New Colorado spruce

[treebeard55]

In another thread ("I Can't Go On," Chris Johnston) I mentioned that, in response to Antal's idea, I got the shopping bug yesterday and ended up with a Colorado spruce with definite bunjin potential. It's a tree that deserves to be a bonsai, whether I or someone else styles it.

The more I look at it, the more inclined I am to keep it, frankly! I've started studying the tree to see how best to go at it.

Others may see something I don't, so here are two pictures, from slightly different angles and possible fronts. Right now I'm inclined to go with front #2, because of the look of the nebari from that angle. (Sorry, my pics of the nebari didn't turn out very well.)

Opinions, suggestions, virts if you want to, are hereby invited. Even if I don't use your idea, what you say may spark something in my mind that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

 

[emorrin]

Well, you are a few years away but I can see something similiar to Vance Wood's spruce. Something to start your creative juices flowing. I really like what he did with his.

http://bonsainut.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197&highlight=colorado+blue+spruce

 

[Walter Pall]

treebeard,

definitely second front. Not so much for the nebari but for the trunkline. If the tree is in this pot since more than a year you could style the crown right away. Now is a good time to do it. I am in a spruce mood these days and do at least one every day. This is very good material for a blues spruce. Looks like collected to me.

 

[anttal63]

hey beard glad i inspired ya to spend ya hard earned cash; nice tree there!

 

[treebeard55]

Antonio, thanks. Yes, it was a serendipitous find.

Walter, glad you like the second front too. Yes, I think it does do the trunk more justice.

In spite of how it looks, this is a nursery-grown tree. Following some damage (and what looks like a secondary fungus infection) it was put into the "hospital area" at this nursery. It seems to be recovered now: plenty of good healthy foliage (tho still green, not blue,) and no sign of active fungus problems.

In my first post I said it had been set back for "over a year." That was deliberately conservative; I think it's actually been sitting there for more like three years. I don't know its age, but it's old enough for the bark on the lower half to be mature.

Because of its past health problems, I'm babying it for a while. I may take it to the Styling and Refinement workshop at the August show in Chicago. Or I may kick myself in the behind and tackle it on my own.

Thanks for your comments so far, everyone.

 

[Vance Wood]

Just remember that Blue Spruce bonsai are like children. They are a life time commitment and are always in need of something. They do not easily bend to your will and will constantly return to where they were when you made them change direction. They will poke you, scratch you, and cover your hands with gooey, gluey, sticky sap that will attract every little bit of dirt there is making your hands appear as though you tared your roof with them.

 

[treebeard55]

Thanks for the warning, Vance. ... Maybe I'll sell it after all.

 

[DaveV]

Don't sell it treebeard! Style it first. Pull the branches down. Take a look at Walter's spruces, his blog - particularly the one that he said has been in the making for 15years and is ready for show now. I think it will make a great tree! I think you will be sorry if you sell it.

Dave V.

 

[Vance Wood]

Thanks for the warning, Vance. ... Maybe I'll sell it after all.

Whoa!---I didn't mean to discourage you about the tree---the results are worth the hassle but they are difficult to deal with.

 

[treebeard55]

Whoa!---I didn't mean to discourage you about the tree---the results are worth the hassle but they are difficult to deal with.

Sorry: that makes twice yesterday that I didn't make my humorous intent sufficiently clear in a post! I meant that tongue-in-cheek (or keyboard-in-cheek, if you prefer.) Next time I'll use extra smileys, or phrase it differently.