New found love for shimpaku

bonsairxmd

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Wired my San Jose today and after getting poked again and again, removing needle splinters from my fingers, and thinking...this branch seems flexible..bend..bend..snap, I am looking forward to working with the few shimpakus I have.

Wrestling anything larger than 8 gauge copper wire (even Jim's wire) is a pain in the ass too....
 

M. Frary

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San Jose and procumbens especially are a pain. What with the poking and breaking and limbs dieing after you get them wired. After seeing a shimpaku for the first time and finally getting one I do have to say they are the one to get. Too bad they aren't as easy to find or as cheap as other junipers.
 

bonsairxmd

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San Jose and procumbens especially are a pain. What with the poking and breaking and limbs dieing after you get them wired. After seeing a shimpaku for the first time and finally getting one I do have to say they are the one to get. Too bad they aren't as easy to find or as cheap as other junipers.

True true. Did you buy two shimpakus recently? Any updates?
 

bonsairxmd

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Before and after. I still have more work to do. Not my best wiring but I was getting good and pissed toward the end from the needle shrapnel and gloves made me man handle the tree too much and ended up breaking branches. :)


Looking at it more I need to bend the branches alot more. They were already pretty large and tough to move with wire and I was tired of breaking branches.

Feedback on styling would be much appreciated. I don't really like my branch placement right now. Not any movement in them at all. Especially the one on the left.
 

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Adair M

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Chad,

I see you applied a lot of raffia, then wire. But there's hardly any bend where the raffia is. Raffia is used when you make a severe bend. Otherwise, there's no point to apply it.

Now, about that wiring... It's harder to do than it appears, isn't it? First of all, most of the spirals are too close together. That is, they look too much like a spring. The wire should lay across the branch at a 45 degree angle. Has a LOT more holding power that way. Uses less wire, loo.

Which means that you didn't use heavy enough wire.
 

bonsairxmd

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Chad,

I see you applied a lot of raffia, then wire. But there's hardly any bend where the raffia is. Raffia is used when you make a severe bend. Otherwise, there's no point to apply it.

Now, about that wiring... It's harder to do than it appears, isn't it? First of all, most of the spirals are too close together. That is, they look too much like a spring. The wire should lay across the branch at a 45 degree angle. Has a LOT more holding power that way. Uses less wire, loo.

Which means that you didn't use heavy enough wire.

Thanks Adair. The feedback is very helpful! I had a hard time trying to bend and manipulate anything larger than 8 gauge copper wire. I've always used aluminum in the past due to being poor in school. :)
 
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Brian Van Fleet

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It's good to jump in and "go for it", and my eye went to the same thing Adair picked up on...too-tightly coiled wire, and no movement added. Working year after year with Kathy and Bjorn, I've widened my coils to around 60 degrees. The primary branch and new apex on this juniper were wrapped with raffia, and then #4 copper wire. It takes time, but you'll get there. You broke the seal, and that's a good place to start!
 

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bonsairxmd

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Some of the raffia was applied on top of cut paste after wiring for a few cracks in the branch after bending. :) fingers crossed....
 

florida_bonsai

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Even before I got into bonsai I always thought junipers were interesting plants. Their natural but slow growth gives an appearance of extreme age and in my opinion usually tells an interesting story. Once I decided bonsai was something i wanted to try I was immediately drawn to the shimpaku junipers over all others. I found a decent one in a 1 gallon pot at a bonsai nursery near me and immediately saw potential as a cascade. Here it is after a little pruning and wiring, I'm just planning on letting it grow for the foreseeable future. I'll try and post another picture later so you can see the cascade but its raining pretty hard where I am right now. Any suggestions for improvement would be awesome!
 

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bonsairxmd

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It's good to jump in and "go for it", and my eye went to the same thing Adair picked up on...too-tightly coiled wire, and no movement added. Working year after year with Kathy and Bjorn, I've widened my coils to around 60 degrees. The primary branch and new apex on this juniper were wrapped with raffia, and then #4 copper wire. It takes time, but you'll get there. You broke the seal, and that's a good place to start!

Thanks Brian. Will San Jose tolerate cutting part way through the top or bottom of a branch to bend easier to create more movement? Like with the the branch on the right? It's thick and I could not get much bend in it. Also could not get 4 gauge copper wrapped around it for some reason.

I also need to get it in a training pot or colander with Boon' mix. Can I do that this fall if I don't disturb the root ball? Or sooner?
 
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jkd2572

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Very close coils are good when you are adding a bunch of movement to young branches.
 

M. Frary

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True true. Did you buy two shimpakus recently? Any updates?

I only bought one of those and it's very cool. I plan on parting it out a little bit. Meaning an air layer or two and a bunch of cuttings. I also picked up 2 little ones. Well my daughter found them at a nursery by her and bought them for me. So I have 3 now.
 

fore

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Chad,

I see you applied a lot of raffia, then wire. But there's hardly any bend where the raffia is. Raffia is used when you make a severe bend. Otherwise, there's no point to apply it.

Now, about that wiring... It's harder to do than it appears, isn't it? First of all, most of the spirals are too close together. That is, they look too much like a spring. The wire should lay across the branch at a 45 degree angle. Has a LOT more holding power that way. Uses less wire, loo.

Which means that you didn't use heavy enough wire.

does boon use 45's Adair? I've been taught to use 60
 

Eric Group

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Here is a little better picture. Ignore the crossed wire :)

I might consider making a deadwood feature with the lowest branch, shorten the first one moving left in this image to the second tuft of growth, and try to get some back budding. The top has obviously not been wired out, I know that is the hardest part usually, look at some of Neli's stuff about bringing a long branch down from the top to make the apex and a main branch... Might could get something like that accomplished here.

Has a decent little trunk I guess, you just need to clean it up and shorten your branches with more bends and some well placed cuts!
 

MACH5

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I might be tempted here to just make my entire design out of the top long branch and jin the rest.


EDIT: If only top branch is used it needs to be brought down drastically to make for a compact design. In any case as Eric mentioned it would need to come down.
 
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bonsairxmd

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I might be tempted here to just make my entire design out of the top long branch and jin the rest.


EDIT: If only top branch is used it needs to be brought down drastically to make for a compact design. In any case as Eric mentioned it would need to come down.

You are referring to making the entire design out of the branch on the left that is wired or one of the apex branches? Any virtuosos out there that can provide a visual to work with?

Thanks!
 

october

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I think they mean to use the top part of the tree. In other words, use the entire original trunk line and cut off all the side branches. I think that is a good idea. Another idea could be to create a raft style. You would only have to remove a branch or 2 and you could keep most of the tree.

Rob
 

bonsairxmd

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I think they mean to use the top part of the tree. In other words, use the entire original trunk line and cut off all the side branches. I think that is a good idea. Another idea could be to create a raft style. You would only have to remove a branch or 2 and you could keep most of the tree.

Rob

Thanks Rob. Any ideas on styling for the top part of the tree? The trunk diatemter is about 2" (larger than it appears in the photo)
 

bonsairxmd

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For my education can someone elbaorate on why informal upright would not be good for this tree? Because I can't get enough movement in the already thick branches or there is no branching closer to the trunk on the main existing branches?

Thanks everyone!
 
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