Smoke
Ignore-Amus
Trident maple
I picked this tree up from a club member in 2010 at the yearly bonsai swapmeet. I believe that was the first year we did it. I wanted the tree because of the unusual nature of the trunk. It was weird but didn't have any scars. I thought I had a plan and took it home to work on it.
My plan was to try and make a sumo type shohin sized tree from the trunk. I figured there was enough happening near the top to build a canopy but it needed branches down low. I thought if I could get a couple grafts to take that I could continue working on it towards that goal and then graft more on the next year. I notched the base where I was going to put the graft and attached the seedling.
In all four grafts were placed and all of them failed. Now I had a trunk with a few scars on it and now I would have to develop a new plan. The guy I got it from had told me that the tree was never very strong. Hardly pushed growth and frankly why he sold it. I had a new plan and decided to put it into a pot full of magic and see if I could get this thing pushing growth. So.. two years later I cut it back and bend over a top leader for what I thought could become a semi cascade style.
2012
I am not much of a proponent of the full cascade style as I feel they have to be done extremely well and look as though they have purpose. The Han-kengai style, semi cascade looks more informal and combines attributes of an upright tree while taking advantage of a strong slanting trunk. This tree would work well for that style.
By 2013 the tree had many buds that had opened and sent shoots. I let these run for awhile and cut back. The time spent now is just keeping the shape moving in a cohesive direction.
In spring of 2015 the tree went into this pot for the first time. Since I don't have many semi cascade trees, it has never occurred to me to buy pots for trees I don't have. I have very few cascade pots at all. This pot I bought with succulents in mind and thought it would do very well for that. since I needed a pot and this one was the right size I used it for this tree while training.
I picked this tree up from a club member in 2010 at the yearly bonsai swapmeet. I believe that was the first year we did it. I wanted the tree because of the unusual nature of the trunk. It was weird but didn't have any scars. I thought I had a plan and took it home to work on it.
My plan was to try and make a sumo type shohin sized tree from the trunk. I figured there was enough happening near the top to build a canopy but it needed branches down low. I thought if I could get a couple grafts to take that I could continue working on it towards that goal and then graft more on the next year. I notched the base where I was going to put the graft and attached the seedling.
In all four grafts were placed and all of them failed. Now I had a trunk with a few scars on it and now I would have to develop a new plan. The guy I got it from had told me that the tree was never very strong. Hardly pushed growth and frankly why he sold it. I had a new plan and decided to put it into a pot full of magic and see if I could get this thing pushing growth. So.. two years later I cut it back and bend over a top leader for what I thought could become a semi cascade style.
2012
I am not much of a proponent of the full cascade style as I feel they have to be done extremely well and look as though they have purpose. The Han-kengai style, semi cascade looks more informal and combines attributes of an upright tree while taking advantage of a strong slanting trunk. This tree would work well for that style.
By 2013 the tree had many buds that had opened and sent shoots. I let these run for awhile and cut back. The time spent now is just keeping the shape moving in a cohesive direction.
In spring of 2015 the tree went into this pot for the first time. Since I don't have many semi cascade trees, it has never occurred to me to buy pots for trees I don't have. I have very few cascade pots at all. This pot I bought with succulents in mind and thought it would do very well for that. since I needed a pot and this one was the right size I used it for this tree while training.
