My san jose

[Dav4]

Very nice tree.

Have you ever considered tilting it maybe a couple degrees to the right (later)? The 2 left corners at the base and trunk "elbow" are currently aligned and for me, is not very ideal. I feel the slight tilt will help resolve it IF you agree with my observation. Newbie eyes shooting from the hip based only on my personal taste. Sorry if I am mistaken.

Thanks for your thoughts. It took me a while to grasp what you were saying. It doesn't bother me (though I'll take another look at it in person), really, but if it did, I'd probably reduce or remove the jin instead of changing the planting angle.

 

[Dav4]

Picture from the ABS show. Koa wood slab by Sam of B'nut. As many people commented on the slab as they did on the tree...I thought the two looked pretty good together.

 

[october]

This is an exceptional san jose. This has natural san jose foliage correct, no grafts?

Rob

 

[Dav4]

Thanks Rob. Yes, this is 100% San Jose. I thought about grafting shimpaku...still may down the road...but the foliage has, for the most part, tightened up nicely, and it's got a nice blue hue to it, so I'm going to play with it for a while longer.

 

[october]

Thanks Rob. Yes, this is 100% San Jose. I thought about grafting shimpaku...still may down the road...but the foliage has, for the most part, tightened up nicely, and it's got a nice blue hue to it, so I'm going to play with it for a while longer.

Outstanding! Yup, that's why I used the word exceptional to describe. If it was mine, I wouldn't bother doing any grafts. This tree has natural beauty and has earned it's right to keep it's natural foliage.

Rob

 

[sam]

dave

thanks for the nice comment concerning your koa slab. haven't posted pictures of recent work, however, I'm still producing tropical wood slabs, root stands and thin jiita boards.

best wishes, sam

 

[Dav4]

A better picture from the Carolina Bonsai Expo. Plans going forward for this one are to increase the number of foliage pads while reducing the canopy mass. We'll see what next year brings...

 

[MACH5]

Great tree with beautiful dead wood!! Dave do you plan on keeping your foliage that full? I think I would love to see a bit inside those branches.

 

[Dav4]

Great tree with beautiful dead wood!! Dave do you plan on keeping your foliage that full? I think I would love to see a bit inside those branches.

Thanks Mach. That's the plan. I've already started whittling away at the big green blob like apex to reduce and refine it...some more selective pruning and wiring will hopefully sculpt the canopy to where you can see the branching inside it.

 

[Dav4]

Thought I'd post a more recent picture of this tree, taken a few weeks ago,...more because I'm still trying to figure out how to post images then to show significant changes in the tree.

 

[thumblessprimate1]

This is becoming a piece that I like besides your akamatsu displayed in your profile picture.

 

[JudyB]

Well I hope that learning to post pics bring more.... I like looking at trees, esp. pretty ones like this. Love that bottom hollow.

 

[bonsaibp]

Nice tree- seems a little familiar though for some reason.
I wouldn't graft the foliage-yours looks pretty good. It takes some work but they can get pretty nice tight foliage pads if you stay on them. I'm a fan of working with what the tree gives you to work with- you're working this one pretty good.

 

[Dav4]

Nice tree- seems a little familiar though for some reason.
I wouldn't graft the foliage-yours looks pretty good. It takes some work but they can get pretty nice tight foliage pads if you stay on them. I'm a fan of working with what the tree gives you to work with- you're working this one pretty good.

Thanks for the compliment. That's the plan- tightening up the foliage and breaking it up into smaller, more defined pads...every year we get a little closer.

 

[Vance Wood]

Really like the Juni, you have done a really good job on/with it.

 

[Dav4]

Nice tree- seems a little familiar though for some reason.

Hmmm...do/did you ever do business with Hitoshi from New England Bonsai Gardens? I know he routinely makes buying trips out West, and I was told this one came from Cali.

 

[bonsaibp]

Hmmm...do/did you ever do business with Hitoshi from New England Bonsai Gardens? I know he routinely makes buying trips out West, and I was told this one came from Cali.

I was actually thinking about the San Jose I just styled. But yes he has bought some trees from me in the past.

 

[Dav4]

I took a drive out to Birmingham yesterday to pick up some lava from Brian Van Fleet and brought a few trees with me hoping we could spend a few hours working on trees. Unfortunately, between the impending severe weather, my shortcut adding close to an hour to the trip headed there, and Brian actually trying to hold down a job, our time was limited. Still, I was willing to give it a shot and Brian really preferred working in his back yard then in his office. I brought this one mainly because it needed a pretty severe haircut, but Brian thought we could create and better define some of the foliage pads in the cascading branch with some wire. Anyway, before I could open my tool box, Brian had run into the house and came out with his wire (I hadn't brought any) and was beginning to wire it out. About an hour later, I had to take off to beat the weather, but we got a fair amount done. I included a picture from the right side to better show how the canopy has been broken up into smaller pads.

 

[Nybonsai12]

Looking good Dave. It's amazing how separation of the pads can make such a drastic difference in the appearance. Now for the rest of the season will you just feed and give sun? Will the foliage in this tree change to adult? And will that be good or bad for your design?

 

[Dav4]

Looking good Dave. It's amazing how separation of the pads can make such a drastic difference in the appearance. Now for the rest of the season will you just feed and give sun? Will the foliage in this tree change to adult? And will that be good or bad for your design?

Thanks for the comments. When I first started working this tree, maybe 10% of the foliage was adult. I cut it all off probably 3-4 years ago and it's been 100% needle foliage since with no recurrence of scale foliage and I don't expect it to come back. This one got sheared because I really needed to flatten out the pads and I probably won't do much else to it this year other then feed and sun, other then some clean up here and there.