My shimpaku shohin.

[Dav4]

This is a tree I've owned for 10 years, but have only been working on for the last 4 years. I bought it as a 3 gal bush, planted it into my back yard, and there it stayed for 5 years. 4 years ago, I dug it, potted it, and started to style it with the idea that it would end up as some sort of cascade. 2 years ago, the cascade idea was dropped, and I did the initial wiring and deadwood work. This is the tree after some more pruning and light wiring done over the summer. Next year, I plan to do more work on the shari and, hopefully, get it into a descent pot. Thanks,

Dave

 

[good_ol_jr77]

Thats a beast, great base!

 

[bonsai barry]

My limited experience is that the shimpaku are slow growers. Did you see much growth after five years in the ground?

 

[satsuki]

Lots of potential with a trunk like that!!!!

 

[bonsaiTOM]

Dave, Great start. Love the deadwood. You're calling this "beast" a shohin - what are its dimensions?

 

[Dav4]

My limited experience is that the shimpaku are slow growers. Did you see much growth after five years in the ground?

Yes, but it was relative, I guess. The tree as planted was basically a 3 gal bush...when dug up it was a 5 gal bush. All the branches were longer and maybe a bit thicker. However, the trunk and nebari, being fed by all those branches, easily increased in girth/size by atleast 50%.

Dave

 

[Dav4]

Dave, Great start. Love the deadwood. You're calling this "beast" a shohin - what are its dimensions?

The tree is exactly 10" tall from from the pot rim,though it may get shorter. It's trunk is 3" thick and the nebari spread, side to side, is almost 6".

 

[bougie nights]

Excellent! Thanks for the 'shohin-tell!'

 

[october]

Hi Dave.. It is great to see your work again...In my opinion, you always had some of the best "trees in training" when we were in the workshops on Wednesday nights..This tree is going to be an incredible speciemen

Rob

 

[Dav4]

Thanks, Rob. You may have seen this tree one of those Wednesday nights a few years ago. It looked completely different then as it was being trained as a cascade and it had a fungal infection so its foliage was a sickly grey color. Anyway, I'm happy with its progress and I'm glad you like it.

Dave

 

[Dav4]

I found a pic of this tree right after I committed to this current shape...maybe 2 years ago.

Dave

 

[Dav4]

I was taking pics of some of my trees and thought I'd update this thread. The tree was re-potted this past spring and that's about it other then some minor pruning.

 

[Brian Underwood]

That's a sweet little juniper. Show time in no time!

 

[bonsai barry]

I like the changes made so far... and I really like the pot (although it might be a litle larger than that tree needs). If it were mine I'd remore some of the foliiage to show off that nice trunk. Are you going to do any further carving?

 

[Dav4]

I agree that the pot is too big, but the canopy and root system are still developing, so it will do for now. It's difficult to tell from the most recent picture (the trunk was wet and I havn't applied lime sulfur) but there has been some more recent refining done on the deadwood (forgot to mention that), and I'll probably be doing more carving in the future.

 

[tmmason10]

This is a great piece of material. The base is outstanding.

 

[Dav4]

Well, this one had a makeover/redo/"front...meet back" moment about three weeks ago. I was attending a workshop with Suthin Sulkovisit and was trying to decide what material to bring. Suthin is known for his work with shohin, so I focused on some of my smaller trees. This tree's current front, in my opinion, was reasonably good, with a good base, nice movement, and some deadwood features. Still, the back was interesting. Here, large trunks had been removed years ago. Last year, I finally got around to working the stumps and the results were pretty good. Still, I wasn't ready to change the front mainly because the apex would be falling away from the viewer, an I didn't see an alternative. I decided to see what Suthin thought, and it took Suthin about 2 minutes staring at the tree while spinning it from front to back on my turntable to find one.

ps If you look closely you can see to live veins on the right side of the base...some of the lime sulfur applied to the deadwood unfortunately bleached some of the bark there...oh, well.

 

[october]

Very nice tree Dave..Ya, Suthin works lightening fast with incredible results.

Rob

 

[Dav4]

Thanks Rob. Yeah, Suthin FLIES when he's working on a tree. For the record, I wired this tree out AFTER the workshop ended (we worked on a different tree during the workshop), and he quickly (maybe a minute or two) placed the branches. I've tweaked their position just a tiny bit since. Now I need to find a pot for it.

 

[tmmason10]

Thanks Rob. Yeah, Suthin FLIES when he's working on a tree. For the record, I wired this tree out AFTER the workshop ended (we worked on a different tree during the workshop), and he quickly (maybe a minute or two) placed the branches. I've tweaked their position just a tiny bit since. Now I need to find a pot for it.

Looks cool Dave. It's funny, John placed the branhes of my shimpaku, and I wouldn't dare moving them!