead patches on the trunk that I've been preserving with lime sulphur.
It appears that the jinned branches had a direct link with the roots below because last week I noticed the bark peeling off the trunk. Further exploration reveals the entire lower (left) side of the trunk is dead and, in fact, rotting under the bark.
I peeled off the dead bark and scraped way all the soft, rotted wood. One good thing about natural rotting of a bonsai trunk is that it gives some good texture as the wood rots unevenly.
The clump f dead branches was always just a bit too large. Now it is way too big for the remaining trunk so I've started carving to reduce the visual weight.
The carving has reduced the impact but I still think there's too much at the point where those 3 jins are.
It can be hard to objectively assess a tree you have been close to for nearly 30 years so I'm having just a little trouble working out where to go next.
None of you have a vested interest in this tree so you can probably be more objective. I'd like some feedback and suggestions on where to go next.
It is now just over 30 cm (1') tall.
You can see that a few large branches were killed off a few years ago and converted to jin. There were already a couple of dead patches on the trunk that I've been preserving with lime sulphur.
It appears that the jinned branches had a direct link with the roots below because last week I noticed the bark peeling off the trunk. Further exploration reveals the entire lower (left) side of the trunk is dead and, in fact, rotting under the bark.
I peeled off the dead bark and scraped way all the soft, rotted wood. One good thing about natural rotting of a bonsai trunk is that it gives some good texture as the wood rots unevenly.
The clump f dead branches was always just a bit too large. Now it is way too big for the remaining trunk so I've started carving to reduce the visual weight.
The carving has reduced the impact but I still think there's too much at the point where those 3 jins are.
It can be hard to objectively assess a tree you have been close to for nearly 30 years so I'm having just a little trouble working out where to go next.
None of you have a vested interest in this tree so you can probably be more objective. I'd like some feedback and suggestions on where to go next.